Artillery bombardments reverberated in Khartoum today, Friday, as fighting intensified following the collapse of the truce between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese army, which has brought reinforcements to the capital.
Plumes of smoke rose around the industrial zone, west of Khartoum, while Al-Jazeera correspondent heard an explosion in the south of Omdurman this morning.
Local sources suggested to Al-Jazeera that the smoke was caused by the Sudanese army’s bombing of the Rapid Support Forces sites.
These field developments come at a time when the Saudi and American mediators suspended the Jeddah talks between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, accusing them of not adhering to the ceasefire agreements concluded between them in the last period.
And after holding the two parties to the conflict responsible for the collapse of the armistice and the talks in Jeddah, Washington announced Thursday the imposition of sanctions on companies and restrictions on entry visas for officials linked to the two parties to the conflict.
The economic sanctions target many companies in the industrial, defense and armament sectors, including the “Sudan Master Technology” company that supports the army, and the Al-Junaid Mining Company, which operates several gold mines in the Darfur region and provides funding for the Rapid Support Forces.
Anger in the army
Meanwhile, the Sudanese army said that it submitted proposals to the mediators in Jeddah, but was surprised by the suspension of negotiations before responding to them, and the army urged the mediators to continue efforts to persuade the other party to implement the requirements of the armistice to return to negotiations.
In response to the American position, a Sudanese military official criticized the position of the American administration, which is sponsoring with Saudi Arabia the Jeddah negotiations between the army and the Rapid Support Forces. He said that the army delegation handed the two sides two days ago evidence that the “other side” did not implement the obligations of the armistice agreement signed between them, and did not withdraw from hospitals and water and electricity services sites, but rather expanded its concentration in 34 hospitals and took control of 29 ambulances and thousands of homes in several neighborhoods of the capital’s cities. All three, and attacked other military and civilian sites during the armistice period.
In an interview with Al-Jazeera Net, the military official – who asked not to be identified – expressed his surprise at the United States putting the army and Rapid Support on one side, and “ignoring that the Rapid Support bears responsibility for violating the armistice because of its failure to control its forces, which turned to looting.” looting and using civilians as human shields.”
The source explained that the army representatives suspended their participation in the Jeddah negotiations to give Riyadh and Washington an opportunity to assess the parties’ commitment to the terms of the armistice.
Rapid Support accuses the army
On the other hand, the political advisor to the Rapid Support Forces, Youssef Ezzat, told Al-Jazeera that economic sanctions are useless in settling disputes, and they have been tried with the isolated regime and did not affect it.
He stressed that the Jeddah negotiations collided with the army’s refusal to have observers on the ground, noting that the Saudi-American mediation is active so far in the Sudanese crisis.
He pointed out that the Rapid Support Forces put forward a more comprehensive vision for resolving the political crisis in Sudan that goes beyond the framework agreement, and seeks to attract parties that were not part of the agreement.
He said that after the army lost its strategic locations in Al-Ghaba Street, it tried to surprise their forces in the Taiba camp, but failed in its effort, according to him.
