After 10 days of fighting, two warring forces in Sudan have agreed for a 72-hour truce.
Announcing this, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the agreement between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group to implement a nationwide ceasefire came “following intense negotiation over the past 48 hours.”
Blinken urged 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,” he said in a statement.
The top U.S. diplomat vowed that Washington will continue to work with the Sudanese parties and U.S. partners toward the shared goal of a return to civilian government in Sudan.
The RSF said it agreed to the temporary cesassion of hostilities “in order to open humanitarian corridors, facilitate the movement of citizens and residents, enable them to fulfill their needs, reach hospitals and safe areas, and evacuate diplomatic missions.”
The fragile truce is apparently holding despite sporadic gunfire, reports say.
More than 450 people have died and thousands of others injured in shooting and shelling between two rival forces in the country’s capital Khartoum, which began on April 15.
Sudan is heading for a humanitarian crisis as most hospitals are closed and Internet access and power supplies interrupted, reports say.
The fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group has brought normal life to a halt with food and water shortages.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has warned of large-scale hunger in the country.
The UN agency has suspended its operations in Sudan after three of its aid workers were killed.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said at a news conference that at President Joe Biden’s direction, the State Department is actively facilitating the departure of American citizens who want to leave Sudan.
“We have deployed U.S. intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets to support land evacuation routes, which Americans are using. And we’re moving naval assets within the region to provide support. American citizens have begun arriving in Port Sudan, and we are helping facilitate their onward travel,” Sullivan told reporters.
U.S. Africa Command has established a deconfliction cell to to evacuate people to safety.
A USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team has also been deployed to the region to help coordinate U.S. humanitarian response.
Sullivan said that the State Department has only temporarily suspended operations at the U.S. Embassy in Sudan. “We fully intend to resume those operations as soon as it is safe to do so,” he told reporters.
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