CAIRO, May 22. /TASS/. The number of civilians killed in fighting between Sudan’s army and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has climbed to 863, the Sudanese Doctors’ Union reported on Monday.
"The number of civilian fatalities as a result of the clashes has increased to 863 with 3,531 people wounded," the Asharq TV channel quoted the organization’s statement as saying. Last week, the union reported 833 fatalities with 3,329 civilians sustaining wounds as a result of the conflict.
According to the UN, as of May 14, 676 civilians were killed and more than 5,575 were wounded in the clashes.
The Al Hadath TV channel reported that in the morning, Sudan’s air force delivered several air strikes on the RSF’s bases in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital. According to its information, the bombardment lasted at least two hours. There were also reports about explosions being heard in the cities of Omdurman and North Khartoum.
On the evening of May 20, in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, the delegations of the army and the RSF reached an agreement on a humanitarian ceasefire which is to take effect 48 hours after its signing, that is, later on Monday. This is the second long-term agreement on a humanitarian ceasefire between the army and the RSF since the clashes broke out. The first one, which was supposed to be observed by both sides for 10 days, in actuality lasted only a few hours.
The situation in Sudan escalated amid disagreements between the army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who also heads the ruling Sovereignty Council, and the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemedti), who is al-Burhan’s deputy on the council. The main points of contention between the two military organizations pertain to the timeline and methods for unifying the armed forces of Sudan, as well as who should be appointed as commander-in-chief of the army: a career military officer, which is al-Burhan’s preferred option, or an elected civilian president, as Dagalo insists. On April 15, clashes between the two military structures erupted near a military base in Merowe and in Khartoum.