DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United States and Saudi Arabia have called on warring parties in Sudan to extend a ceasefire set to expire on Monday.
The Sudanese army and a rival paramilitary force, fighting for control of Sudan since mid-April, agreed last week to a one-week truce, brokered by the United States and the Saudis. However, the ceasefire, like others before it, has not stopped fighting in the capital Khartoum and elsewhere in the country.
In a joint statement on Sunday morning, the United States and Saudi Arabia called for an extension of the current truce which expires Monday at 9:45 p.m. local time.
“While imperfect, an extension will nonetheless facilitate the delivery of urgently needed humanitarian assistance to the people of Sudan,” the statement said.
The statement also urged the Sudanese military government and rival Rapid Support Forces to continue negotiations.
Fighting broke out in mid-April between the military and the powerful RSF. Military leader General Abdel-Fattah Burhan and RSF chief General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo led the 2021 coup that toppled the Western-backed government of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.
The fighting has turned Khartoum and the adjacent city of Omdurman into a battlefield. The clashes have also spread elsewhere in the country, notably in the war-ravaged region of Darfur.
The conflict has killed hundreds, injured thousands and pushed the country to the brink of collapse. It has forced more than 1.3 million people from their homes to safer areas inside Sudan or to neighboring countries.
Residents reported further sporadic clashes on Sunday in parts of Omdurman, where army planes were seen flying over the city. Fighting was also reported in al-Fasher, the provincial capital of North Darfur.
The US-Saudi statement came two days after Burhan demanded in a letter to the UN secretary-general that the UN envoy to his country be removed from his post. The UN chief was “shocked” by the letter, a spokesman said.
The envoy, Volker Perthes, has been a key mediator in Sudan, first during the country’s fractious attempts to transition to democracy and then during efforts to end the current fighting.
Burhan’s letter came after Perthes accused warring parties of breaking the laws of war by attacking homes, shops, places of worship and water and electricity facilities.
In his briefing to the UN Security Council last week, Perthes blamed army chiefs and the RSF for the war, saying they had chosen to “settle their unresolved conflict on the battlefield rather than at the table”.