Sudan: Trilateral Mechanism (UN, AU, IGAD) calls on Burhan & Hemeti to extend non existent ceasefire

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: The Arab League is holding a special meeting tomorrow to help stop the two mad Killers of Sudan slaying more civilians in Sudan. See full report in next post to follow.

The Trilateral Mechanism calls on Generals Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo “Hemedti” to agree to another extension of the 72-hour ceasefire and ensure its full implementation by the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces.

🔗 https://t.co/ByKhs2El5h pic.twitter.com/rnPtrkybfW

— UN Integrated Transition Assistance Mission Sudan (@UNITAMS) April 30, 2023

Sudanese fleeing Khartoum couldn't handle 2 weeks of what Darfuris have endured over the past 20 years

Those Sudanese who have fled had the means - this highlights the fate of those who don't have the money https://t.co/vAzrsGUucA

— Vauldi Carelse (@vauldicarelse) April 30, 2023

Tom Bateman @tombateman: But Hosna says she must find nearly US$500 per ticket, as the men running the routes from Khartoum to the border have raised the fares 20-fold due to the demand to escape. Now the poorest are being left behind, the most likely to pay with their lives. 2/2

Sudan's Islamists use online networks and AI to make their move. Waiting to return is ex NISS chief Gosh

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: It's good to see veteran Africa correspondent Rob Crilly reporting on Sudan again. Sometime before during and after the Darfur war, Rob wrote a book cleverly titled 'Saving Darfur: Everyone's Favourite African War'. The book became well known, sold well and is still available from leading book sellers including on Kindle at Amazon.  

Here below is a summary of Rob's latest report on Sudan for the Daily Mail, followed by a copy in full. Thanks Rob, good to see you back safe and sound!

Sudan's Islamists use online networks and AI to make their move

Waiting in the wings to return are notorious figures such as Salah Gosh, former head of NISS

Social media research shows Sudan's Islamists making a push for power

It includes using AI to fake an address by the U.S. ambassador, researchers say

They are seeking a return to relevance amid fighting between rival generals 

On Sunday, US special forces carried out a precarious evacuation of the US Embassy in Sudan

Images of foreigners fleeing are being used by Islamists to say they are winning the war against the West, just like the Taliban did in Afghanistan when Americans fled in 2021

The fighting pitches army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, who has allied himself with the country's Islamists, against Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (better known as Hemedti) who heads the Rapid Support Forces

While Hemedti, who rose to prominence amid the war crimes of Darfur, claims to promote democracy, Burhan has linked up with Islamists as part of his strategy to emerge as victor

‘He basically made a deal with the devil,' said Cameron Hudson, senior associate in the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies'

'And that deal was: I will allow you to reemerge and to regain a foothold in this country, and you have to support me politically and use your networks and your, your deep state influence to support me against the RFS 

Waiting in the wings to return in the event of an army victory, he said, were notorious figures such as Salah Gosh, the former leader of the feared National Intelligence and Security Service.

Read the full report from DailyMail.com

By ROB CRILLY, SENIOR U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Published: 21:09, 27 April 2023 | Updated: 21:49, 27 April 2023 - excerpts:

EXCLUSIVE Sudan's Islamists use online networks and AI to make their move: Social media accounts spread claims hardliners will seize power as democracy leaders flee during Western evacuation just like the Taliban did in Afghanistan

Sudan's Islamists are out of favor and out of power after once being the force behind the country's military rulers. 

But they are now using sophisticated social media networks and AI to try to worm their way back to a position of influence amid the country's turmoil. 

Sudan's top two military leaders have spent most of the past two weeks fighting for control of Africa's third largest nation, prompting the U.S. and other foreign nations to evacuate diplomats and nationals.

Islamist groups are using those images to claim that the West is in retreat and they are poised for victory, just like the Taliban in Afghanistan, according to research by a social media monitoring group.

Their online networks have even used AI technology to spread fake audio recordings suggesting the U.S. was trying to reduce the influence of Islam on the country.

