United News of Bangladesh

Tens of thousands of exhausted people are heading home to the world's youngest country as they flee a brutal conflict in neighboring Sudan. There's a bottleneck of men, women and children camping near the dusty border of Sudan and South Sudan and the international community and the government are worried about a prolonged conflict. Fighting between Sudan's military and a rival militia killed at least 863 civilians in Sudan before a seven-day ceasefire began Monday night. Many in South Sudan are concerned about what could happen if the fighting next door continues. “After escaping danger there’s more violence,” said South Sudanese Alwel Ngok, sitting on the ground outside a church. “There’s no food, no shelter, we’re totally stranded, and I’m very tired and need to leave,” she said. Ngok thought she’d be safe returning home after fleeing clashes in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, where she watched three of her relatives killed. She and her five children arrived in Renk, South Sudan, where people were sheltering on the ground, some sleeping with their luggage piled up near thin mats. Women prepared food in large cooking pots as teenagers roamed aimlessly. Days after Ngok and her family arrived, she said, a man was beaten to death with sticks in a fight that began with a dispute over water. Years of fighting between government and opposition forces in South Sudan killed almost 400,000 people and displaced millions until a peace agreement was signed nearly five years ago. Enacting a solid peace has been sluggish: The country has yet to deploy a unified military and create a permanent constitution. Large-scale clashes between the main parties have subsided, but there is still fighting in parts of the country. South Sudan has billions in oil reserves that it moves to international markets through a pipeline that runs through Sudan in territories controlled by the warring parties. If that pipeline is damaged, South Sudan’s economy could collapse within months, said Ferenc David Marko, a researcher at the International Crisis Group. However, the most immediate concern is the tens of thousands of South Sudanese who are returning with no idea of how they'll get home to their towns and villages. Many are unable to afford the trip. Aid groups and the government are stretched for resources they can use to help. Some 50,000 people have crossed into the border town of Renk, many sheltering in stick huts along the road and in government buildings throughout the city. Some wander aimlessly in the market, desperately asking foreigners how to get home. People are arriving faster than they can be taken to new locations. The longer they stay, the greater the risk of fighting between communities, many with longstanding grievances stemming from the civil war. Many are frustrated because they don’t know what lies ahead. The power struggle in South Sudan between President Salva Kiir, a Dinka, and Vice President Riek Machar, a Nuer, took on an ethnic dimension during the civil war. Communities in Renk said that the conflict that broke out over water in May and led to the killing of the man with sticks quickly became a wider dispute between the ethnic groups, forcing people to flee once again. At first, the local government wanted to divide the South Sudanese returning through Renk, based on their place of origin. Aid groups, however, pushed back. Together with the government and community leaders, the aid groups are engaging in peace dialogues. “We are worried (about more violence)," said Yohannes William, the chairman for the humanitarian arm of the government in Upper Nile state. “The services that (are) being provided here, they are limited. We have been told that this is a transit center, anyone who comes should be there two days or three days and then transit.” "But now, unfortunately, due to the delayment of transportation, they have been there for more than two weeks, three weeks,” William said. Situated at the northernmost tip of South Sudan, Renk is connected to other parts of the country by few roads. The main routes are flights or boat trips along the Nile, and many people can’t afford them. The United Nations' International Organization for Migration is trying to send the most vulnerable South Sudanese who have returned — some 8,000 people — home by boat, with the goal of transporting nearly 1,000 people daily along the Nile to the state capital of Malakal. However, the trips have just begun, and problems in coordination between aid groups and the government at the port this month delayed people from leaving, with children, babies and the sick camped by empty boats for days under the scorching sun. Aid workers say it could take up to two months to decongest the city, which has nearly doubled in size. But Malakal