218 Irish citizens evacuated from Sudan amid fragile ceasefire
Tánaiste Micheál Martin provided an update this afternoon saying that "Ireland continues to offer strong support for evacuation efforts." Picture: PA
The UN's special representative for Sudan has described the situation in the country as "unprecedented".
Aid agencies have been struggling to help people on the ground as humanitarian aid is being looted.
So far, 218 Irish citizens have been evacuated, while the emergency civil assistance team is being withdrawn today.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin provided an update this afternoon, saying that "Ireland continues to offer strong support for evacuation efforts through our consular teams in Dublin, and across the region in Nairobi, Cairo, Amman, Riyadh, and Addis Ababa".
HR manager at GOAL Sudan, Sara Bashir Mohammed, said the fighting in Khartoum has been relentless.
"Our city is well known as one of the most dangerous places to stay at the moment," said Ms Bashir.
She said the streets are no longer safe, and the situation is highly unpredictable.
"I have a friend who lost her father because she was trying to move him from her house to the hospital and she couldn't find a vehicle or fuel, and when she did, he unfortunately passed away when he reached the hospital," she said.
Ms Bashir said it is difficult to try to stay calm and be able to help those that need it.
Meanwhile, Sudan’s warring generals have agreed to send representatives for negotiations, potentially in Saudi Arabia, the UN’s top official in the country said.
The move came even as the two sides clashed in the capital despite another three-day extension of a fragile ceasefire.
If the talks come together, they would initially focus on establishing a “stable and reliable” ceasefire monitored by national and international observers, said Volker Perthes, but he warned there were still challenges in holding the negotiations.
A string of temporary truces over the past week has eased fighting only in some areas, while in others fierce battles have continued to drive civilians from their homes and push the country into a humanitarian crisis.
Humanitarian groups have been trying to restore the flow of help to a country where nearly a third of the population of 46m people relied on international aid even before the explosion of violence.
The UN food agency said on Monday that it was ending the temporary suspension of its operations in Sudan, put in place after three of its team members were killed in the war-hit Darfur region early in the fighting.
The World Food Programme will resume food distribution in four provinces — al-Qadaref, Gezira, Kassala, and White Nile — working in areas where security permits, said executive director Cindy McCain said.
Direct talks, if they take place, would be the first major sign of progress since fighting erupted on April 15 between the army and a rival paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
For much of the conflict, army chief General Abdel Fattah Burhan and RSF commander General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo have appeared determined to fight to the end.
Their struggle for power has put millions of Sudanese people in the middle of gun battles, artillery bombardments, and airstrikes.
Around 530 people, including civilians and combatants, have been killed in the conflict, with another 4,500 wounded, the Sudanese Health Ministry said.
Tens of thousands have fled Khartoum and other cities, and more than two thirds of hospitals in areas with active fighting are out of service, with fighters looting the dwindling supplies.
