Blasts In Sudan's Capital Dim Hopes For Latest Ceasefire Deal

Khartoum, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd May, 2023 ) :Explosions again shook Sudan's capital on Tuesday, dimming hopes that a US and Saudi-brokered humanitarian ceasefire will take hold on the ground after more than five weeks of fighting.

The latest, one-week truce formally entered into force late Monday, but it was quickly violated, like a series of previous such agreements since the war between two rival generals erupted on April 15.

"We can hear the sound of artillery fire," a Khartoum witness told AFP on Tuesday. "Every few minutes, there's a blast." Residents had also reported combat in northern Khartoum and air strikes in the east of the capital shortly after the deadline at 9:45 pm (1945 GMT) Monday.

In some parts of Khartoum an uneasy silence held Tuesday as residents desperately hoped for a pause in combat to allow in life-saving humanitarian aid, or to enable more people to flee the embattled city of five million.

The fighting has pitted the army, led by Sudan's de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commanded by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The battles have left about 1,000 people dead, forced more than a million to flee their homes and sparked mass evacuations of foreigners and major refugee flows into neighbouring counties.

People have run low on water, food and basic supplies, and the war has left more than half the population, 25 million people, in need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.