already hosts some 44,000 displaced people in a United Nations protection camp, many still too afraid to leave for security reasons. “The problem is ‘an out of the frying pan, into the fire’ conundrum, because we’re moving them to Malakal, and Malakal is itself congested,” Nicholas Haysom, the United Nations chief in South Sudan, told The Associated Press. Some who have already returned to Malakal from Sudan say they're unsure if there's a home to go back to, having had no contact with their families during the civil war. “I don't know if my relatives are dead or alive,” said William Deng. The 33-year-old hasn't been able to speak to his family in neighboring Jonglei state, which has little phone service, since returning in early May. The government says that it has funding for 10 charter planes to fly people from Renk to parts of the country harder to reach by boat. But Renk’s tiny airport can’t support large planes, so each flight can only hold 80 people. “The situation is dire … (South Sudan) is now being forced to receive additional refugees and returnees. As a result, the humanitarian needs in the country will continue to grow,” said Michael Dunford, regional director for East Africa for the World Food Program. Even before this crisis, 70% of the population needed humanitarian assistance, and the World Food Program can’t meet their needs, he said. Traders in Renk, who get the majority of their goods from Sudan, say they’re already feeling the economic pain, with prices spiking 70%. “I used to send my family $100 a week. Now I send half that,” said Adam Abdalla Hassan. The Sudanese shop owner supports his family in Sudan, but now is earning less because people don't have enough money, he said. Those who returned say they’ve received little information about where or how they’re supposed to get home, and worry they won’t make it in time before the rainy reason, which starts soon, floods roads and makes it harder to fly. “How can we stay here under the rain with the kids?” said Ehlam Saad. Holding up her UN-issued wristband, the 42-year-old said she’s been living in Renk for nearly three weeks. She has no idea how she’ll get to the capital of South Sudan, Juba, where she and her family lived before the war. Her only choice now is to find a way home and reunite with her husband and son, she said. “A home is a home. Even if there’s fighting, even if you move around the world, even if it’s the worst option, it’s home,” she said.

Mahmoud almost never leaves his small apartment in east Khartoum. Electricity has been out for most of the past month, so he swelters in the summer heat. When he does venture out to find food, he leaves his mobile phone behind because of looters in the street. Otherwise, he hunkers down in fear, worried that an artillery shell could burst into his home. Exhausted, confused and unable to escape the conflict-ravaged Sudanese capital, the young research technician tries blocking out the reality of his surroundings. "I am reading my book collection for a second time," he said. One work helping him get by: "Models of the Mind," a 2021 neuroscience book about how mathematics help explain the workings of the brain. Since the conflict broke out last month, more than 1.3 million people have fled their homes to escape Sudan's fighting, going elsewhere in the country or across the borders. But Mahmoud and millions of others remain trapped in Khartoum and its sister cities of Bahri and Omdurman, unable to leave the central battleground between Sudan's military and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary. For them, every day is a struggle to find food, get water and charge their phones when electricity is cut off. All the while, they must avoid the fighters and criminals in the streets who rob and brutalize pedestrians, loot shops and storm into homes to steal whatever of value they can find. Dollars have become hard to find and dangerous to hold, a target for looters. Amazingly, Bankak, the banking app of the Bank of Khartoum, continues to function most of the time. It has become a lifeline for many, allowing users to transfer money and make payments electronically. Mahmoud uses the app to pay the one shop owner he visits to stock up on canned goods. During weeks when electricity was out, the shop owner still gave him what he needed and let him pay later. A technology company that Mahmoud worked for before the fighting puts 30,000 Sudanese pounds — around $50 — on his app account every few weeks. That transfer allows him to keep eating. "If I have money in my bank account and Bankak is operating, everything will be good," he said. Like others who spoke to The Associated Press, Mahmoud asked to be identified only by his first name for fear of reprisals. Since April 15, the Sudanese army, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by