But even as the talks progressed, forces came from both sides kept collidingwith street fights, drone strikes and airstrikes decimate the healthcare system and urging civilians to continue evacuating the capital, Khartoum, and the neighboring cities of Omdurman and Bahri. Residents say fighting has also intensified in recent days in El Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan state. On social media, both sides continued to accuse each other of violating the ceasefire.
Renewed clashes have also torn apart the western region of Darfur, displacing thousands of people to flee and cross over to neighboring Chad. This is especially true in El Geneina, a town in West Darfur where health facilities have been destroyed and all 86 IDP camps destroyed. reduced to rubble, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. A communications breakdown has also kept the region cut off from the rest of the world for more than a week, raising fears of unreported deaths and the onset of a dire humanitarian crisis.
The conflict, which began on April 15, has resulted in the deaths of 865 people and the injury of 3,634 others, according to the Sudan Doctors’ Union. Nearly 1.4 million people are displaced, 360,000 of them crossing to neighboring countries like it EgyptEthiopia and South Sudan, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency.
Organizations for journalists and local activists have also accused the warring factions of increasingly targeting their members searches and arrests. Factories, banks and small businesses have been looted or destroyed, further damaging an economy already suffering from high inflation, rising food prices and the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The United Nations said last month it would need $2.56 billion to help those affected.
The army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, led by Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan, have long been on the same side. In 2019, they helped to oust dictator Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who had been in power for three decades. She also staged a coup which toppled the civilian government in October 2021, effectively sinking the country’s nascent efforts to transition to democratic rule.