KHARTOUM, Sudan
Sudan's warring military factions are restarting cease-fire talks sponsored by the United States and Saudi Arabia, Al Arabiya TV reported on Tuesday, as they clashed by air and on the ground in the capital Khartoum.
Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV said
the two sides had agreed to indirect talks without providing details. The army
and RSF did not immediately comment.
Earlier on Wednesday, Sudan
army leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan spoke with Saudi foreign minister
Faisal bin Farhan, a statement from the Sovereign Council he leads said.
Artillery and air strikes
continued overnight, with residents in southern and eastern Khartoum and
northern Bahri reporting sounds of artillery and gun clashes on Tuesday
morning.
Looters, some of whom Khartoum
residents and neighborhood committees said belong to the RSF, have pillaged
neighborhoods, stealing cars, breaking open safes, and occupying homes.
The island of Tutti, which
lies just north of main battlegrounds such as the presidential palace, has been
besieged by the RSF, according to Emergency Lawyers, a rights group.
The RSF had blocked access to
the island for eight days, cutting off food supplies and healthcare, the group
said in a statement. It also said RSF members had shot at anyone who tried to
leave the island, leading to the death of one man.
Overnight, the two forces
clashed in the streets of the city of Omdurman, around the army's Engineers
Corps base. The army, which tends to prefer air strikes to ground fighting, was
able to maintain its positions around the base but could not push back the RSF,
which controls most of the rest of the city.
"Our neighborhood has
become a war zone. There are fierce clashes and strikes all around us because
our house is next to the Engineers' Corps," said 45-year-old Jawahir
Mohamed.
"We are scared of dying
but we are also scared of leaving our house and being burgled," she added.
Looters, some of whom Khartoum
residents and neighborhood committees said belong to the RSF, have pillaged
neighborhoods, stealing cars, breaking open safes, and occupying homes.
Saudi Arabia and the United
States had brokered talks that had led to imperfectly-observed cease-fires with
the aim of providing humanitarian assistance. But talks collapsed last week
after the mediators said there had been numerous serious violations.
Meanwhile, more than 400,000
civilians have been driven across Sudan's borders and more than 1.2 million out
of Khartoum and other cities. At least 175,000 have made the journey to Egypt,
where many have experienced days and weeks-long delays in border towns with few
services.
On Tuesday Burhan's special
envoy Ambassador Dafallah al-Haj discussed the difficulties facing Sudanese
refugees with Egyptian foreign ministry officials and received assurances that
border roadblocks would be relieved, a Sudan foreign ministry statement said.
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