After additional intense clashes and airstrikes in portions of the city cast doubt on the truce’s viability, Sudan’s warring military factions agreed on Monday to a five-day extension of the accord.
Shortly before it was set to expire on Monday evening, Saudi Arabia and the United States, who mediated a week-long cease-fire agreement and have been remotely monitoring it, said that the parties had decided to extend it.
The two nations said in a joint statement that although the cease-fire had not been entirely observed, it had made it possible to send aid to about two million people.
“The extension will provide time for further humanitarian assistance, restoration of essential services, and discussion of a potential longer-term extension,” the statement said.
The truce’s effectiveness is being discussed, according to sources familiar with the new agreement.
Residents in Khartoum, Omdurman, and Bahri, the three neighboring cities that make up Sudan’s larger capital near the confluence of the Nile, reported fighting hours earlier. They claimed that the clashes was more intense than it had been in the previous three days.
Power struggles between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) exploded into violence on April 15, killing hundreds and uprooting roughly 1.4 million people.
On Monday afternoon, residents of Omdurman reported hearing air strikes, which the army has been deploying to target RSF forces embedded in areas throughout the capital.
“Since yesterday evening there has been bombardment with all types of weapons between the army and the Rapid Support,” Hassan Othman, a 55-year-old resident of Omdurman, told newsmen. “We’re in a state of great fear. Where’s the truce?”
The peace agreement had provided some relief from the intense fighting in previous days, but intermittent confrontations and airstrikes continued.
Both sides have previously been accused by Saudi Arabia and the United States of breaking the cease-fire in a number of ways, obstructing aid deliveries and the restoration of vital services, among other things.