UN aid chief in Jeddah for Sudan ceasefire talks amid ongoing clashes

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UN top humanitarian official Martin Griffiths arrived in Saudi Arabia Sunday for ceasefire talks between Sudan's warring generals, as gun battles and airstrikes flared in the Sudanese capital at the start of a fourth week of fighting.

Multiple truce deals have been declared and quickly violated since battles erupted between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on April 15.

Fierce combat since then has killed hundreds of people, most of them civilians, wounded thousands, and sparked multiple warnings of a potential "catastrophic" humanitarian crisis. More than 100,000 people have already fled the country.

In embattled Khartoum, fighter jets have bombed positions as terrified residents stay barricaded indoors trying to cope with dire shortages of water, food, medicines, and other staples.

Across the Red Sea in the Saudi city of Jeddah, talks were underway aiming for a ceasefire that could push efforts to bring humanitarian aid to the besieged population.

The generals leading the warring parties have said little about the talks being held in Jeddah since Saturday.

Sudanese army Spokesperson Brigadier General Nabil Abdalla explained that the talks were on how a truce "can be correctly implemented to serve the humanitarian side," while Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo, who heads the RSF, only said on Twitter that he welcomed the technical discussions.

Griffiths was in Jeddah on Sunday "to engage in humanitarian issues related to Sudan," spokesperson Eri Kaneko said. 

The UN's top humanitarian official was last week in Port Sudan, where he said he had been informed by the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) that six trucks bringing aid to the Darfur region had been "looted en route" on Wednesday, "despite assurances of safety and security."

He called for security guarantees "clearly given by militaries, to protect humanitarian systems to deliver."

Riyadh and Washington have supported the "pre-negotiation talks" and urged the warring parties to "get actively involved."

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit expressed on Sunday his support for the "indirect negotiations" in order to prevent "an escalation of the current conflict" into a prolonged war "that divides Sudan into warring regions."

At the same meeting, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry warned of "a slide into a worse and more dangerous security situation for Sudan, its people, neighbouring countries and the region."

Since their 2021 coup, army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his deputy Dagalo have fallen out in a bitter power struggle, lastly over a plan to integrate the RSF into the army.

At least 700 people have been killed in the fighting so far, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. The Sudanese Doctors Union said 479 of the dead were civilians. 

Hundreds of thousands have been displaced either internally or to neighboring countries, while the UN has warned of a deepening humanitarian crisis and the threat of famine.

Read more: UN admits failure to stop Sudan war, clashes ongoing despite truce

Medical facilities shelled during clashes

Numerous medical facilities have been shelled in the fighting that broke out on April 15 between the Sudanese army and the RSF.

The battles have left only 16% of hospitals in Khartoum fully functional, according to the United Nations, putting countless lives at risk.

The UN estimates that there are "219,000 pregnant women in Khartoum, including 24,000 women expected to give birth in the coming weeks."

As the war rages, much of Sudan's medical resources have been diverted to tending the war-wounded with urgent care.

Even before the war broke out, mothers and children faced grave dangers in the country.

Almost three out of every thousand women die in childbirth in Sudan, eight times higher than the figure in neighboring Egypt, according to the UN children's fund, UNICEF.

It said that 56 out of every 1,000 Sudanese children die before reaching the age of five.

Last year, the UN estimated that one in three Sudanese needed to walk more than an hour to get medical care.

Read more: Clashes ongoing in Sudan as food insecurity looms