Gen. Mohamed Hamden Dagalo, have been locked in a violent power struggle that has turned the once sleepy Khartoum into an urban battlefield. More than 800 civilians have been killed, according to the Sudan Doctor's Union. On Monday a week-long cease-fire began, the conflict's seventh, with fighting easing across parts of the city. But gunbattles and bombardments still continue despite the pledge made by both forces in Saudi Arabia. Residential areas and hospitals have been pounded by army airstrikes, while RSF troops have commandeered homes and turned them into bases. The more immediate danger is often the armed men and looters in the streets. Waleed, another resident of east Khartoum, said he has had several terrifying encounters. In one case, he saw around 30 RSF fighters, some who looked no older than 15, tormenting a passerby, waving their weapons at him and demanding he lie on the ground, then shouting at him to stand up. "They were playing with him like a puppet," Waleed said. Many can't afford to leave. Mahmoud wants to get to Ethiopia, then to Portugal where he been offered a position as a research technician. But he doesn't have the $2,500 he estimates the trip will cost him. Waleed said he can't leave for medical reasons. Others say they have no choice but to stay and work. One of the many women who sell tea in the streets of Khartoum, Tana Tusafi, a single mother from Ethiopia, says her four children depend on her. "I have no one to provide for me, so I have to work," she said. The dangers are unpredictable. Mahmoud said that last week RSF fighters in a neighboring building started shooting at his apartment block, believing an army sniper could be there after seeing lights inside. Mahmoud said he had to confront the troops and convince them his block was only filled with civilians. Another resident, Fatima, said her brother disappeared after having coffee with friends on May 13. That first evening when he didn't come home, "I thought he might have stayed over at his friend's house," Fatima said. On Monday, Khalid finally returned. For eight days, he had been detained and interrogated by the RSF, Fatima said. The Missing Person Initiative, an online tracker where people can report missing loved ones, said it has reports of at least 200 people unaccounted for in the capital region. It said it has received multiple reports of individuals being detained by the paramilitary. Darker still is the growing number of rape and sexual assault allegations. According to Hadhreen, a community-led health and crisis group, there have been at least 10 confirmed rape cases in the capital area. Seven were committed by RSF soldiers, it said, while the three others were by unknown attackers within RSF-held areas. The reports of sexual violence harken back to the Darfur conflict of the early 2000s, during which the Janjaweed militia was accused of widespread rapes and other atrocities. Many of its fighters were later folded into the RSF. They were again accused of raping dozens of women when they broke up a pro-democracy protest camp in Khartoum in 2019. In this landscape of fear, those who remain in the city find ways to get by. Some store owners operate out of their homes, hoping to hide from the looters. Waleed said only one remaining bakery serves his neighborhood and two others. Each customer registers their name beforehand "If you were lucky and registered your name at 7 o'clock in the morning you might get your bread at 12 noon," Waleed said. He too survives because of Bankak, on money that his family in Saudi Arabia puts into his account. During the first weeks of May, there was no electricity in his neighborhood, so Waleed relied on a nearby mosque with a generator to charge his phone. But no electricity meant no running water. "We roamed around with buckets to trying to find people who have electric generators who can activate their water pumps," he said. Last week, the electric company restored power in his area. Most of the city's hospitals have also shut down, many of them damaged in bombardments or ground fighting. Since May 11 alone, there have been 11 attacks on humanitarian facilities in the capital, the World Health Organization reported. Community action groups, led in part by a grassroots pro-democracy network known as the Resistance Committees, have banded together to help treat Khartoum's sick and deliver medicines. Hadeel Abdelsayed, a trainee doctor at one community clinic, said patients have died because they did not have enough oxygen. The clinic was eventually evacuated due to intense shelling. Mahmoud, the researcher, said that if he can somehow secure the funding, he will try to make his escape to Ethiopia. But time is against him. "My passport will expire in 10 weeks, so I will have to leave before then."

