Sudan updates: Clashes continue despite ceasefire

The World Health Organization (WHO) says Sudan’s warring sides have seized ambulances and that the violence has forced hospitals to shut down.

“The situation of the health system for years was very fragile in Sudan and suffer from many challenges. The armed conflict between the two parties led to hospitals being out of service and staff shortages,” Ahmed Al-Mandhari, the WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, told Al Jazeera.

“There is a shortage of ambulances due to their seizure by both sides of the conflict,” Al-Mandhari said.

Mohamed Ajeeb, a former Sudanese military information director, says Khartoum is unlikely to extend the 24-hour ceasefire.

“This truce is for a humanitarian reason, rather than a military one,” Ajeed told Al Jazeera from Khartoum.

“I don’t think the army will allow the truce to be extended because it would mean that the Rapid Support Forces would catch their breath. I expect the army to work to support humanitarian work in hospitals, and accompany specialists in water and electricity to restore these services during the truce,” he added.

“Movements of the Rapid Support Forces in humanitarian work can be accepted by the army without being considered a breach of the truce because humanitarian work is the goal of the truce,” he said.

Haitham Awit, Al Jazeera correspondent in Khartoum says despite the ceasefire the city’s residents have not been able to move freely.

“There is still difficulty in the movement of citizens in the center of Khartoum, despite the calm situation,” Awit said.

“The humanitarian condition has not changed since the beginning of the truce,” he added.

Marie-Roger Bellois, political analyst, says countries on the continent are concerned about the security situation unfolding in Sudan.

“African countries fear that the conflict in Sudan will expand and become similar to the situation in Libya,” Bellois told Al Jazeera from Paris.

The United Nations says more than 180 people have been killed since the fighting began on Saturday.

Salah Al-Din Al-Zein, an analyst, says the sides in the conflict might not agree to a long-term ceasefire at the moment.

“Military and field indications do not show that the truce will become a permanent ceasefire,” Al-Zein told Al Jazeera.

“The mediation parties were unable to communicate with the two fighting parties. If the truce succeeds, the residents will leave the capital toward safe cities, and clashes will start again in Khartoum,” he added.

The White House says there are no plans at this time for a government-sponsored evacuation from Sudan.

Spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that American citizens in the country should remain sheltered in place at this time.

Gunfire was heard in Sudan’s capital Khartoum after 6pm (16:00 GMT) when a ceasefire was due to start following a fourth day of fighting between rival forces, witnesses have told the Reuters news agency.

Sudan’s warring sides say they are committing to the 24-hour ceasefire they agreed to earlier in the day.

“We are keen to implement the truce and restore normal life in the city. But the RSF is a militia that does not respect anything,” Colonel Khaled Al-Akida, spokesman for the army’s operation room, told Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) said it will uphold its part of the truce agreement.

“Our forces deployed in various areas of Khartoum are committed to the truce,” Musa Khaddam, adviser to the commander of the RSF, told Al Jazeera.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from the Jordanian capital, Amman, Fayez al-Duwairi – a military and strategic expert – says both sides in the conflict will welcome the truce.

“The two sides need the truce to catch their breath and learn how to manage the battle in the next phase,” he said.

The violence, which started on Saturday, has claimed the lives of more than 180 people, according to the UN.

Haitham Awit, an Al Jazeera correspondent in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum says the gunfire and shelling appear to have eased.

“We are witnessing relative calm in the center of Khartoum, but we hear from time to time the sounds of shelling, which means that the truce has not been fully implemented,” Awit said.

The ceasefire, which was agreed to by the warring sides, started at 16:00GMT.

“The kind of information that’s being shared is vital, sometimes lifesaving.”

Social media has once again emerged as a powerful tool for raising awareness and communication for those inside and outside of Sudan amid the deadly conflict between Sudan’s army and a paramilitary force.

Cameron Hudson, a senior associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says the warring sides have no regard for civilian lives.

“We must evaluate the ceasefire every hour to see how serious the two sides are. The two sides do not care about civilianians or the infrastructure,” the former US diplomat told Al Jazeera.

“We must document the crimes we are witnessing now to prepare for the future, and both sides must realise this,” he said.

“My opinion is that the two sides will have to negotiate to resolve the dispute, but I fear that they will destroy the country until they reach this point,” he added.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from the Sudanese capital, Rashid al-Moatasem, researcher at Khartoum Center for Dialogue, says fighters from the Rapid Support Forces may be on the back foot.

“The Rapid Support Forces are cut off from their leadership and do not know what is going on in the world of politics,” al-Moatasem said.

“These forces are looking for food and water because they do not have supplies. The Sudanese army wanted the truce to clear the streets of the corpses,” he added.

Khalid Saad, a Khartoum resident speaking to Al Jazeera says gunfire and shelling still taking place despite the scheduled ceasefire.

“All day you could hear the gunfire, you could hear the aircrafts hovering above you. They announced a ceasefire for the next 24 hours but we can still hear the aircrafts hovering above. There is gunfire and bombing still going on. They don’t even respect what they say,” Saad said.

“We have a massive blackout now. This has been the situation for the past four days. We are struggling to have even the basic needs. We don’t have water, we don’t have electricity, there is no petrol. I can’t describe the fear in the eyes of civilians,” he added.

Video from a hospital in Sudan’s capital shows the severity of injuries civilians have suffered in fighting.

Al Jazeera’s Abdel-Baqi al-Zafir, reporting from Khartoum, says the atmosphere is calm in the areas that are far from the centre of the city.

“Shops are receiving customers. However, there are still power and water outages,” he said.

When war broke out on Saturday in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, Yasir Othman anticipated that the clashes would quickly spread to his home in Darfur, a region still recovering from two decades of fighting and massacres.

As the stronghold of the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group currently locked in an existential battle against the Sudanese army, Othman knew that Darfur would soon be engulfed in conflict, again.

“The war is happening here now and there are a lot of innocent people who have been killed. Hundreds of people here are dead and they haven’t been buried yet,” said Othman, who is from North Darfur’s capital, el-Fasher.

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UN aid chief Martin Griffiths says aid workers and humanitarian facilities are continuing to be targeted in Sudan.

Griffiths said the United Nations is “receiving reports of attacks and sexual violence against aid workers”.

“This is unacceptable and must stop,” Griffith posted on Twitter, adding that the UN aid office in South Darfur was also looted on Monday.

Yasser Abdullah, a political analyst in Khartoum, has told Al Jazeera that both sides agreed to the ceasefire due to the catastrophic humanitarian conditions.

“Within four days, the situation completely collapsed in Khartoum,” he told Al Jazeera.

“People do not find water to break their fast [during Ramadan],” he said, urging authorities to use the pause in fighting to repair the water and electricity facilities that were bombed.

“The duration of the truce is not enough to evacuate people from the places where they are stuck.”

Reporting from the key battleground city of Merowe, Al Jazeera’s Osama Syed Ahmed says people took to the streets at the beginning of the ceasefire to obtain food and medical supplies.