Sudan rivals agree to new 3-day truce

KHARTOUM — Sudan's warring parties pledged on Tuesday to observe a new three-day truce in an attempt to pull Africa's third-largest nation back from the abyss.

"Following intense negotiation over the past 48 hours, the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces have agreed to implement a nationwide cease-fire starting at midnight on April 24, to last for 72 hours," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday in a written statement.

Hours before Blinken's announcement, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the violence "risks a catastrophic conflagration within Sudan that could engulf the whole region and beyond" and called on UN Security Council members to exert maximum leverage to return Sudan to the path of democratic transition.

In a written statement on Monday, the RSF said it had agreed to the truce "in order to open humanitarian corridors, facilitate the movement of citizens and residents, enable them to fulfill their needs".

The army announcement used similar language, adding that it will abide by the truce "on the condition that the rebels commit to stopping all hostilities".

However, the claims were immediately undercut by the sound of heavy gunfire and explosions in the capital Khartoum. Residents said warplanes were flying overhead.

Previously attempted cease-fires have failed as the brutal fighting, entering the second week, has killed at least 427 people and wounded more than 3,700, according to UN agencies.

For those remaining in Sudan, where a third of its 46 million people needed aid even before the violence, the situation was increasingly bleak.

Acute shortages

There were acute shortages of food, clean water, medicines and fuel, and limited communications and electricity, with prices skyrocketing, deputy UN spokesman Farhan Haq said. He cited reports of looting of humanitarian supplies and said "intense fighting" in Khartoum as well as in Northern, Blue Nile, North Kordofan and Darfur states was hindering relief operations.

Aid organizations were among those withdrawing staff members. The World Food Programme suspended its food distribution mission, one of the largest in the world.

The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that fighters had occupied the national public laboratory holding samples of diseases including polio and measles, creating an "extremely, extremely dangerous" situation.

Agencies - Xinhua