Humanitarian agencies are calling for full funding of the U.N.'s $7 billion appeal for the Horn of Africa during a pledging conference this week, citing a growing crisis and the need for urgent lifesaving intervention. The U.N. says the region is facing the worst drought in 40 years, with more than 43.3 million people in need of assistance in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, and more than half of those lacking access to sufficient food, according to the U.N. The International Rescue Committee said that until now the appeals have received less than a quarter of the donations they need. "Efforts to combat food insecurity need to be urgently scaled up across a wider group of governments, international financial institutions and climate actors," said the IRC's chief executive, David Miliband. The U.N on Wednesday is convening a high-level pledging event at its headquarters in New York, where member states and partners will be encouraged to commit financial support to the Horn of Africa crisis. Humanitarian organizations say time is running out as affected communities have gone for months with little or no food. "It's beyond urgent. … We have averted famine before, and we can do it again. … People are already dying and there's no time for declarations," Deepmala Mahla, CARE International's vice president for humanitarian affairs. told The Associated Press. A famine is yet to be declared in Somalia, where more than 6 million people are going hungry, but some humanitarian and climate officials have warned that trends are worse than in the 2011 famine in Somalia in which a quarter-million people died. Formal famine declarations are rare because data to meet the benchmarks often cannot be obtained because of conflict, poor infrastructure or politics. Governments can be wary of being associated with a term of such grim magnitude. Local nongovernmental organizations like Somalia's Hormuud Salaam Foundation say there's need for sustained funding. "For lasting change, we must equip local organizations and local people with the tools to face the inevitable climate shocks of tomorrow," the foundation's CEO, Abdullahi Nur Osman, told the AP. Persistent conflict in some of the affected areas, combined with climate change effects, have contributed to the growing crisis. Parts of Somalia and Ethiopia are currently experiencing flooding during the ongoing rainy season and millions of people have been displaced. The affected areas, mostly occupied by herders, had seen prolonged dry seasons that left livestock, which are a source of livelihoods, dead. Parts of Somalia are grappling with insecurity due to the al-Shabab extremist group that has carried out numerous large-scale attacks. Northern Ethiopia experienced conflict for more than two years as regional forces clashed with national forces. Hundreds of thousands of people died and the situation remains fragile, seven months after a peace deal was signed.  

The death toll from an attack by dozens of gunmen in north central Nigeria's Plateau state has reached 80, local authorities said Thursday, with survivors still searching for bodies days after the incident. The gunmen targeted several villages in the remote Mangu district of Plateau during the attack that started Monday and lasted till Tuesday, according to residents. Burials continued on Thursday in parts of Mangu located 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Jos, the state capital. The police told The Associated Press seven suspects had been arrested. It was a “situation of sporadic shooting across a vast area of different villages,” said Alabo Alfred, the command spokesman. The security crisis in the north-west and central regions of the country has stifled Nigeria’s development, despite its status as Africa’s largest economy and one of its top oil producers. After decades of conflict, current and former pastoralists from the Fulani tribe took up arms against farmers over limited access to land and water. The attacks are sometimes reprisals and are mostly in remote areas where security forces are outnumbered and outgunned. As of Thursday, families in Plateau's Mangu district are unable to retrieve the bodies of victims in areas that remained volatile, said Philip Pamshak, who has been assisting with the mass burials. “The place is still bad, so we had to run,” he said. Quoting the local chiefs he spoke to when he visited the affected areas, Plateau Deputy Gov. Sonni Tyoden said in a statement that at least 10 villages were targeted in the attack. Local residents said it was carried out by herdsmen after a resident complained that his banana plantation had been destroyed by their cattle. Survivors told the AP the assailants arrived in large numbers and scattered across the villages, setting houses ablaze while shooting at people. “There was tension everywhere. They macheted some and (killed) some with guns,” according to Yaputat Pokyes, one of the survivors. Many residents have fled the area while the injured are being treated in different hospitals, he said. Residents also said security forces only arrived a day after the attack began, echoing criticisms from analysts that security forces are sometimes slow to respond when violence breaks out. Confidence MacHarry, from the Lagos-based SBM Intelligence security firm, said Nigerian security forces are not able to prevent or respond fast to such attacks because their early warning system was not effective and they lacked the firepower and personnel to prevent such attacks. “For the early warning system to work, we are supposed to have reports of the pending attack and the response mechanism to prevent the attack from taking place,” said MacHarry. Meanwhile, police investigating a separate deadly attack in the southeastern Anambra state said two suspects have been arrested. Tuesday’s attack on a U.S. convoy is suspected to have been carried out by violent separatists in the region. The death toll has also increased from four to seven, including three U.S. Embassy staffers and four police officers, said Echeng Echen, the police chief in Anambra. “The state police command and other security agencies are working round-the-clock, in concert with the Government of Anambra State, to find and rescue (two) missing officials" with the embassy, said Echeng.

