Sudanese army suspends ceasefire talks with paramilitary forces: military source

A Sudanese army delegation on Wednesday suspended its participation in ongoing talks with the paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF) in the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah, a senior military source said.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the suspension was not a withdrawal from talks, but an expression of the military’s disapproval of the continued and repeated RSF violations of the short-term ceasefire agreement.

The source also said that RSF has not kept its commitments to withdraw from civilian areas, including hospitals and neighborhoods.

The Sudanese army and RSF agreed to extend a week-long ceasefire that was due to expire on Monday by five days.

Meanwhile, eyewitnesses reported clashes on Wednesday morning in the Al-Mohandisen district in Omdurman, west of the capital Khartoum. The army closed the al-Fathab bridge linking Khartoum and Omdurman, while warplanes flew over the area.

In a statement on Wednesday, RSF accused the Sudanese army of violating the ceasefire, saying “the army bombarded our positions in Khartoum.”

The third meeting of the Expanded Mechanism on the Sudan Crisis was held at the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Wednesday to discuss the next steps regarding the situation in Sudan.

Sudan has been witnessing deadly armed clashes between the army and the RSF in the capital Khartoum and other areas since April 15.

More than 800 people have been killed since the conflict began, and around 1.4 million people have been forced to leave their homes, with over a million internally displaced and around 345,000 seeking safety in neighboring countries. going in, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in its latest report on Sunday.

(with inputs from Xinhua)