Heavy battles in Sudan despite truce
Fighting raged in Sudan on Friday, despite rival forces agreeing to extend a truce aimed to stem nearly two weeks of warfare that has killed hundreds and caused widespread destruction.
In the war-ravaged western Darfur region, scores have been killed in days of bitter urban battles in the city of El Geneina, the United Nations said.
Black clouds rose over the capital Khartoum as foreign governments scrambled to organise mass evacuations of their citizens, with Türkiye’s defence ministry reporting Friday that one of their military transport aircraft had come under fire, AFP reported.
There have been multiple truce efforts since fighting broke out on April 15 between Sudan’s army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commanded by his former deputy and fellow coup leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. All have failed.
On Thursday, the two sides agreed to extend a repeatedly broken ceasefire for three more days, with the United States, Saudi Arabia, the African Union, the UN and others hoping it would help forge a “more durable cessation of hostilities”.