After a cautious calm settled over the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on Tuesday, following an agreement between the army and the Rapid Support Forces to extend the ceasefire, artillery shelling reignited the frontlines. The Sudanese army announced in a statement that it had control over all military sites in Sudan.
The conflicting parties, which have been engaged in fighting since mid-April, agreed to extend the ceasefire for several additional days prior to its scheduled expiration on Monday evening. The agreement aims to facilitate humanitarian aid delivery to civilians. The Rapid Support Forces reaffirmed their commitment to the short-term ceasefire and humanitarian arrangements signed in Jeddah on May 20, 2023.
They declared their full readiness to continue negotiations during the last two days of the truce under the auspices of Saudi-American mediation to discuss the potential renewal of the ceasefire agreement.
Saudi Arabia and the United States mediated the agreement and are monitoring its implementation. Both countries stated that the conflicting parties violated the agreement but allowed aid to reach approximately two million people.
Al-Burhan appeared in a video on Tuesday, greeting the soldiers. He stated that the army agreed to extend the ceasefire "to facilitate the flow of services to citizens." In a statement, he mentioned that the armed forces "have not yet used their full lethal capacity, but will be forced to do so if the enemy does not comply or respond to reason."
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) reported that more than 13.6 million children in Sudan are in urgent need of essential humanitarian assistance to sustain their lives, amid a total population of 49 million.
The United Nations World Food Programme reported that 17,000 metric tons of food have been looted since the conflict began, anticipating that up to 2.5 million people in Sudan may slide into hunger in the coming months. The Programme announced on Monday that it had begun distributing food in certain areas of the capital for the first time since fighting erupted.