Islamists are using a sophisticated social media operation to gain influence in Sudan. That includes using AI to fake a plot by US Ambassador John Godfrey to intervene in the country

Amil Khan, founder of Valent Projects which researches the impact of social media, said Islamists had a powerful network of accounts spreading images of Western-led evacuations, and of civilian leaders taking flights out of Khartoum.

'They're opportunistically then using that to say this is Western collapse, and linking it to Kabul allows them to try to paint themselves as victors in the same way that they see the Taliban,' he said.

'It reflects messaging around the word that the Taliban have won the US. The US left in disarray. 

'The Islamists are trying to say that we are the people that conquered them.' 

In their heyday, Sudan's Islamists turned the nation into a haven for terrorists. Osama bin Laden made his home in the capital Khartoum from 1991 to 1996. 

Khan said that although they had lost influence following the toppling of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019, they had built a powerful online presence.   

'What they did have was this really extensive manipulation-digital infrastructure with hundreds and hundreds of mass accounts that could just get a coordinated message out and dominate the digital space,' he said.

At the same time, they were claiming that fleeing Sudanese leaders were leaving with their foreign paymasters — all part of an effort to undermine the popularity of civilian rule. 

But he added there was little evidence that Sudan's weary population was being swayed by such blatant propaganda. 

Even so, Republican Rep. Mike Waltz, a former Green Beret who sits on the House intelligence committee, said the development was deeply worrying.

'It’s absolutely a concern and we're going to lose even more visibility and intelligence gathering now that the State Department has had to pull its embassy staff,' he said.

Social media messages have celebrated the exit of former foreign minister Omar Qamar al-Din, for example.

'This is how the clients are falling one after the other,' said a post reviewed by DailyMail.com, comparing his early morning exit with the flight of officials from the Western-backed government in Kabul in 2021 as Taliban forces closed in on the Afghan capital.

Valent also concluded that Islamist accounts were behind a faked audio message supposedly from US Ambassador John Godfrey, apparently outlining strategies to impose secularism on Sudan.

'The first is international intervention with military force and imposing a new reality on this people by force of arms. This is now excluded in light of the weak world order,' the faked voice says.

'As for the other option, support us in the process of subjugating the rapid support militias and exploiting the two brothers greed for power and using them as a deterrent force and guardian of the secular democratic state, no matter how brutal it may be.'

Western governments used a ceasefire this week to bring home their diplomats and rescue as many nationals as possible.

It came after the troubled African nation was plunged into violence, two years after a coup sidelined its civilian prime minister.

Talks to lead the country back to civilian rule appeared to reach an agreement in December, but hopes of a peaceful transition were dashed by fighting that erupted two weeks ago between the head of the army and the head of the Rapid Support Force (RSF). 

RSF chief Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (better known as Hemedti) had been deputy to General Abdel Fattah Burhan, until the two fell out over plans to integrate his militia into the army.

Witnesses have described seeing bodies on the streets of the capital and more than 500 people have been killed around the country. 

While Hemedti, who rose to prominence amid the war crimes of Darfur, claims to promote democracy, Burhan has linked up with Islamists as part of his strategy to emerge as victor.

'He basically made a deal with the devil,' said Cameron Hudson, senior associate in the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies'. 

'And that deal was: I will allow you to reemerge and to regain a foothold in this country, and you have to support me politically and use your networks and your, your deep state influence to support me against the RFS 

Waiting in the wings to return in the event of an army victory, he said, were notorious figures such as Salah Gosh, the former leader of the feared National Intelligence and Security Service.

'We know what their rule of the country looked like,' he said. 'And these are bad dudes. 

'These are these are all the guys that were responsible for all of the worst abuses of the Bashir regime.'

