Sudan rivals agree to one-week truce

KHARTOUM/CAIRO — Sudan's warring factions signed an agreement late on Saturday for a brief humanitarian pause as fighting that has plunged the country into chaos and displaced more than a million entered its sixth week.

With heavy fighting raging in the capital, Khartoum, the rival sides struck a deal for a seven-day cease-fire beginning on Monday evening, the United States and Saudi Arabia said on Saturday in a joint statement after talks in Jeddah.

The cease-fire "shall remain in effect for seven days and may be extended with the agreement of both parties", it said.

The agreement also calls for distributing humanitarian assistance, restoring essential services and withdrawing forces from hospitals and essential public facilities.

It said subsequent talks "will focus on additional steps necessary to improve security and humanitarian conditions for civilians such as vacating forces from urban centers, including civilian homes, accelerating removal of impediments to the free movement of civilians and humanitarian actors, and enabling public servants to resume their regular duties".

Airstrikes were reported on Saturday by witnesses in southern Omdurman and northern Bahri, the two cities that lie across the Nile from Khartoum, forming Sudan's "triple capital". Some of the strikes took place near the state broadcaster in Omdurman, the witnesses said.

"We faced heavy artillery fire early this morning, and the whole house was shaking," Sanaa Hassan, 33, who lives in the al-Salha neighborhood of Omdurman, told Reuters.

'A nightmare'

"It was terrifying, everyone was lying under their beds. What's happening is a nightmare."

Witnesses in Khartoum said the situation was relatively calm, though sporadic gunshots could be heard.

In recent days ground fighting has flared once again in the Darfur region, in the cities of Nyala and Zalenjei. Late on Friday both sides blamed each other for sparking the fighting in Nyala, one of the country's largest cities, which had for weeks been relatively calm as a result of a locally brokered truce.

Also on Saturday Qatar condemned a recent armed attack on its embassy building in Khartoum, which resulted in significant damage to the premises, Qatar News Agency reported.

Embassy staff had been evacuated beforehand, the report said.

In a statement, the Qatari Foreign Ministry stressed "the need to prosecute the perpetrators and hold them accountable for the consequences of this heinous criminal act, which constitutes a violation of international law and agreements".

The ministry called for "an immediate halt to the fighting in Sudan" and for all parties to exercise restraint and resolve their differences through peaceful dialogue.

Since April 15 Sudan has been locked in deadly armed clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Khartoum and several other areas. The conflict has displaced almost 1.1 million people internally and into neighboring countries. About 705 people have been killed and at least 5,287 injured, the World Health Organization said.

Agencies - Xinhua