“There is no right to go on fighting for power when the country is falling apart,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Saturday as fighting between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) enters a third week.
Although the latest three-day ceasefire is due to expire at midnight (2200 GMT), battles have raged as rival generals take aim at each other in the media.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) raises the alarm, warning that the ongoing violence could plunge all of East Africa into a humanitarian crisis.
The final UK evacuation flight from Sudan departs from the Wadi Saeedna airfield near Khartoum, said the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
Sudan’s former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok warns that the conflict in the turbulent African nation could deteriorate into one of the world’s worst civil wars if not stopped early.
Sudan risks long conflict as entrenched rivals struggle for control
Sudan’s warring factions are locked in a conflict that two weeks of fighting shows neither can easily win, raising the spectre of a drawn-out war between an agile paramilitary force and a better-equipped army that could destabilise a fragile region.
Even with hundreds of people killed and the capital Khartoum turned into a war zone, there has been little sign of compromise between army commander Abdul-Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), commonly known as Hemedti.
Foreign mediators have struggled to arrest the slide to war: a series of ceasefires brokered by the United States and others have been undermined by shelling and air strikes in Khartoum and conflict elsewhere, including the Darfur region in the west.
What impact does the fighting in Sudan have on Libya?
There are fears the conflict could disrupt the precarious situation over the border.
The conflict in Sudan has entered its third week despite the warring sides agreeing to a ceasefire.
The rival generals are playing the blame game, accusing each other of targeting civilian neighbourhoods, hospitals and people trying to leave the country.
Ceasefire after ceasefire has collapsed.
Analysts fear powerful regional players may be involved behind the scenes, intentionally prolonging the violence.
Some have drawn parallels to the situation in neighbouring Libya.
Sudanese stuck as passports locked in abandoned Western embassies
In late March, Ahmad Mahmoud submitted his passport and visa application to the Swedish embassy in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. He never imagined they would not give his travel document back.
But when fighting broke out between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Swedish diplomats suspended consular services and fled the country within days.
Mahmoud communicated with a Swedish diplomat via WhatsApp, begging for her to find a solution where he could either retrieve his passport or at least receive a stamped copy from the Swedish embassy.
Clashes rock Sudan despite truce
Heavy fighting has again rocked Sudan’s capital as tens of thousands have fled the bloody turmoil and a former prime minister warned of the “nightmare” risk of a descent into full-scale civil war.
Army forces clashed with paramilitaries in downtown Khartoum as deadly hostilities have entered a third week despite the latest ceasefire, which was formally set to expire at the end of Sunday.
“There has been very heavy fighting and loud gunfire every few minutes since the early morning on my street,” one southern Khartoum resident told AFP by phone.
Clashes were reported around the army headquarters in central Khartoum, and the army also carried out airstrikes in the capital’s twin city of Omdurman across the Nile River.
Hundreds of Indonesians evacuated from Sudan arrive in Jakarta
A further 363 Indonesian citizens evacuated from Sudan arrived home on Sunday on a second flight by the country’s flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, the country’s foreign ministry has said.
A first group of Indonesian evacuees arrived back in the country on Friday, and a total of 748 citizens have been evacuated from Sudan as of Sunday.
“Not only Indonesian citizens, the government of Indonesia also helped evacuate a number of foreign citizens,” the foreign ministry said in a statement, without providing details how many foreigners Indonesia has evacuated.
China evacuates 940 citizens from conflict-hit Sudan
China has evacuated 940 citizens from conflict-torn Sudan amid ongoing clashes between the army and RSF, according to the country’s defence ministry.
Two Chinese People’s Liberation Army naval vessels transported the Chinese citizens, as well as 231 foreigners to a port in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from Wednesday till Saturday, the ministry’s spokesperson Tan Kefei said in a statement.
“The Chinese military has always been the guardian of the people, and a staunch force to defend national sovereignty, security, and development interests,” Tan added.
Sudan civil war would be ‘nightmare’ for world: former PM
Sudan’s former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has warned that the conflict in the turbulent African nation could deteriorate into one of the world’s worst civil wars if not stopped early.
“God forbid if Sudan is to reach a point of civil war proper… Syria, Yemen, Libya will be a small play,” Hamdok said in a conversation with Sudan-born telecoms tycoon Mo Ibrahim at an event in Nairobi, AFP reported.
