Fighting in Sudan: Air strikes on the capital intensify

The end of the violence in Sudan is not yet in sight. On Tuesday night, hopes of a possible ceasefire, which representatives of both parties had previously planned for the evening (6pm CEST), were initially dashed.

Amid ongoing fighting in Sudan, air strikes on targets in the capital Khartoum intensified early Wednesday morning. More gunfire was also heard on the fifth day of fighting, a DPA reporter at the scene said. As early as Tuesday evening, hopes of a possible 24-hour ceasefire, previously announced by representatives of the warring factions, had been dashed. It was the third failed ceasefire since fighting began on Saturday.

In Sudan, which has been politically unstable for years, the two most powerful generals and their units have been fighting for supremacy since Saturday. The two men have led the country of about 46 million people since a joint military coup in 2021. De facto President Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, commander-in-chief of the army, is fighting his deputy Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, leader of the powerful RSF.

The paramilitary group RSF accused the Sudanese army at 6:14 p.m. on Tuesday of “violating the ceasefire agreed through international mediation”. “In the first hours of the declared ceasefire” there were attacks on RSF troops, it said. This information has not been independently verified.

According to the United Nations, 270 people have been killed and 2,600 injured since the fighting broke out. Thousands of citizens are therefore trapped in their apartments and houses, often without electricity and without the possibility of getting food, water or medicine. (oee/sda/dpa)

Agreed three-hour ceasefires had already failed on Sunday and Monday. Thousands of citizens are therefore trapped in their apartments and houses, often without electricity and without the possibility of getting food, water or medicine, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in Geneva.

G7 foreign ministers called on Tuesday for an end to the violence. “We call on all actors to return to negotiations and take active steps to defuse tensions,” said the closing note for the ministerial meeting in Karuizawa, Japan.

According to the Bundeswehr, it is preparing to support the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs (AA) in the event of a military-secure evacuation of German citizens from the Sudan. A “low three-digit number” of German citizens in Sudan were registered on the AA’s so-called crisis prevention list on Monday, a spokeswoman said. A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior said when asked that a federal police officer – acting as security officer at the embassy – and several German employees of the UN mission UNITAMS are currently in Sudan.

A UN spokeswoman in Geneva declined to comment on whether there are plans for Sudan’s 4,000 UN workers, including 800 foreigners. In any case, the intention is to remain grounded and to fulfill the humanitarian mandate of the UN. (sda/dpa)