Armed Clashes in Sudan
On 15 April 2023, armed clashes between the Rapid Support Forces and the regular army in the Sudanese capital Khartoum were reported. Later, the fighting between the military forces spread to other Sudanese regions.

Sudan Mediation to Resume in Saudi Arabia as Conflict Enters Fourth Month

© AFP 2024 -Black smoke billows amid ongoing fighting in the capital Khartoum on June 9, 2023.
Black smoke billows amid ongoing fighting in the capital Khartoum on June 9, 2023.  - Sputnik Africa, 1920, 15.07.2023
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On April 15, a power struggle between Sudan's army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and his former deputy, the commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, erupted into all-out war, claiming at least 3,000 lives and displacing more than three million people.
Sudanese army representatives have returned to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia for talks with their paramilitary foes, a government source said Saturday, as the conflict between rival generals entered its fourth month.
"A delegation of the armed forces has returned to Jeddah to resume negotiations with Rapid Support Forces (RSF) rebels," the source told AFP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.
The RSF has made no comment on returning to the talks in Jeddah, which Saudi and US mediators adjourned last month after a series of repeatedly violated ceasefires.
The delegation in Saudi Arabia signals a return to diplomatic efforts by the army, after it boycotted talks last week in Ethiopia hosted by east African regional bloc IGAD.
Khartoum's foreign ministry had objected to Kenyan President William Ruto's leadership of the IGAD quartet, accusing Nairobi of siding with the RSF.
Before the Jeddah talks were suspended, US mediators had grown increasingly frustrated with both sides' reluctance to work towards a sustained truce.
A man waves a Sudanese national flag while taking part in a protest march against a deal agreed the previous month between military leaders and some civilian factions on a two-phase political process since the 2021 military coup, headed towards the presidential palace in Sudan's capital Khartoum on January 24, 2023. - Sputnik Africa, 1920, 14.07.2023
Armed Clashes in Sudan
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Experts believe that both Burhan and Dagalo have opted for a war of attrition instead, hoping to extract more concessions at the negotiating table later.
For three months, barely a day has passed for residents of the capital Khartoum without their homes shaking from constant air strikes, artillery blasts and gun battles.
To escape the brutal urban warfare and rampant looting, 1.7 million people have fled the capital, according to the United Nations. Millions remain in the city, however, sheltering at home as the violence shows no signs of abating.

Witnesses in the city's northwest reported "clashes using various types of weapons" on Saturday, after a day of heavy fighting Friday left plumes of black smoke over several parts of the capital.

Others said RSF drones had targeted Khartoum's largest military hospital. The UN has said that most hospitals in combat zones are out of service.
The worst fighting has taken place in Khartoum and in the western region of Darfur, where a quarter of Sudan's 48 million people live.
Entire villages and neighborhoods there have been destroyed, civilians buried in mass graves and officials assassinated for their ethnic background by the RSF and allied Arab militias.
Reports of atrocities -- including sexual violence and civilians being targeted for their ethnicity -- have prompted the International Criminal Court to launch a war crimes investigation.
Though most of the fighting has been concentrated in Khartoum and Darfur, new fronts have sporadically opened up, particularly in the south where witnesses said a rebel group took an army base in South Kordofan state on Friday.
In this photo provided by Egypt's presidency media office, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi speaks during the summit on the Sudan conflict, at the Presidential Palace in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, July 13, 2023. - Sputnik Africa, 1920, 13.07.2023
Armed Clashes in Sudan
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Those who successfully flee combat zones are not out of harm's way. More than 2.4 million people have been displaced to other parts of Sudan, where roadblocks, the breakdown of the banking system and fragile health services mean responders are ill-equipped to meet soaring demand.
Aid groups and health workers repeatedly warn that without humanitarian corridors – which the army and RSF both had pledged but which failed to materialize – disease outbreaks and overwhelmed care facilities could spell disaster.
The UN says 740,000 people have fled across borders to Sudan's neighbors, some of which face economic crises or political instability themselves.
In impoverished South Sudan, the closure of trade with its northern neighbor, combined with the influx of returnees and refugees, is jeopardizing an already fragile humanitarian situation, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
And in the Central African Republic, "small arms smuggling" across the border is booming, while "severe shortages in food and fuel" threaten livelihoods, President Faustin-Archange Touadera warned at a summit of Sudan's neighbors in Cairo on Thursday.
At that meeting, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi urged international donors "to honour their commitments", referring to $1.5 billion in aid pledged at a Geneva conference in June -- less than half the estimated needs of Sudan and its immediate neighbors.
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