A Nigerian chef on Monday set a new global record for the longest hours nonstop cooking as she cooked for 100 hours, surpassing the current record. Hilda Baci had been cooking since last week Thursday when she set out to beat the Guinness World Record of 87 hours and 45 minutes set in 2019 by Lata Tondon, an Indian chef. At around 19:45 GMT on Monday, Baci cooked for the 100th hour in the Lekki area of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub, to become a national sensation in the West African nation. Thousands who gathered at the scene jubilated and sang her praises as she stopped cooking a few minutes after. The Guinness World Records tweeted it was aware of the chef's attempt to break the cooking record. “We need to review all the evidence first before officially confirming a record,” the global brand said. By attempting to beat the record, the Nigerian chef said Thursday she wanted to show how hardworking and determined Nigerian youths are and also as a campaign for young African women who are sidelined in society. “Even when it comes to the brands you want to work with, it is like you have to go an extra mile to be taken seriously,” said Baci, adding that she hoped too that the world would learn more about Nigerian cuisines. At 15:00 GMT on Thursday, she started to cook dozens of Nigerian delicacies under supervision, ranging from soups to stew and various proteins. Jollof rice, one of the most iconic West African dishes, also featured on the menu. She has had only five-minute breaks every hour or an accumulated one hour after a stretch of 12 hours for everything else, from bathing to medical checkups and resting. As thousands of locals and celebrities cheered her on at the scene through day and night, many more monitored online via several streaming platforms. After she surpassed the current cooking record, President Muhammadu Buhari tweeted that Monday was a great day for Nigeria. “Hilda’s drive, ambition and resilience have brought great interest and insight into the uniqueness of Nigerian food," said Buhari. As Baci neared the 100-hour mark, Kingsley Ofoma at the scene said he never doubted her to surpass the global record. “The energy here is very high and positive; everybody is having fun," he said. "So eating her food free of charge is not even the best of it.”

Sudan’s military chief ordered the freezing of all bank accounts belonging to a rival paramilitary force, the latest step in a fight for control of the resource-rich nation. The two sides have battled for weeks across Sudan, pushing the troubled country to the brink of all-out war. The decree, issued on Sunday by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, will target the official accounts of the Rapid Support Forces in Sudanese banks, as well as the accounts of all companies belonging to the group, the state news agency SUNA reported. It remains unclear what immediate effect the freezing would have on the RSF and how Burhan’s orders are to be enforced. Over the past decade, the paramilitary force has amassed great wealth through the gradual acquisition of Sudanese financial institutions and gold reserves. Burhan on Sunday replaced Sudan’s Central Bank governor. On Monday, he removed the country's police chief and sacked two ambassadors at the Foreign Ministry. Burhan did not elaborate on his moves. Since mid-April, the Sudanese army, led by Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, have been locked in a power struggle that has forced tens of thousands to flee to neighboring countries. Chaos has taken over much of the country since the conflict broke out. The capital, Khartoum, has been reduced to an urban battlefield and the western Darfur region is rocked by deadly tribal clashes. The violence has also killed over 600 people, including many civilians, according to the World Health Organization. A two-day outbreak of fighting in Geneina, the capital of West Darfur province, killed scores of people last week, said the Sudan Doctors' Syndicate, a group that tracks civilian casualties. It said the fighting began when RSF fighters and militiamen entered the city on Friday and clashed with other armed groups and residents. Meanwhile, explosions resounded in a southern neighborhood of Khartoum on Monday while videos posted online show a hospital in the East Nile area, a neighborhood just east of Khartoum, being bombed. Human rights organizations have accused the RSF of looting and attacking civilians, and the military of indiscriminately bombing residential areas. The two sides agreed to several short cease-fires since the fighting started, but all were violated. Both have also traded blame and exchanged heated accusations of human rights abuses. The Emergency Lawyers, a Sudanese legal group focusing on human rights cases, said two women were raped Sunday by armed men who stormed a women's university in Omdruman, Khartoum's twin city. According to the lawyers, the attack took place inside a dormitory for teachers at Ahfad University, which falls within RSF-controlled territory. The news comes amid a string of alleged sexual assault incidents involving the paramilitary. Last Thursday, the military and the RSF signed a pact in the Saudi city of Jeddah, promising safe passage for civilians fleeing the conflict and protection for humanitarian operations in the East African nation. International efforts — led by Saudi Arabia and the United States — are underway in an attempt to turn Thursday's agreement into a lasting truce.

