US/Saudi mediators propose new humanitarian ceasefire in Sudan

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The USA and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday submitted a proposal to the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for a new, 24-hour ceasefire under ‘rigorous surveillance’. Medical facilities are sounding the alarm bell over shortages of medicines for patients suffering from chronic diseases. The RSF is occupying more than 40 hospitals and health facilities.

The warring parties have reportedly discussed the proposal that is to be strictly monitored by surveillance drones.

Earlier armistices did not hold, after which the US-Saudi Arabian facilitators formally suspended negotiations in Jeddah last week.

Mustafa Ibrahim, member of the advisory office of the commander of the RSF, told the Arab World News Agency that the new proposal includes imposing sanctions on the party that will violate the truce. The talks will be suspended permanently in case both the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF do not adhere to the proposed ceasefire.

The monitoring “will be more rigorous as it will be done through surveillance drones,” Ibrahim said.

On Sunday, the joint facilitators announced they were ready to resume formal talks on the condition that the parties keep to their obligations under the May 11 Jeddah Declaration of Commitment to Protect the Civilians of Sudan.

Delegations from Sudan’s army and the RSF are reportedly continuing indirect talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on the safe provision of humanitarian aid and other steps both parties must take before officially resuming the Jeddah talks.

‘The monitoring will be more rigorous, and it will be done through surveillance drones’

Grave concern

Following a meeting of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken with Foreign Affairs Ministers of the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in the Saudi capital Riyadh, the USA and the GCC in a joint statement yesterday expressed their “grave concern regarding the recent outbreak of fighting in Sudan” and stressed that there is no military solution to the conflict in Sudan.

The Ministers underlined the GCC’s support for diplomatic efforts led by Saudi Arabia and the USA in Jeddah to achieve agreement by the warring parties “to fully implement a short-term ceasefire and enable unhindered humanitarian access”. 

On Tuesday, the Friends of Sudan member countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the USA) called for an effective and sustainable ceasefire. The coalition stated their efforts to ensure humanitarian access and a return to the political process.

The USA on June 1 imposed visa restrictions on “specific individuals in Sudan, including officials from the SAF, RSF, and leaders from the former Omar Al Bashir regime, responsible for, or complicit in, undermining Sudan’s democratic transition”.

US sanctions have also been imposed on four companies “generating revenue from, and contributing to, the conflict in Sudan”.

Deaths, attacks, assaults

The Ma Barakum (You’re not alone) campaign yesterday reported the death of 10 people living in homes for the elderly in the Sudanese capital, and the death of 71 infants in the Dar El Maygoma orphanage in Khartoum since the outbreak of the war on April 15.

A team from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) facilitated the transport of the surviving orphans to Wad Madani, capital of El Gezira, earlier this week.

On Wednesday, the Saudi Foreign Ministry condemned the attack of “armed groups” on its embassy and its attachés in Khartoum.

The United Nations yesterday called for an end to the violence in Sudan, and the plundering of warehouses containing humanitarian aid items in the country.

The Khartoum state Ministry of Health accused paramilitaries of the RSF of assaulting health staff at the Saudi Hospital in Omdurman on Wednesday and stealing the hospital vehicle that was transporting the staff to their homes.

The ministry said in a press statement that the RSF is occupying more than 40 hospitals and health facilities in the capital since Monday, when paramilitaries raided the Omdurman Children’s Hospital, the Haj El Safi Hospital, and the Ophthalmology Clinic.

Medicines depleted

Medical facilities in North Darfur and Blue Nile region have sounded the alarm bell over the lack of medicines for patients suffering from chronic diseases.

Doctor Tahani Faraheldur, Director of the Dialysis Centre in North Darfur, announced the suspension of dialysis operations except for emergency cases, because of the depletion of heparin.

She told Radio Dabanga that more than 70 kidney failure patients are affected. The centre expects a shipment to arrive from Port Sudan in the coming days.

‘The children now receive insulin once a week’

Musab Rizgallah, head of the Paediatric Diabetes Association in Ed Damazin, Blue Nile region, announced the partial cessation of services to more than 70 diabetic children because of the interruption of supply of insulin from the parent association in Khartoum.

The children now receive insulin once a week.

Thirst

The resistance committees of Shambat in Khartoum North (Khartoum Bahri) reported that the water supply in Shambat and several other neighbourhoods “has been completely cut off for 53 days”.

In a statement on social media yesterday, the grassroots activists said that a large number of people abandoned their homes and moved to other areas because of thirst.

Water engineer Mohamed El Ajab of the Khartoum State Water Corporation told Radio Dabanga that the RSF control a number of water stations, namely El Mogran in Khartoum, Beit El Mal in Omdurman, and the Khartoum Bahri station.

He said efforts are ongoing, facilitated by the ICRC, to help engineers and workers to reach and repair the stations.

Food baskets

The Qatar Red Crescent announced the distribution of 1,700 food baskets to 135 affected families from the poor Mayo district in southern Khartoum on Wednesday.

The families recently fled the violence in Khartoum fled to Atbara in River Nile state.

According to a press statement, the Qatar Red Crescent distributed the food baskets to the families sheltering in the El Wehda neighbourhood in Atbara in coordination with the Sudanese Red Crescent.