Sudan’s warring parties began a ceasefire on Sunday morning after two months of fighting pushed the African nation into chaos. Residents in the capital, Khartoum, and its neighbouring city of Omdurman reported “relative calm” in the first hours of the cease-fire Sunday morning, after fierce clashes were reported the previous day.
The three-day truce came ahead of a pledging conference the UN and other nations will organise Monday to raise funds to cover Sudan’s humanitarian needs. The UN says it received less than 16 per cent of the USD 2.57 billion required to help those in need in Sudan in 2023. Another USD 470 million more are needed to support refugees in the Horn of Africa region, it said.
The United States and Saudi Arabia, announced the cease-fire agreement Saturday. Both led concerted international diplomatic efforts to stop the war over the past two months.
The US and Saudi Arabia said in a joint statement that the military and its rival paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, agreed to halt fighting and “refrain from seeking military advantage during the ceasefire.” Sudan plunged into chaos after months of worsening tensions between the rival generals exploded into open fighting, in mid-April, across the country with the capital, Khartoum and the western Darfur region bearing the brunt of the armed conflict.
The fighting turned Khartoum and other urban areas into battlegrounds. More than 3,000 people lost their lives and over 6,000 others were wounded, according to Health Minister Haitham Mohammed Ibrahim.