Tribal clashes over several days killed 25 people in southern Sudan, the country's doctor union said Wednesday. The fighting raises fears that the ongoing war between the country's rival top generals, currently centered on the capital, could set off more violence in far-flung provinces. It remained unclear whether the tribal clashes were related to the brutal fighting which ignited mid-April across the country as a result of a power struggle between the military's head Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan and Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who commands a powerful paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces, or the RSF. The tribal violence in the south erupted on Monday between the Hausa and Nuba tribes in the city of Kosti, the capital of the White Nile province bordering South Sudan, according to Sudanese local media reports. Deadly tribal violence is not uncommon in Sudan's south and west, where disputes dating back to the country's split from South Sudan remain unresolved. The country's wider conflict has so far claimed the lives of more than 600 people, including civilians, and displaced hundreds of thousands. The violence has also spread to other regions, namely the restive Darfur province. Last month armed fighters, many in RSF uniforms, rampaged through the city of Genena in West Darfur killing at least 100 people, according to the doctors' group, the Sudanese Doctor's Syndicate, which mainly tracks civilian fatalities. The U.N.'s migration agency said that 700,000 people have now been displaced by the violence, in updated figures released Tuesday, more than double the tally from a week prior. Before the fighting started, 3.7 million people were already displaced internally, mainly in western Darfur, according to the agency's figures. A series of ceasefires has failed to stop the fighting and prompted foreign governments to speed up the evacuation of their citizens from the war-torn country. Meanwhile, Sudan’s warring parties are holding talks in the Saudi coastal city of Jeddah, but have made little progress as of Monday regarding a more sustained humanitarian truce, a U.N. official in Sudan told The Associated Press. The talks, the first since the fighting erupted, are a part of a Saudi-U.S. initiative meant to stop the fighting. The U.N. official added that the gap between the two sides' positions remains wide, due to “deep mistrust”. He called for more pressure on the two generals, especially from their regional backers. The military has traditionally been backed by Egypt’s government, and the RSF has enjoyed support from the United Arab Emirates. “They should give concessions to reach a compromise,” he said. The military has demanded that the RSF withdraw from Khartoum's neighborhoods and its hospitals, power and oil facilities to one central base outside the city, according to two senior military officials with direct knowledge of the talks. Meanwhile, the paramilitary group is saying that it should retain control of all of the bases it had held prior to the conflict, including at key locations inside the capital, such as the Khartoum Airport, according to two RSF officials involved in the preparations for the talks. They said the RSF is also looking to ensure its ranks are still paid out of the national budget and that its wounded soldiers can receive adequate medical treatment. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk the media because of the ongoing negotiations. Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry had said the talks aim to achieve “an effective short-term cease-fire to facilitate humanitarian assistance,” and agree on a timetable for further negotiations to reach a permanent cease-fire. The kingdom has played a major role in evacuating fleeing the conflict to safety from Port Sudan, a city on the country's Red Sea coast, to Saudi Arabia. On Tuesday, the U.N. said its humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths had proposed “a declaration of commitments” to representatives of the rival Sudanese forces to guarantee the safe passage of humanitarian aid. “We’re going to proceed with humanitarian operations, whether there’s a ceasefire or not as we do in conflict situations all around the world," said the U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq. "But in order to make sure that safe passage is guaranteed, we want the parties to adhere to a declaration of commitments."

