Witnesses reported that shelling and gunfire resumed on Sunday in the capital of Sudan following a 24-hour ceasefire that had provided inhabitants with a rare break from the conflict’s nearly two-month-long intensity.
Since mid-April, when army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who is in charge of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), turned against each other, deadly combat has raged in the nation in northeastern Africa.
The most recent in a string of cease-fire deals allowed civilians confined to Khartoum’s capital to leave and stock up on food and other necessities.
However, only ten minutes after it ended at 6:00 am (0400 GMT) on Sunday, shelling and fighting erupted once more, according to witnesses who spoke to AFP.
They claimed that fighting broke out on Al-Hawa Street, a key thoroughfare in the south of the capital, and that heavy artillery fire was heard in Khartoum and its northern twin city Omdurman.
There have been numerous truces agreed to and broken, even after the US imposed sanctions on both opposing generals when the previous attempt failed at the end of May.
Burhan and Daglo both accumulated substantial riches under the long-time Sudanese tyrant Omar al-Bashir, whose regime was subject to international sanctions for decades before being overthrown in 2019.
The US and Saudi mediators announced the 24-hour ceasefire, which expired early on Sunday. They had threatened to discontinue their mediation efforts if it failed.
The Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project estimates that more than 1,800 people have died as a result of the violence that has engulfed Khartoum and the western part of Darfur.
According to the United Nations, about two million people have been displaced, including 476,000 who have sought refuge in neighboring countries.
Most of the 200,000 who entered Egypt did so on land.
Cairo, however, stated on Saturday that it was tightening restrictions for Sudanese who had previously been excused from obtaining visas, including women of all ages, children under the age of 16, and people over 50.
The new criteria, according to Egypt, are intended to deter “illegal activities by individuals and groups on the Sudanese side of the border, who forged entry visas” rather than “prevent or limit” the admission of Sudanese nationals.