See gallery of 11 photos (including 5 above) with credits and these captions:

1. Shells are seen on the ground near damaged buildings at the central market during clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army in Khartoum North 
2. Islamists helped propel an army colonel to power in 1989. They were the power behind the throne under Omar al-Bashir's reign, until he was dumped out of power in 2019
3. Sudanese army soldiers, loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, pose for a picture at the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) base in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan
4. VIDEO Sudan doctor fears hospital will run out of medical supplies
5. Islamists are using a sophisticated social media operation to gain influence in Sudan. That includes using AI to fake a plot by US Ambassador John Godfrey to intervene in the country
6. Sudan's capital Khartoum has been rocked by two weeks of fighting between rival generals. Smoke can be seen her rising from the city's international airport last week
7. On Sunday, U.S. special forces carried out a precarious evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Sudan. Images of foreigners fleeing are being used by Islamists to say they are winning the war against the West, just like the Taliban did in Afghanistan when Americans fled in 2021
8. Pictured: British Nationals about to board an RAF aircraft in Sudan, for evacuation to Larnaca International Airport in Cyprus
9. Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan
10. Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo

View the original report plus video and photo gallery here: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12021059/Sudans-Islamists-use-online-networks-say-seize-power-like-Taliban-did-Kabul.html

[Ends]

- - -

From Amazon.co.uk

Saving Darfur - Everyone's Favourite African War

Africa is a continent riddled with conflict. Most are forgotten wars that rumble away unnoticed for decades. Darfur is different. For six years an unlikely coalition of the religious right, the liberal left and a smattering of celebrities has kept Darfur's bloody conflict in the headlines. Rob Crilly arrived in Sudan in 2005 to find out what made Darfur special. 

Far from being a simple clash of good and evil, he discovers the complicated truth about Arabs and Africans, and the world's failed attempts to halt the killing. Along the way he rides with rebels on donkeys, gets caught in a Janjaweed attack and learns lessons from Osama bin Laden's horse. What he found will turn your understanding of the war upside down.

Product description 

Review

'A haunting and brutally honest account of international failure and African suffering. Lucid, engaging and written with love for the entire continent of Africa.' --Fergal Keane, BBC News

Rob Crilly tells the story of Darfur up close, focusing on the people who have fought and suffered. Neither cynical nor moralizing, he brings to life its protagonists-rebel fighters, Arab militiamen, displaced villagers, foreign aid workers, diplomats and campaigners. Saving Darfur delves beneath the stereotypes to tackle the complexities of Darfur and Sudan, illuminating both the ordinariness and the bizarreness of this extraordinary African war.' --Alex De Waal, author of 'Darfur: A New History of a Long War'

'While I disagree with much of Mr Crilly's analysis, he provides us with a solid journalistic account of his first-hand experiences in Darfur.' --Mia Farrow, actress and activist

From the Inside Flap

`A haunting and brutally honest account of international failure and African suffering' - Fergal Keane, BBC News

From the Back Cover

'A haunting and brutally honest account of international failure and African suffering' - Fergal Keane, BBC News

'Rob Crilly tells the story of Darfur up close, focusing on the people who have fought and suffered' - Alex de Waal, author of Darfur: A New History of a Long War

'This books peels off the labels that have been stuck on Darfur by outsiders and exposes the stubborn realities beneath the surface' - Richard Dowden, Director of the Royal African Society

About the Author

Rob Crilly is a freelance foreign correspondent. For five years he lived and worked in East Africa, travelling through war zones in Sudan, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and northern Uganda, reporting for The Times, The Irish Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Daily Mail and The Scotsman. Born in 1973, he was educated at the Judd School, Tonbridge, and Cambridge University. Before moving to Africa he spent five years working for British newspapers, most recently as Edinburgh Bureau Chief of The Herald.

View original https://www.amazon.co.uk/Saving-Darfur-Everyones-Favourite-African/dp/1906702195

[Ends]

Ex Sudanese president Bashir and 30 allies out of jail before Sudan's leaders started fighting 15 April 2023

Report from Reuters via The New Daily.com Australia

By Khalid Abdelaziz and Nadine Awadalla, Reuters

Dated Wednesday 26 April 2023 - full copy:

Former president Omar al-Bashir and allies out of jail as Sudan fighting flares

Play Aljazeera Video - SUDAN TRAVEL EXPLOITATION? 

Sudanese civilians priced out of leaving conflict 

As foreign nationals are evacuated out of Sudan by their embassies, many Sudanese are being priced out of a journey.

