Air raids, gunfire and explosions rocked Khartoum on Monday despite a new 72-hour truce agreed to by the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, while the United Nations warned that Sudan was on the brink of a humanitarian health "catastrophe".

Residents of Khartoum reported that they woke up on Monday to the roar of "combat planes", while others spoke of hearing explosions and gunfire in different areas of the capital, which has a population of nearly five million.

This came hours after the army, led by Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, led by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, announced their agreement to extend a cease-fire that was scheduled to end at midnight Sunday, Monday (22:00 Sunday night GMT).

However, the recent truce remained fragile, like other truce attempts that were agreed upon since the outbreak of the conflict between the two former allies on April 15, which plunged Sudan into chaos that claimed hundreds of lives and prompted tens of thousands to leave or flee.

Experts believe that the cease-fire agreements aim, in particular, to ensure the security of the evacuation routes for foreign nationals, and to allow the continuation of some diplomatic efforts led by external parties in light of the two military commanders' refusal to communicate directly.

It seems that all attempts at a solution collide with the personal influence struggle between Al-Burhan and Daglo, known as Hamidti, who together overthrew their civilian partners in 2021 after sharing power with them since the overthrow of President Omar Al-Bashir's regime in 2019.
The United Nations sounded the alarm about the situation turning into a human tragedy.

"The events in Sudan are taking place at an unprecedented scale and speed," said the spokesman for the Secretary-General of the UN, Stephane Dujarric, expressing his "great concern."

He added that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres decided to send "immediately to the region" the head of the humanitarian agency of the UN organization, Martin Griffiths, "in light of the rapid deterioration of the humanitarian crisis in Sudan."

Griffiths confirmed that he is on his way to the region "to study how we can provide immediate assistance," considering that "the humanitarian situation is approaching the point of no return" in a country that was considered one of the poorest in the world even before the outbreak of the recent conflict.

He warned that the looting of the offices and warehouses of humanitarian organizations "drained the majority of our stocks."

In a country where a third of the population was suffering from hunger before the war broke out, the World Food Program decided to resume "immediately" its activities after it was suspended following the killing of three of its staff during the first days of the conflict.

The health crisis that Sudan was suffering before the outbreak of fighting in the middle of last month has turned into a "disaster in every sense of the word," according to Ahmed Al-Mandhari, Regional Director of the World Health Organization for the Eastern Mediterranean.

Al-Mandhari explained that before the recent battles, "the health system in Sudan, as it is known, went through years of various crises, which exposed it to a lot of real fragility and weakness. Weakness in every sense of the word in terms of infrastructure, i.e. hospitals or primary health care centers of various levels throughout Sudan." .

"There is indeed a real shortage in the medical staff, especially after the emergence of this crisis during the past two weeks... especially the medical staff specialized, for example, in surgery and anesthesia," he added.

He pointed out that "23% of hospitals in Khartoum are partially operating, while only 16% are operating at full capacity."

The battles resulted in at least 528 dead and 4,599 wounded, according to figures announced by the Sudanese Ministry of Health on Saturday, in a toll that is likely to be higher.

With the conflict entering its third week, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Sunday managed to deliver the first shipment of humanitarian aid by air to the city of Port Sudan, located 850 km east of Khartoum.

The committee stated that the shipment "included surgical equipment to support Sudan's hospitals and volunteers of the Sudanese Red Crescent Society who provide medical care to the wounded who were injured during the fighting," but that it would only be sufficient to treat "1,500 wounded."

The battles led to internal and external displacement. According to United Nations estimates, 75,000 people moved to other parts of Sudan, at least 20,000 crossed to Chad, 6,000 to the Central African Republic, and others to Ethiopia and South Sudan. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had expressed its fear that the battles would push up to 270,000 people to flee towards Chad and South Sudan.

The clashes affect 12 of the 18 states in Sudan, which has a population of 45 million.

Residents of the capital, who are unable to leave, are forced to take shelter from gunfire and shelling, but they face increasingly difficult conditions in light of the power outages and the scarcity of food, water and fuel.

The local authorities in Khartoum have granted public sector employees "leave until further notice," while the police confirm that their personnel are deployed to prevent looting.
And the authorities of the White Nile state, south of Khartoum, announced the arrival of 70,000 displaced people in recent days to camps set up by the state.

Over the past days, many Western and Arab countries have evacuated their nationals in parallel with diplomatic efforts to seek a solution.
On Monday, the Arab League held a meeting at the ambassadorial level, at Egypt's request.

On Sunday, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan met with an envoy of Al-Burhan, while the latter communicated by phone with the Vice President of the UAE, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and on Tuesday he will visit Cairo.

According to experts, the UAE is closer to Daglo, which it had previously supported.
According to the Carnegie Middle East Center for Research, "The more Dagalo manages to maintain his positions in Khartoum, the greater his influence at the negotiating table."

Dagalo was the leader of the "Janjaweed" militia formed by Al-Bashir to support his forces in the bloody war that took place in the Darfur region (west) starting in 2003, in the face of rebels belonging to ethnic minorities.

These groups later evolved into the Support Forces, which were officially established in 2013.
According to the United Nations, about 100 people have been killed since last Monday in West Darfur, where the situation is "dangerous", according to the international organization.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations warned that "the tribes are seeking to arm themselves" in the region.
Looting, destruction and arson are increasing, including inside camps for the displaced, according to Doctors Without Borders, which was forced to "stop almost all of its work in West Darfur" because of the violence, according to the organization's deputy director in Sudan, Sylvain Peron.