Sudan no closer to peace as latest failed truce ends
The Sudanese capital was again under fire on Wednesday, after the latest breached ceasefire between warring generals ended without any sign of an end to more than two months of war. Already on Tuesday evening, an immense fire had engulfed the intelligence service's headquarters in the capital Khartoum with each side accusing the other of attacking it in violation of the 72-hour truce mediated by the United States and Saudi Arabia. Mediators had repeated a warning that if the ceasefire, which ended at dawn on Wednesday, were not respected, they would consider adjourning talks between the warring sides in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The International Committee of the Red Cross had earlier said the "ceasefire was not respected", and cited gunshots that forced the agency to abort a transfer of wounded soldiers. Fighting began on April 15 between the regular army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) headed by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. Numerous ceasefires have been announced only to be violated, despite commitments by the two sides to provide for secure aid access. The latest truce, which coincided with an international donors' conference in Geneva on Monday, did, however, bring a brief respite to the millions of civilians trapped by fighting in the capital and suffering shortages of medical care, electricity, water and other essentials. But an exodus of refugees – and wounded – continued from the war's other main battleground Darfur. On Wednesday morning, residents of Omdurman, just across the Nile from Khartoum, reported heavy artillery exchanges within minutes of the ceasefire expiring at 6:00 am (0400 GMT). (AFP)