At least 100 people were killed in clashes that erupted last month between armed fighters in a city in Sudan’s restive region of Darfur, according to the Sudan’s Doctors Syndicate. Hospitals were still out of service in the Darfur city of Genena and an accurate count of the wounded was still hard to make, the doctors’ union added in a statement posted on their official Facebook page late Sunday. The fighting in Genena, which broke out a few days after Sudan’s two rival generals took arms against each other in Khartoum, pointed to the possibility that conflict in the capital could spiral to other parts of the East African country. Also Read: Sudan conflict: 136 Bangladeshi evacuees arrive in Dhaka   At least 481 civilians were killed in Khartoum clashes that erupted in mid-April between the military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, led by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, according to the same doctors’ statement. The number of the wounded among civilians has jumped to more than 2560.

Sudan’s warring sides were beginning talks Saturday that aim to firm up a shaky cease-fire after three weeks of fierce fighting that has killed hundreds and pushed the African country to the brink of collapse, the United States and Saudi Arabia said. The negotiations, the first between the Sudanese military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, since the fighting broke out on April 15, were taking place in Saudi Arabia's coastal city of Jeddah, on the Red Sea, according to a joint Saudi-American statement. The talks are part of a diplomatic initiative proposed by the kingdom and the U.S. that aims to stop the fighting, which has turned Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, and other urban areas into battlefields and pushed hundreds of thousands from their homes. In their joint statement, Saudi Arabia and the U.S. urged both parties to “actively engage in the talks towards a cease-fire and end to the conflict, which will spare the Sudanese people’s suffering.” The statement did not offer a timeframe for the talks, which come after concerted efforts by Riyadh and other international powers to pressure the warring sides in Sudan to the negotiating table. Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan welcomed the rival sides to Jeddah, saying on Twitter that he hopes the talks would restore “security and stability” in Sudan. Since a 2021 coup that upended Sudan's transition to democracy, the kingdom has been mediating between the ruling generals and a pro-democracy movement. After Sudan's top two generals — commanders of the military and the paramilitary — turned on each other after months of tensions and the latest fighting broke out in April, Jeddah became a hub for those evacuated by sea from Sudan’s main sea port of Port Sudan. Officials from the military and the RSF said the talks would address the opening of humanitarian corridors in Khartoum and the adjacent city of Omdurman, which have been the centers of the battles. They would also discuss providing protection to civilian infrastructure, including health facilities that have been overwhelmed and suffer from dire shortages of both staff and medical supplies, one military official said. An RSF official they would also discuss a mechanism to monitor the cease-fire, which is one of a series of truces that failed to stop the fighting. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the talks in Jeddah. Meanwhile, Sudan's pro-democracy movement said the talks would be “a first step” to stop the country’s collapse and called on leaders of the military and the RSF to make a “bold decision” to end the conflict. The movement, which is a coalition of political parties and civil society groups, had negotiated with the military for months to restore the country’s democratic transition after a 2021 military coup led by army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, who also chairs the ruling sovereign council, and his deputy in the council Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo. On Saturday, Dagalo tweeted his first comment on the talks, welcoming the initiative to establish a firm cease-fire and open humanitarian corridors. “We remain hopeful that the discussions will achieve their intended goals,” he said. At least 550 people have been killed, including civilians, and more than 4,900 have been wounded as of Monday, according to the Sudanese Health Ministry. The Sudanese Doctors’ Syndicate, which tracks only civilian casualties, said Friday that 473 civilians have been killed in the violence and more than 2,450 have been wounded. The fighting capped months of tensions between Burhan and Dagalo. It plunged the country into further chaos and forced foreign governments to evacuate their diplomats and thousands of foreign nationals out of Sudan. Hundreds of thousands of Sudanese were displaced inside Sudan or crossed into neighboring countries as the fighting dragged on in urban areas. The U.N. refugee agency estimated that the number of Sudanese fleeing to neighboring countries would reach 860,000, and that aid agencies would need $445 million to assist them. On Saturday, a bus carrying Sudanese fleeing the fighting, overturned in Egypt’s southern province of Beni Suef, leaving at least 36 Sudanese, including women and children, and two Egyptians injured, local authorities said. Tens of thousands of Sudanese have crossed into Egypt since the fighting broke out.

