Residents reported hearing artillery fire, armoured vehicles patrolling, and aeroplanes flying overhead, putting a one-week ceasefire that had generated the most hope that Sudan’s warring groups would stop fighting in peril.
Other locals reported relative calm early Tuesday, the first full day of the ceasefire, which is being supervised by Saudi Arabia and the United States and is intended to allow humanitarian aid to be delivered.
After five weeks of fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the warring sides agreed on Saturday to a seven-day ceasefire that would begin at 9:45 p.m. (1945 GMT) on Monday and would allow supplies to be delivered.
The ceasefire deal, reached in talks in Jeddah, has raised hopes of a pause in a war that has driven nearly 1.1 million people from their homes, including more than 250,000 who have fled to neighbouring countries, threatening to destabilise a volatile region.
“Our only hope is that the truce succeeds, so that we can return to our normal lives, feel safe, and go back to work again,” said Khartoum resident Atef Salah El-Din, 42.
Although fighting has continued through previous ceasefires, this was the first to be formally agreed upon following negotiations.
The ceasefire deal includes for the first time a monitoring mechanism involving the army and the RSF, as well as representatives from Saudi Arabia and the United States, which brokered the agreement after talks in Jeddah.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the monitoring mechanism would be “remote”, without giving details.
“If the ceasefire is violated, we’ll know, and we will hold violators accountable through our sanctions and other tools at our disposal,” he said in a video message.
“The Jeddah talks have had a narrow focus. Ending violence and bringing assistance to the Sudanese people A permanent resolution of this conflict will require much more,” he added.
Shortly before the ceasefire was due to take effect, the RSF released an audio message from its commander, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, in which he thanked Saudi Arabia and the US but urged his men on to victory.
“We will not retreat until we end this coup,” he said.
Both sides accused each other of an attempted power grab at the start of the conflict on April 15.
The United Nations envoy to Sudan warned on Monday of the growing “ethnicization” of the military conflict and its potential impact on neighbouring states.
“The growing ethnicization of the conflict risks expanding and prolonging it, with implications for the region,” Volker Perthes told a briefing at the UN Security Council.