Sudan’s capital has resounded with gunfire and explosions, eroding a truce amid collapsing basic services, dwindling food supplies and the opening of a prison that let out allies of a jailed former autocrat.

With the conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) showing no sign of easing, the army said former president Omar al-Bashir had been transferred to a military hospital before hostilities started on April 15.

It said Bashir was moved from prison with 30 former members of his regime, including Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein, who along with the former president is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes for atrocities during an earlier conflict in the Darfur region.

The whereabouts of Bashir came into question after a former minister in his government, Ali Haroun, announced on Tuesday he had left Kober prison in Khartoum with other former officials.

Haroun is also wanted by the ICC on dozens of war crimes charges.

Thousands of convicted criminals, including some sentenced to death, were held in the vast prison, along with senior and lower-ranking officials from the Bashir regime, which was toppled four years ago.

Play France24 Video - Sudan fighting: Clashes between army and RSF underway despite truce. 

The US-brokered ceasefire in Sudan is now in its second day.  

But reports of new air strikes show just how fragile that truce between two warring generals really is. 

Civilian life has come to a standstill in Sudan. 

The country's residents are now facing major shortages of food, water, fuel 

and electricity. 

Sudan was already heavily dependent on humanitarian aid before the violence began nearly two weeks ago. 

But the situation has now been plunged into chaos. 

FRANCE 24's regional correspondent Bastien Renouil has the latest from Djibouti.

Sudanese authorities and the RSF traded accusations over the release of inmates, with the police saying paramilitary gunmen had stormed into five prisons at the weekend, killing several guards and opening the gates.

The RSF blamed authorities for letting Haroun and others out.

The release of convicted criminals added to a growing sense of lawlessness in Khartoum, where residents have reported worsening insecurity, with widespread looting and gangs roaming the streets.

“This war, which is ignited by the ousted regime, will lead the country to collapse,” said Sudan’s Forces of Freedom and Change, a political grouping leading an internationally backed plan to transfer to civilian rule derailed by the eruption of fighting.

Bashir came to power in a 1989 military coup and was ousted in a popular uprising in 2019.

Two years later, the army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, with support from the RSF, took over in a coup.

The present conflict between the army and RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo broke out in part over disagreements about how quickly to integrate the RSF into the army under the planned transition to civilian rule.

The ICC in The Hague has accused Bashir of genocide, and Haroun of organising militias to attack civilians in Darfur in 2003 and 2004.

The ICC declined to comment on Bashir, Haroun and Hussein’s prison transfers.

Play Video - WHO Warns of 'Biological Hazard' After Sudan Fighters Take Control of Laboratory 

On April 25, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of a "high risk of biological hazard" after a central public laboratory was seized in war-torn Sudan.

The renewed battles were in Omdurman, one of Khartoum’s twin cities, where the army was fighting reinforcements to the RSF brought in from other regions of Sudan, a Reuters reporter said.

The army has accused the RSF of using a three-day truce to reinforce itself with men and weapons.

The truce was due to end on Thursday evening.

Thanks to the ceasefire, fighting between army soldiers the RSF was more subdued in the centre of Khartoum.

The fighting has turned residential areas into battlefields.

Air strikes and artillery have killed at least 459 people, wounded more than 4000, destroyed hospitals and limited food distribution in a nation where a third of its 46 million people rely on humanitarian aid.

United Nations special envoy on Sudan Volker Perthes told the UN Security Council on Tuesday the ceasefire “seems to be holding in some parts so far”.

But he said neither party showed readiness to “seriously negotiate, suggesting that both think that securing a military victory over the other is possible”.

Foreign powers have evacuated thousands of diplomats and private citizens in recent days, including 1674 from 54 countries helped out by Saudi Arabia.

Sudanese along with citizens of neighbouring countries have also been leaving en masse.

More than 10,000 people crossed into Egypt from Sudan in the past five days, authorities in Cairo said, adding to an estimated 20,000 who have entered Chad.

