Sudan army quits truce talks with paramilitary foes
Artillery blasts rang out on Wednesday in Khartoum, after the Sudanese army suspended its participation in US and Saudi-brokered ceasefire talks, accusing its paramilitary foes of failing to honour their commitments. The mediators of the talks in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah have acknowledged repeated violations of the truce by both sides but have so far held off imposing any sanctions in the hope of keeping the warring parties at the negotiating table. The army walked out "because the rebels have never implemented a single one of the provisions of a short-term ceasefire which required their withdrawal from hospitals and residential buildings", a Sudanese government official said. It also took the decision because the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had "repeatedly violated the truce", added the official who spoke on condition of anonymity. A witness said there was "heavy artillery fire from army camps" in northern Khartoum on Wednesday, two days after US and Saudi mediators said the warring parties had agreed to extend by five days a humanitarian truce they had frequently violated over the previous week. The mediators admitted the truce had been "imperfectly observed" but said the extension "will permit further humanitarian efforts." But despite the pledges of both sides, fighting flared again on Tuesday both in greater Khartoum and in the flashpoint western region of Darfur. "The army is ready to fight until victory," army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan declared during a visit to troops in the capital. The RSF, led by Burhan's deputy-turned-foe Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, said they would "exercise their right to defend themselves" and accused the army of violating the truce. (AFP)