Beijing, 26 Apr (Xinhua) -- The two sides to the conflict in Sudan announced a three-day ceasefire starting on 25 April, but clashes broke out again that night in the capital Khartoum and surrounding cities. Citing Sudanese health ministry data, UN health agencies report that more than 450 people have died and more than 4,000 injured since the conflict began.
SAF and the Rapid Support Force agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire from midnight on the 25th. However, according to AFP, later on the 25th, witnesses reported more air strikes in northern Khartoum, and warplanes attacked rapid support force vehicles traveling north.
This is a street scene photographed in Khartoum, Sudan, on April 18. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Mohammed Haider)
According to Reuters reported on the 25th, Khartoum's neighboring city of Omdurman sounded gunshots and explosions after nightfall.
A hospital worker said a shell hit a health centre in Omdurman and exploded inside the facility, injuring 13 people.
Residents of the Darfur region of western Sudan say the conflict is also escalating in the region. A doctor in El Geneina, the capital of Western Darfur, said, "Heavy fighting is taking place throughout the city... All eyes are on Khartoum, but the situation here is unimaginable", women and children are fleeing the city center, where the city's main hospital has been closed for several days and the number of dead and injured is unknown.
On 17 April, citizens of Khartoum, Sudan, went to the Nile River to fetch water due to a water cut due to armed conflict. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Mohammed Haider)
Folk Pertes, head of the United Nations Sudan Transitional Integrated Assistance Mission, told the United Nations Security Council on the 25th that the ceasefire in Sudan "seems to have been held in some places so far." However, we also continue to hear reports of combat and troop movements".
He said neither side to the Sudanese conflict had shown a willingness to "negotiate seriously," suggesting that both sides believed a military victory was possible and "a miscalculation."
The World Health Organization has expressed concern that one party to the conflict in Sudan has taken control of a central public health laboratory in Khartoum, according to the Associated Press.
"This is extreme, extremely dangerous because we have isolates of polio (virus) and measles (virus) in our laboratories," WHO Representative in Sudan, Nima Said Abid told a UN briefing via video. He did not specify which party controlled the facility, but said technicians had been evicted, power was cut off, biological materials could not be properly managed, and "there is a huge biological risk."
The armed conflict in the Sudan began on 15 April. The conflict first broke out at the Rapid Support Force Command in the southern suburbs of Khartoum and quickly spread throughout Khartoum and other states. Neither side of the conflict has so far announced its own casualty figures.
On April 15, smoke billowed from Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Mohammed Haider)
Citing Sudanese health ministry data, the U.N. health agency said at least 459 people, including civilians, have been killed and more than 4,000 injured since the conflict began. Of those, 166 were killed and more than 2,300 injured in Khartoum.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres described the situation in Sudan as "heartbreaking." Four United Nations staff members were killed, he said, and that "in some places, humanitarian assistance is the only way to stop famine".
The United Nations warned on the 25th that there are an estimated 219,000 pregnant women in Khartoum, and with almost no medical services, "24,000 people are expected to give birth in the coming weeks."
According to Reuters, tens of thousands of people have fled Sudan for neighbouring Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan, according to Reuters. (Liu Xi)
Source: Xinhua News Agency