Daily Times

Gunfire and explosions gripped Khartoum for a 20th straight day Thursday leaving the latest ceasefire effort in tatters, a day after UN chief Antonio Guterres acknowledged the international community had “failed” Sudan.

As the latest ceasefire expired at midnight Wednesday, the regular army said it was ready to abide by a new seven-day truce agreed with South Sudanese mediators, but there was no word from its foes in the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

In Khartoum, witnesses reported loud explosions and exchanges of fire on the streets around dawn.

Deadly urban combat broke out on April 15 between Sudan’s de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who commands the regular army, and his deputy turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who heads the RSF.

According to figures from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, the fighting has killed some 700 people, most of them in Khartoum and Darfur.

“The UN was taken by surprise” by the conflict, because the world body and others were hopeful that negotiations towards a civilian transition would be successful, the UN chief told reporters in Nairobi Wednesday.

“To the extent that we and many others were not expecting this to happen, we can say we failed to avoid it to happen,” Guterres said.

“A country like Sudan, that has suffered so much… cannot afford a struggle for power between two people.”