Others have fled to South Sudan and Ethiopia, despite difficult conditions there.

-Reuters

View original: https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2023/04/26/omar-al-bashir-out-of-jail-sudan/

[Ends]

Thousands flee Khartoum Sudan. “There is no chance of putting a lid on this now, none whatsoever”

NOTE from Sudan Watch Ed: In this report Cameron Hudson, an expert in US-Africa policy, puts the Sudan fight in a nutshell by saying (and I couldn't agree more) “There is no chance of putting a lid on this now, none whatsoever”. I say, Burhan and Hemeti will only stop if arrested or dead.

Report from The Guardian

By Jason Burke , Zeinab Mohammed Salih in Khartoum and Kaamil Ahmed

Monday 24 April 2023 18.49 BST UK

Last modified on Mon 24 Apr 2023 20.39 BST

Sudan: thousands flee Khartoum as civilian casualties escalate

Lack of supplies and rising prices add to perilous journey by road to Egyptian border and Port Sudan

Thousands more residents of Khartoum fled the Sudanese capital on Monday, risking long, dangerous journeys to escape continued street battles and murderous airstrikes that continue to cause significant civilian casualties.

Some headed north by road to the Egyptian border in packed buses, many with towering piles of luggage strapped to them. Others drove north-east to Port Sudan. Both journeys involved up to 24 hours of driving, with increasing reports of robbery of vehicles.

Many in Khartoum fear that rival factions fighting for control of the city will intensify their power struggle when the evacuations of foreign citizens have finished. The latest ceasefire, which brought almost no reduction in fighting, was due to run out Monday evening.

IMAGE MAP: Overland routes to flee the fighting in Sudan 

1. Egypt

Witnesses say buses carrying hundreds of people have been lining up at the remote Arqin border crossing

 

2. Port Sudan

There have been long convoys on the road from Khartoum to Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast, from where people have left Sudan by air and sea

 

3. Ethiopia

Hundreds of people have arrived in the Ethiopian

town of Metema Yohannes near the Sudan border, the local mayor said on Monday

 

4. South Sudan

Officials in Renk County said on Monday they had received about 10,000 people since the crisis started

 

5. Chad

The UN says 10,000-20,000 people have fled fighting in Darfur region to seek refuge in neighbouring Chad in recent weeks

Guardian graphic

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, warned a session of the security council in New York that the violence “risks a catastrophic conflagration … that could engulf the whole region and beyond”. He urged the 15 council members to work to end the violence.

“We must all do everything within our power to pull Sudan back from the edge of the abyss … We stand with them at this terrible time,” he said, adding he had authorised the temporary relocation of some UN personnel and families.

Throughout the day, convoys of foreign diplomats, as well as teachers, students, workers and families from dozens of countries wound past combatants at tense frontlines in Khartoum to reach extraction points. A stream of European, Middle Eastern, African and Asian military aircraft flew in all day Sunday and Monday to ferry some of them out.

The violence in Sudan has pitted army units loyal to its military ruler, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, against the Rapid Support Forces, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti. Few now believe that it is possible to bring the combatants to the negotiating table.

“There is no chance of putting a lid on this now, none whatsoever,” said Cameron Hudson, an expert in US-Africa policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Many in Khartoum have now been trapped in their homes for nine days. The prices of increasingly rare food and fuel are soaring, electricity is patchy and internet rarely working. In many neighbourhoods, armed fighters are looting shops and homes.

Residents of Khartoum on Monday reported sporadic explosions, gunfire and airstrikes, including one in the neighbouring city of Omdurman that killed a reported five people and injured about 50. 

Shelling of Khartoum’s Kalakla district continued for an hour until the area was “razed to the ground”, said Attiya Abdulla Atiya, secretary of the Sudan Doctors Syndicate. The bombardment sent dozens of wounded to the Turkish hospital, one of the few medical facilities still functioning in the city, he said.

Abou-Obaida Abashar, a 33-year-old banker, fled his family house in the al-Fetihab neighbourhood after an airstrike hit his house and that of his neighbours.

