Sudan fighting in its 11th day: A list of key events

Sudan’s warring factions agree to a 72-hour ceasefire starting on Tuesday while Western, Arab and Asian nations race to extract their citizens from the country.

Here is the situation on Tuesday, April 25, 2023:

Fighting

• Sudan’s warring factions have agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire starting on Tuesday.
• However, fighting has broken out in Geneina in West Darfur between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to local reports.
• UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that Sudan was on “the edge of the abyss” and the violence “could engulf the whole region and beyond”.
• Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the assistant administrative attache at its embassy was killed in the fighting in Khartoum “as he was driving to the embassy to follow up the procedures of the evacuations of the Egyptians stranded in Sudan.”

Civilians and casualties

• At least 427 people have been killed and more than 3,700 wounded, according to UN agencies.
• Tens of thousands of people, including Sudanese and foreign nationals, have fled to Egypt, Chad and South Sudan in the past few days.
• The United States and European, Middle Eastern, African and Asian nations launched emergency missions to bring to safety their embassy staff and Sudan-based citizens by road, air and sea.
• According to the UN, there are acute shortages of food, clean water, medicines and fuel and limited communications and electricity. Prices are skyrocketing.

Diplomacy

• Sudan’s army and the RSF have agreed to a 72-hour ceasefire “following intense negotiations”, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said shortly before the truce took effect from midnight (22:00 GMT Monday).
• “This ceasefire aims to establish humanitarian corridors, allowing citizens and residents to access essential resources, healthcare, and safe zones, while also evacuating diplomatic missions,” the RSF tweeted.
• Blinken said the US would coordinate with regional, international and Sudanese civilian interests to create a committee overseeing work on a permanent ceasefire and humanitarian arrangements.
• The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said more than 1,000 EU citizens had been evacuated during a “long and intense weekend” involving airlift missions by France, Germany and other countries.
• The UN Security Council is planning a meeting on Sudan on Tuesday.
• Several nations – including Canada, France, Poland, Switzerland and the US – have halted embassy operations until further notice.
• The UN secretary general urged the 15 members of the Security Council to use their clout to return Sudan to the path of democratic transition.