Biden threatens sanctions as latest Sudan truce unravels

Khartoum, Sudan (AFP):

US President Joe Biden on Thursday threatened to impose new sanctions over Sudan’s conflict, saying the fighting “must end”, as gunfire and explosions rocked Khartoum for a 20th straight day.

Hundreds of people have been killed in Sudan since battles began on April 15 between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s forces and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

As the latest ceasefire expired at midnight (2200 GMT), the army said it was ready to abide by a new seven-day truce, but there was no word from its foes in the paramilitary RSF.

Biden signed an executive order on Thursday that broadens authority to impose sanctions on those responsible for “threatening the peace, security, and stability of Sudan” and “undermining Sudan’s democratic transition”.

“The violence taking place in Sudan is a tragedy — and it is a betrayal of the Sudanese people’s clear demand for civilian government and a transition to democracy. It must end,” Biden said.

Within hours of the latest supposed ceasefire taking effect, witnesses in Khartoum reported explosions and exchanges of fire on the streets around dawn and clashes during the day in the city of five million people.

The foreign ministry later accused the RSF of attacking the Indian embassy and other evacuated diplomatic missions.

In El Obeid, some 300 kilometres (185 miles) south of the capital, witnesses also reported battles.

The fighting has killed about 700 people so far across Sudan, most of them in Khartoum and the western Darfur region, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

The United Nations said Darfur civilians were again being armed in the latest fighting.

The Norwegian Refugee Council said violence in the West Darfur state capital, El Geneina, has “resulted in the loss of at least 191 lives”.

“Dozens of settlements have been burnt and destroyed, and thousands have been displaced,” it said.

Mediation efforts have multiplied since the conflict began, with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry saying Thursday he had spoken with both rival generals by phone.

Arab League foreign ministers will meet on Sunday to discuss the conflict ahead of a summit in Saudi Arabia later this month, a diplomat told AFP.

Foreigners are fleeing the country primarily via Port Sudan on the Red Sea. The UN said “more than 50,000 people crossed on May 3” into Egypt, some “30,000 to Chad” and 11,000 more went to Ethiopia.