Sudan crisis worsens as truce breaks down with deaths increasing

April 19, 2023 Elwin Mandowa

The power struggle crisis in Sudan among the military has worsened despite a US facilitated truce on Tuesday.

Heavy gunfire shattered that 24-hour truce as warring military factions refused to let peace prevail.

The humanitarian crisis in the country is also deteriorating as several countries prepare to evacuate their citizens.

The U.N.’s World Food Programme suspended operations after three of its employees were killed.

Loud shooting and warplanes have been roaring in the skies above Khartoum, as the truce was due to take hold.

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The warring army factions have both issued statements accusing each other of failing to respect the ceasefire.

“We have not received any indications here that there’s been a halt in the fighting,” United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a news briefing in New York.

The conflict between Sudan’s military leader and his deputy on Sudan’s ruling council erupted four days ago.

It has derailed an internationally backed plan for a transition to a civilian democracy four years after the fall of Islamist autocrat Omar al-Bashir to mass protests and two years after a military coup.

At least 185 people have been killed in the conflict so far with fears the toll could rise in the coming days.

A Sudanese doctors’ union has said that 39 out of 59 hospitals in Khartoum and nearby states are “out of service”.

The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors (CCSD) said in a statement on Facebook Wednesday morning that only 20 hospitals are fully or partially operational.

“Among the hospitals that have stopped working, there are nine hospitals that were bombed, and 16 hospitals that were subjected to forced evacuation,” the CCSD said.

The power struggle has stalled the plan for a shift to civilian rule after decades of autocracy and military domination in Sudan.