Air raids, gunfire and explosions rocked Khartoum on Monday despite a new 72-hour truce agreed to by the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, while the United Nations warned that Sudan was on the brink of a health-humanitarian “catastrophe”.
Residents of Khartoum reported that they woke up on Monday to the roar of “combat planes”, while others talked about hearing the sounds of explosions and gunfire in different areas of the capital, which has a population of nearly five million people.
Experts believe that the cease-fire agreements aim, in particular, to ensure the security of the evacuation routes for foreign nationals, and to allow the continuation of some diplomatic efforts led by external parties in light of the two military commanders’ refusal to communicate directly.
The United Nations sounded the alarm about the situation turning into a human tragedy.
“Events in Sudan are taking place at an unprecedented scale and speed,” said the spokesman for the Secretary-General of the UN, Stephane Dujarric, expressing his “great concern.”
He added that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres decided to send “immediately to the region” the head of the humanitarian agency of the UN organization, Martin Griffiths, “in light of the rapid deterioration of the humanitarian crisis in Sudan.”
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