“A plane was trying to hit 15 to 16 RSF vehicles in the area, but I am not sure if they meant to hit the houses or that came by accident, but it terrified everybody and it made us all run, some with only the clothes that they were wearing, they even didn’t take anything with them. The area has been emptied now,” Abashar said.

Those without the funds to pay for transport to Egypt or Port Sudan headed out of the city to relatively calmer provinces along the Nile north and south of Khartoum. Many more were trapped, with limited cash and transport costs spiralling.

“Travelling out of Khartoum has become a luxury,” said Shahin al-Sherif, a 27-year-old high school teacher hoping to arrange transport out of Khartoum for himself, his younger sister, mother, aunt and grandmother. The family had been trapped for days in their home in Khartoum’s Amarat neighbourhood while fighting raged outside before managing to move to a safer district farther out.

But al-Sherif expects things to get worse and is worried his sister, aunt and grandmother, all diabetic, will not be able to get the supplies they need. Bus ticket prices have more than quadrupled so renting a bus for 50 people to get to the Egyptian border costs about $14,000, he said.

Some Sudanese people have expressed anger that western countries have seemingly prioritised evacuating their people over trying to stop the fighting.

With a series of ceasefires failing to hold, the confirmed death toll in Sudan has now passed 420, including 264 civilians, and more than 3,700 people have been wounded, according to local and international NGOs. However, most analysts believe the true total of fatalities and injuries in more than nine days of fighting is much higher.

The US has warned of shortages of vital medicines, food and water in Sudan and deployed disaster response experts to the region.

Samantha Power, the head of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), painted a grim picture of the reality on the ground.

“Fighting … has claimed hundreds of lives, injured thousands, and yet again dashed the democratic aspirations of Sudanese people. Civilians trapped in their homes cannot access desperately needed medicines, and face the prospect of protracted power, water and food shortages,” Power said.

“All of this suffering compounds an already dire situation: one-third of Sudan’s population, nearly 16 million people, already needed humanitarian assistance to meet basic human needs before this outbreak of violence.”

The World Health Organization has verified 11 attacks on healthcare facilities since the start of the conflict, with the remaining sites in Khartoum and the south-western Darfur states facing an acute lack of supplies amid increasing needs. Emergency medical supplies that had been pre positioned are now running out, the WHO said.

Internet and phone services appeared to have collapsed across much of country. Medicine, fuel and food were scarce in much of Khartoum, while a combination of fighting and looting made leaving home to search for essential provisions dangerous.

The communications blackout has starved those still in the conflict areas of up-to-date information on the fighting and left their families abroad uncertain about their safety, with international calls also failing to connect. The few in Sudan with internet access have offered on social media to make local phone calls on behalf of those abroad.

Maryam, a Sudanese student in the United Arab Emirates who did not want to use her real name for her family’s safety, said she lost contact with her family on Sunday as they were on a bus heading from Khartoum to the Egyptian border.

When she managed to finally get through on Monday afternoon, her family were waiting to cross over to Egypt. Their bus had broken down several times on the journey, during which the driver decided to raise the price and threatened to offload anyone who could not pay.

“The last we’d heard from them they’d been about an hour from the border headed towards the Aswan border. Most of my family – including my sister, her kids and husband, some aunts, uncles and cousins – were on the bus together,” Maryam said.

The Sudanese army has blamed the outages on the RSF damaging infrastructure.

VIDEO: Sudan: evacuees brave 'risky' travel as fighting intensifies – video report

View original: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/24/sudan-thousands-flee-khartoum-as-civilian-casualties-escalate

[Ends]

SAF & RSF agree to 72-hr ceasefire starting midnight

Report from The Guardian LIVE reporting

Dated Monday 24 April 2023 21:16 BST UK

Sudanese Armed Forces and RSF agree to 72-hour ceasefire starting at midnight, says Blinken

US secretary of state Antony Blinken has announced the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire starting at midnight on April 24.

The statement by Blinken reads:

Following intense negotiation over the past 48 hours, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have agreed to implement a nationwide ceasefire starting at midnight on April 24, to last for 72 hours. During this period, the United States urges the SAF and RSF to immediately and fully uphold the ceasefire.

