(CNN) The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — the two warring factions in Sudan — agreed to a seven-day ceasefire, South Sudan’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
The two sides also said they would send representatives for peace talks “to be held at an agreed place of their choice,” it added.
Both SAF and RSF have yet to comment on the report on their official channels.
Previous ceasefires have failed to stop fighting between rival factions in different parts of the country. Failed negotiations between Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo erupted into heavy clashes between the two sides in mid-April, leading to mass displacement of refugees from a country full of chaos and lead to death. of at least 528 people.
Tuesday’s announcement came after the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) warned more than 800,000 people could flee to neighboring countries, as ongoing violence hampered evacuation convoys from key ports in Sudan.
Black smoke is billowing over Khartoum in conflict-ridden Sudan, where the country’s armed forces and the RSF have agreed to a seven-day ceasefire.
“In consultation with all relevant governments and partners, we arrived at a planning number of 815,000 people who could flee to seven neighboring countries,” said Raouf Mazou, the organization’s assistant high commissioner for operations, in monday
An estimated 73,000 people have already fled Sudan to neighboring countries, Mazou added.
Thousands of foreign nationals fled the country as Western powers stepped in to evacuate their own citizens, while thousands more local families risked perilous journeys from the capital Khartoum as they were left behind for themselves.
Evacuees travel across the Red Sea from Port Sudan to the Saudi King Faisal navy base in Jeddah, on Saturday. The UN refugee agency has warned that more than 800,000 people could flee as a result of the violence.
‘Fatal to try to escape’
Many locals remain trapped in their homes, with shortages of water, food, medicine and electricity raising the risk of a humanitarian crisis, as relief organizations prioritize the distribution of medical aid to hospitals caught in the conflict.
Violence erupted this week in West Darfur, where the two warring generals Burhan and Dagalo both have a history, having played key counterinsurgency roles against rebels in the region’s civil war that began in 2003.
Burhan controls the Sudanese army in Darfur, while Dagalo is the commander of one of the many Arab militias, the Janjaweed, which has been involved in human rights violations and atrocities.
“Trying to escape can be fatal” said Karl Schembri, of the Norwegian Refugee Council, NRC.
“You risk your life if you stay,” and risk it if you leave, the NRC’s media adviser for the region said in a phone call to CNN.
Schembri called the situation in Sudan’s Darfur region “total war,” where displacement camps have been burned, shelters burned and civilians killed in the fighting in recent days.
There are shortages of food, water, and medical supplies, with almost all hospitals not functioning, or in some way damaged. Fuel can only be found on the black market, forcing many people to abandon their cars, and forced to walk to escape.
People previously displaced by the long-unresolved conflict in Darfur, and refugees from other conflicts in the region as far as Syria and Yemen are being displaced again, some for a second, third or fourth time , says Schembri. Some displaced NRC volunteer workers were also caught up in the fighting.
At least 94 people have been killed since April 20 in the Sudanese city of El Geneina in West Darfur, according to a statement from the Sudanese Doctors’ Union on Tuesday.