Bombay Durpun - Fighting rages in Sudan ahead of truce expiration

Residents told AFP they could hear gunfire after dark on Monday as the ceasefire deadline neared. Earlier, they reported street battles in northern Khartoum, as well as artillery fire in the south of the city, where a plume of grey smoke was visible.

Since the truce began a week ago, frightened residents have ventured out to try and get food or water, the costs of which they say have doubled since the start of the war.

But in a "major breakthrough", the World Food Programme said Monday that it had begun reaching thousands of residents who have been trapped in Khartoum.

Many families have continued to shelter in place, rationing water and electricity while trying desperately to avoid stray gunfire in the city of more than five million people -- nearly 700,000 of whom have fled, according to the United Nations.

In Darfur, on Sudan's western border with Chad, continued fighting "blatantly disregards ceasefire commitments", according to Toby Harward, of the United Nations refugee agency.

"Intermittent fighting between Sudanese armed forces and Rapid Support Forces in El Fasher, North Darfur over the last few days" has seen civilians killed, homes looted and tens of thousands newly displaced in the already war-ravaged region, Harward said.

- Newborns dead in hospital -

The persistent fighting has impeded delivery of essential humanitarian aid needed by 25 million people, more than half the population, according to the UN.

A week ago, representatives of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy turned-enemy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary RSF, signed a written agreement to pause the incessant air strikes, artillery fire and street battles in order to allow in much-needed aid and restore essential services.

But by the seventh day of the truce -- due to expire at 9:45 pm (1945 GMT) on Monday -- no humanitarian corridors had been secured, and relief supplies had only trickled in, including to replenish the few hospitals that are still functioning in the capital.

For the first time in Khartoum since the war began, WFP on Saturday started giving out food assistance to families "struggling to make it through each day as food and basic supplies dwindle," said WFP's country director Eddie Rowe.

WFP had been increasing operations in most of the country's states since early May and wants to do more in Khartoum, "but that depends on the parties to the conflict and the security and access they realistically guarantee on the ground", Rowe said.

With potentially 2.5 million more people falling into hunger if fighting continues, the UN on Monday said Sudan has become one of the highest alert areas for food insecurity, requiring "urgent" action from the international community.

Sudan's already fragile health sector faces compounded challenges, with three quarters of hospitals in combat zones out of service, according to the doctors' union.

In East Darfur state, more than 30 infants have died in a single hospital since fighting began, including "six newborn babies who reportedly died in one week alone due to problems including lack of oxygen amid electricity blackouts", according to the World Health Organization.

Since April 15, the war has killed at least 1,800 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. More than a million others are displaced within Sudan and nearly 350,000 have fled to other countries, the UN said.

- 'Civil war' -

Sudan's neighbouring states -- many already mired in instability -- fear regional spillover from the conflict.

The army and the RSF had said they were willing to discuss extending the ceasefire, which US and Saudi mediators called for while noting "both parties are posturing for further escalation".

Even with a potential extension of the truce, the UN warned of "growing reports" of unexploded ordnance in the capital and other densely populated areas.

The governor of Darfur -- a former rebel leader allied with the military -- on Sunday called on civilians to take up arms.

This came after the defence ministry appealed for "army pensioners" and reservists to head to command units, while some members of tribes in the country's east earlier demanded to be given weapons.

The Umma party, one of Sudan's main civilian groups, cautioned against such calls as "attempts to drag the country into civil war".

Arman on Monday accused officials from the former regime of military-Islamist strongman Omar al-Bashir of intending to "prolong the war, dragging civilians and tribes towards it".

R.Khurana--BD