To support a durable end to the fighting, the United States will coordinate with regional and international partners, and Sudanese civilian stakeholders, to assist in the creation of a committee to oversee the negotiation, conclusion, and implementation of a permanent cessation of hostilities and humanitarian arrangements in Sudan.

We will continue to work with the Sudanese parties and our partners toward the shared goal of a return to civilian government in Sudan.

View original: here 

[Ends]

Sudan news round-up by Guardian Mon 24 Apr 2023

UN staff are evacuated from Port Sudan. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

From The Guardian, UK

A roundup of today’s news from The Guardian LIVE reporting

By Harry Taylor Monday 24 April 2023 18:54 BST UK

Summary

The time is approaching 8pm in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, which has been the site of fierce fighting which has led to a mass exodus and evacuation effort from the north-eastern African country.

Gun fire has been heard in Khartoum as fighting continues between the Rapid Support Force, a paramilitary group who follows the former warlord Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who is also known as Hemedti, and the Sudanese army forces loyal to Abdulfatah al-Burhan, the current de facto leader of Sudan.

Here is a roundup of today’s news.

A British RAF plane has landed at port city in the north-east of Sudan as a British minister said that the UK is evaluating further military options for rescuing non-diplomats from the country by land, sea and air. 

A C17 Globemaster is on the ground at Port Sudan with some troops who may form part of a second rescue organised by the UK following Sunday’s controversial evacuation of British diplomats from the capital, Khartoum, but not other UK nationals. 

The head of the UN António Guterres has warned that the situation could engulf the whole region and that Sudan stands on the “abyss”. He said: “Let me be clear: the United Nations is not leaving Sudan. Our commitment is to the Sudanese people, in support of their wishes for a peaceful and secure future. We stand with them at this terrible time. We must all do everything within our power to pull Sudan back from the edge of the abyss.” 

The French embassy in Khartoum will be closed until further notice. France has airlifted 491 people from 36 countries, including 12 EU nations, to Djibouti since Sunday, according to the ministry, Agence France Presse (AFP) reports. It has also sent a warship as part of the rescue effort. 

US secretary of state Antony Blinken has raised concerns about the Russian mercenary force, the Wagner group, operating in Sudan. Wagner, who were founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, have been heavily engaged in the conflict in Ukraine after Russia’s invasion. There is now a suggestion the group is active in Sudan. He told a press conference: “We do have deep concern about the engagement of the Prigozhin group – the Wagner group – in Sudan.” 

Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock has said that the country has been able to fly more than 300 people out of Sudan. 

The US is pushing for a ceasefire between the two warring factions in Sudan to be broadened to help bring the conflict to an end. Secretary of state Antony Blinken told a news conference that was talking “directly” with military leaders. Israel has offered to host ceasefire talks. 

The British ambassador to Sudan was on holiday when fighting broke out in the country’s capital Khartoum, according to a report in the Times of London.

That’s all from me today. I will be handing over to my colleague Gloria Oladipo.

This photograph from the Etat Major des Armees (French defence staff) shows French military personnel at French military airbase in Djibouti before they fly for Khartoum during the "Sagittaire" evacuation of about 100 people from Sudan on the first French flight out of the war-hit country after a "complicated" rescue operation.  Photo: Adj Laure-Anne Maucorps Ep Derri/Etat Major des Armées/AFP/Getty Images

Evacuees from Sudan arrive at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya. Photograph: Thomas Mukoya/Reuters

View the Guardian's Live Reporting here or here.

[Ends]

413 dead; 3,551 injured. Only functioning hospital in Fasher N. Darfur is overwhelmed with 279 wounded

SADLY, the UN's World Health Organisation says past 7 days of Sudan's fighting has left 413 dead and 3,551 injured. An American is one of the dead. A UN staffer has been killed in crossfire. Condolences. Rest in Peace + + +

Here are some reports posted at BBC World Service Africa Live page today.

Each report is timestamped GMT UK. Click on timestamp to read report.

