Sudan’s war has intensified over the past three weeks, causing a humanitarian crisis as 100,000 people flee across the borders, U.N. officials warned on Tuesday.
Gunfire and explosions echoed across the capital Khartoum, despite another ceasefire deal, and aid deliveries have been hampered in a nation where two-thirds of the people already rely on some outside assistance.
The conflict threatens to escalate into a broader disaster as Sudan’s impoverished neighbours deal with a refugee crunch, and the fighting hampers aid deliveries.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said Cairo would provide support for dialogue in Sudan between the rival military factions, but was also “being careful about not interfering in their domestic matters.”
“The entire region could be affected,” he warned in an interview with a Japanese newspaper on Tuesday. An envoy from Sudan’s army chief, who leads one of the warring sides, met Egyptian officials in Cairo.
“The risk is that this is not just going to be a Sudan crisis, it’s going to be a regional crisis,” said Michael Dunford, the WFP’s East Africa director.
The commanders of the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, who previously shared power as part of an internationally backed transition towards free elections and civilian government, show no sign of backing down, yet neither seems able to secure a quick victory.
That has raised the spectre of a prolonged conflict that could draw in outside powers.
Early on Tuesday, black smoke could be seen hanging over Khartoum, which lies at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile rivers.
Air strikes hit Bahri, on the east bank, while clashes flared in Omdurman to the west, witnesses said.
Hundreds of people have died in the fighting that pits the army under General Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan against the RSF under General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti. Each has blamed the other for the violation of a series of ceasefires.
The U.N. World Food Programme said on Monday it was resuming work in the safer parts of the country after a pause earlier in the conflict, in which some WFP staff were killed.
Port Sudan, where thousands of people have fled Khartoum seeking evacuation abroad, is the main entry point for aid for many countries in the region, the WFP’s Dunford told Reuters.
“Unless we stop the fighting, unless we stop now, the impact on a humanitarian scale is going to be massive,” he said.
Kenya has offered the use of its airports and airstrips near the border with South Sudan as part of an international humanitarian effort, Kenyan Foreign Minister Alfred Mutua said.
Tags: Sudan
