Army demands rivals’ surrender as ceasefire runs out

KHARTOUM (AP):

Sudan’s military ruled out negotiations with a rival paramilitary force on Thursday, saying it would only accept its surrender as the two sides continued to battle in central Khartoum and other parts of the country, threatening to wreck international attempts to broker a longer ceasefire.

A tenuous 24-hour ceasefire that began the previous day ran out Thursday evening with no word of extension. The military’s statement raised the likelihood of a renewed surge in the nearly weeklong violence that has killed hundreds and pushed Sudan’s population to the breaking point. Alarm has grown that the country’s medical system was on the verge of collapse, with many hospitals forced to shut down and others running out of supplies.

The expiring truce had failed to put a stop to fighting throughout the day, and brought only marginal calm to some parts of the capital, Khartoum. But many residents took the advantage to flee the homes where they have been trapped for days. “Massive numbers” of people, mostly women and children, were leaving in search of safer areas, said Atiya Abdulla Atiya, secretary of the Doctors’ Syndicate.

On Thursday afternoon, the military said in a statement that it would not negotiate with its rival, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and would only discuss the terms of its surrender. “There would be no armed forces outside (of) the military system,” it said.

The demise of the truce, the second attempt this week, underscored the failure of the United States, UN, European Union and regional powers to push Sudan’s top generals to halt their campaigns to seize control of the country. Instead, army chief General Abdel Fattah Burhan and RSF commander General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo each appear determined to win outright military victory over the other.

DIFFICULT PROSPECT

In a sign they expect violence to escalate, the US and other countries were making preparations to evacuate their citizens in Sudan – a difficult prospect since most major airports have become battlegrounds and movement out of Khartoum to safer areas is dangerous.

The US military is moving assets to a base in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti for a possible evacuation of American Embassy personnel, administration officials said. Japan plans to send military planes to Djibouti, and the Netherlands has dispatched its own to Jordan.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres appealed for the combatants to commit to a three-day ceasefire to coincide with the holiday of Eid al-Fitr, beginning Friday, marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. “We are living a very important moment in the Muslim calendar. I think this is the right moment for a ceasefire to hold,” he told reporters.

But, so far, direct communications to the rival generals by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the Turkish president and others over the past days have been unable to secure even 24 hours of calm, much less a longer truce or negotiations to resolve the crisis. Each side’s main regional allies, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, have called in vain for talks.

At least 330 people have been killed and 3,300 wounded in the fighting since it began Saturday, the World Health Organization said, but the toll is likely higher because many bodies lie uncollected in the streets.