Qatar flew a relief flight into Sudan carrying some 40 tons of food and left with 150 evacuees early Saturday as fighting continues between two generals vying for power in the African nation. The Qatari Emiri Air Force C-17 Globemaster touched down in Port Sudan, some 670 kilometers (415 miles) northeast of Sudan's violence-torn capital of Khartoum. The port city has been spared in the fighting and has become one of the few safe transit points out of the country, whether by air or by ships crossing the Red Sea heading to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Evacuees boarded the C-17 bearing the livery of Qatar Airways, the energy-rich nation's long-haul carrier. Those who spoke to The Associated Press described facing “very scary, terrifying” conditions trying to leave Khartoum for the airfield. “We still faced many difficulties because of the lack of security in the country due to the security forces being occupied with the battles. We were faced by mobs on the way,” said Nemat Allah Saber Ibrahim, a Sudanese doctor evacuated who lives in Qatar. "Other than the burden of travel and the different checkpoints by both security forces and Rapid Support Forces. But thank God we have arrived safely to the Port of Sudan.” The conflict started on April 15 after months of escalating tensions between the military, led by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and a rival paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces, commanded by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. The fighting has turned urban areas into battlefields. Foreign governments have rushed to evacuate their diplomats and thousands of foreign nationals out of Sudan. Despite repeated cease-fires being declared, the warring sides have shown little commitment to even short-term promises to stop the fighting. Qatar in the past has held peace talks in Sudan between warring parties in its Darfur region, as well as those between Sudan and South Sudan. “We are leaving but unfortunately Khartoum is in a dire situation. Khartoum is done," said Aliah Helelo, another Sudanese resident of Qatar being evacuated. “We are leaving with our hearts in our hands. We left our families behind and we fear for them. But thank God. I pray that God avenges and punishes whoever caused this.” The food carried into Sudan by the Qatari military aircraft included bags of rice, dates, oil, lentils and tomato sauce. Hunger is becoming a problem in Sudan as stores remain closed amid the fighting and food is in scarce supply. Prices across the country “are reportedly skyrocketing, making critical goods unaffordable for many people,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said. Khaled Mahmoud Osman, the deputy chief of mission at the Sudanese Embassy in Qatar, told journalists gathered at Qatar’s sprawling Al-Udeid Air Base before the flight that the food aid was “of the utmost importance to our people.” “In Sudan, these are some of the unfortunate events caused by the rebellion of the Rapid Support Forces, which have affected the lives of civilians in all Sudanese cities and Khartoum in particular, in hospitals, neighborhoods, markets and in areas supplying food from villages,” he said. “We ask Allah almighty for peace to prevail in Sudan soon, to support the Sudanese armed forces, to take care of the rebels or they would surrender. I mean, that they will lay down arms for the mercy of civilians.” Separately, the World Health Organization said it and the United Arab Emirates shipped some $444,000 worth of urgent medical supplies Friday into Sudan at Port Sudan International Airport. The WHO said that a shipment brought in just before the start of the fighting was “exhausted after a few days given the number of injured.”