The organization’s spokesperson, Tarik Jasarevic, also reported that around 5,100 people had been injured in the conflict. Representatives of the warring parties have been engaged in talks, brokered by Saudi Arabia and the US, in the city of Jeddah to find a humanitarian truce. However, the talks are not aimed at resolving the most contentious issues of the conflict, such as the integration of armed forces, which was the initial trigger of the conflict on April 15.
On Monday, the Saudi Foreign Ministry announced that the talks were expected to continue for a few more days. Meanwhile, the UN migration agency has reported that the number of internally displaced people due to the nearly month-long fighting has risen to 700,000. This is in addition to the 3.7 million people who were already internally displaced before the conflict began.
Reports indicate that thousands more have fled to neighbouring countries like Chad, Central African Republic, Egypt, and South Sudan, while many others remain in their homes in the capital city of Khartoum. Fierce battles between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Army have turned the urbanscape into battle zones, with reports of looting and robbery.
Civilians are bearing the brunt of the conflict, as they face a shortage of food and water supply. The Sudanese Doctors’ Syndicate, which tracks civilian casualties, reported on Monday that the death toll stood at 487.
Previous cease-fires have failed to stop the fighting, and the conflict remains rooted in the power tussle between Sudan’s head of army, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) leader, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who is widely known as Hemedti. The two men were allies and played an important role in the 2021 coup, but tensions rose between them after the coup.
The most recent tension that sparked the conflict stemmed from a disagreement over how the RSF should be integrated into the armed forces and the authority that should oversee the process. The merger is a key condition of Sudan’s unsigned transition agreement with political groups.
