The Sudanese military announced on Monday that it agrees to a new UN proposal to open humanitarian corridors for three hours, an initiative first adopted on Sunday but only partially respected.
“After consultations, Sudan’s armed forces accepted the UN proposal to open safe corridors for humanitarian cases for a three-hour period starting at 4 p.m. [15:00 em Lisboa]”the military said in a statement.
The army added that they will respect this brief halt to fighting in residential areas and urban centers as long as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group does not continue its attacks.
The RSF has not disclosed whether they will abide by this pause in fighting.
This is the second consecutive day the opening of humanitarian corridors has been announced, after on Sunday – the second day of the battle – both sides committed to do so at the request of the United Nations.
On Monday, UN Special Envoy to Sudan, Volker Perthes, confessed to being “extremely disappointed” by the non-compliance with Sunday’s ceasefire, which he said has been “only partially fulfilled”, despite commitments from both sides.
This brief pause allowed for the evacuation of more than a thousand people in the capital, Sudanese Red Crescent sources confirmed to EFE, citing the case of a school in central Khartoum, including about 450 children, who had been detained since the beginning of Saturday’s fighting, were able to leave.
Also this Monday, the Union of Sudanese Journalists warned that 17 workers of the Sudanese state news agency SUNA have been detained in the offices of that body since Saturday and must be removed because “their lives are in danger” in violent clashes. between the army and the paramilitaries in Khartoum.
“As fighting continues for a third consecutive day, 17 SUNA employees have been trapped since Saturday, April 15 and must be evacuated,” the union warned on its official Twitter account.
The union warned that the SUNA office is “located near the military zone, in the center of the fighting”, posing an “imminent danger” to the lives of journalists.
At least 97 civilians have been killed and about 1,000 injured since the outbreak of fighting, according to the Sudanese medical commission.
Source: DN