Some links in the morning are not working well, afternoon ones are working.

Troops are seen patrolling in Khartoum amid sporadic fighting in defiance of a truce call. Outside pressure mounts for Eid ceasefire in Sudan.

Summary

07:22 Sudan leader keeps mum on ceasefire despite his unity call

07:33 No Ethiopia clashes with Sudan forces - PM Abiy Ahmed

09:14 South Koreans 'expected to be evacuated from Sudan'

09:56 Sporadic fighting continues in Sudan capital

10:37 How unsung heroes are keeping Sudanese alive

10:48 Sudan soldiers deployed 'to comb Khartoum's streets'

11:22 Death toll rises to 413 in Sudan fighting - WHO

12:51 Sudan hospital in Darfur overwhelmed with wounded

13:32 Rivals reducing Sudan to ‘rubble and ash’ - German FM

15:28 Heavy skirmishes in residential areas of Khartoum

16:07 Sudan UN staffer killed in crossfire

17:21 European Union mulling Sudan evacuation plan

17:56 Sudan army tweets agreement to three-day Eid truce

18:21 Students' Eid meal scuppered by Sudan gun battle

18:23 Street battles dash hopes of Sudan Eid ceasefire

18:56 RSF soldiers celebrate after fighting in Sudan - VIDEO

19:08 Heavy gunfire reported despite Sudan army Eid truce

19:32 Plea to government to bring woman home from Sudan

19:33 A vibrant city suffers: Uncovering Khartoum's civilian crisis - Khartoum fighting mapped

View the reports here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world/africa/live

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Report from BBC World Service Africa Live web page - full copy

Published Friday 21 April 2023

Sudan soldiers deployed 'to comb Khartoum's streets'

Sudan's army has said it will continue operations against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RFS) in the capital, Khartoum, despite a 72-hour ceasefire call from the rival forces, according to an military statement reported by several news site, including Saudi-owned Al Arabiya.

The army said it had launched "intensive strikes" on Friday against RFS, noting that the operations would continue across Khartoum, Sudanese news outlet al-Mashhad al-Sudani reports.

It said thousands of soldiers have been deployed to undertake the "combing operations" in the capital.

On Friday morning, the army was tweeting clips of its troops on the streets of the city.

Sudan News website said violent clashes continued in Omdurman, in the west of Khartoum, with "heavy weapons".

Ahmed Mamoun, a Khartoum resident, posted footage and photos of soldiers patrolling several streets in the capital.

View original here published 10:48 GMT BST UK

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Report from BBC World Service Africa Live web page - full copy

Published Friday 21 April 2023 at 12:51 GMT BST UK: 

Sudan hospital in Darfur overwhelmed with wounded

The only functioning hospital in Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state, is overwhelmed with patients injured during heavy fighting between rival military factions, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) says.

The medical charity’s Cyrus Paye said his team in Fasher had repurposed a maternity hospital to receive the wounded as all other hospitals in the city had had to close because of their proximity to the fighting, or the inability of staff to reach them.

The maternity South Hospital has received 279 wounded patients since the clashes began on Saturday.

Quote Message: Tragically, 44 have died. The situation is catastrophic. The majority of the wounded are civilians who were hit by stray bullets, and many of them are children.

Quote Message: Many need blood transfusions. There are so many patients that they are being treated on the floor in the corridors because there simply aren’t enough beds to accommodate the vast number of wounded." from MSF's Cyrus Paye 

MSF's Cyrus Paye

Cyrus Paye gave his account over the phone to MSF colleagues, saying he could hear gunfire from their compound

The hospital was rapidly running out of supplies - as airports were closed as was with the border with Chad, which neighbours Darfur, the MSF project co-ordinator explained.

Quote Message: If the situation doesn’t change and humanitarian access is not granted, there will be even greater loss of life.”

MSFCopyright: MSF

Image caption: The medical team at South Hospital are overwhelmed and have been working round the clock

Image caption: Cyrus Paye gave his account over the phone to MSF colleagues, saying he could hear gunfire from their compound

View original here.

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