Gunfire echoed across Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, for a fourth day on Tuesday, amid conflicting reports on a 24-hour ceasefire.
Sudan’s Army said it had rejected a call by rival Rapid Support Forces paramilitaries for a 24-hour humanitarian cease-fire on Tuesday, signaling no letup in four days of fighting that has killed at least 185 people and wounded more than 1,800 others.
The Sudanese Army in a statement accused the R.S.F. of trying to use a cease-fire “to cover up the crushing defeat it will receive within hours.” But it was not clear who was in control of the country, or which of the two dueling forces had the upper hand in the spreading violence.
Although the army said after the R.S.F. announcement that it didn’t know about the truce, Al Jazeera reported that the Sudanese army chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, had agreed to the deal.
Meanwhile, Al-Arabiya reported that the ceasefire will start at 6.00 p.m. (1600 GMT) and will not extend beyond the agreed 24 hours, quoting Army General Shams el-Din Kabbashi, a member of Sudan’s ruling military council, as saying.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held separate calls with the army chief and head of the paramilitary R.S.F., appealing for a 24-hour ceasefire “to allow the Sudanese to be safely reunited with families” and to provide them with relief.
Blinken, speaking in Japan, said a US diplomatic convoy came under fire on Monday in an apparent attack by fighters associated with the RSF, adding that all those in the convoy were safe. He called the incident “reckless” and said any attacks or threats to US diplomats were unacceptable.
The powerful paramilitary group posted a video statement on Twitter on Tuesday that appeared to show its armed fighters assembled outside the presidential palace in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.
Although the R.S.F. fighters claimed in the video to have captured Khartoum, the ongoing fighting in the capital and across Sudan suggested that neither they, nor their rival, the Sudanese Army, were in control.
Source: Agencies
