The United States assured this Tuesday that it “will not hesitate to use the tools” at its disposal. to preserve the ceasefire in Sudanduring the first day of a new truce of seven days.
The Ministry of Health of Sudan accused this same Tuesday the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (FAR), which has been in conflict with the regular Army since April 15, of occupy 28 hospitals in the countryone of them on this first day of ceasefire.
According to a statement from the aforementioned department, it is the Alban Jadid University Hospital, the only one that continued to function in eastern Khartoum, where “rebel militias posted themselves today, despite the ceasefire, attacked health personnel, expelled the patients and put it out of service.”
For its part, the FAR accused the ministries controlled by the regular Army of “publishing lies and disinformation” while denying the occupation of the Ahmed Qasem hospital, although they made no mention of the Alban Jadid hospital designated by the Armed Forces of Sudan.
“We have a series of tools at our disposal and we will not hesitate to use them when necessary,” said the spokesman for the US State Department, Matthew Millerat a press conference.
The US official pointed out that the Monitoring and Coordination Committee is studying the reports on these violations and the moment they determine that the ceasefire has been broken they will make it public.
“The way we see the monitoring mechanism is to identify violations of the ceasefire, to hold the parties publicly accountable, and to have evidence that we can use to pressure them privately,” Miller added.
In this regard, he stressed that they will continue to talk with generals and officers of the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group. to “pressure them to stop the violence” when they see the truce broken.
Likewise, Miller pointed out that the committee addressed this same Tuesday the proportion of humanitarian assistance to the region.
The group is made up of 12 people: three officials from the US Executive and three from the Saudi Government, as well as three others from both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group.
One of the main points of this truce is to vacate and avoid the use of civilian facilities for military purposes, especially health centers, after the conflict that began on April 15. put more than 70% of the country’s medical facilities out of service and will bring the health system to the brink of collapse.
On Tuesday they reported no clashes in Khartoum or Um Durman, the cities most affected by the fighting, despite the fact that neither party previously respected the numerous truces agreed upon since the outbreak of the conflict.
From April 15 to yesterday, at least eight truces were announcedthe first on the 18th of that month, lasting 24 hours, and whose main purpose was to allow the evacuation of diplomatic personnel from the capital.
The tense calm was maintained in the Sudanese capital and its surroundings on this day in which Doctors Without Borders (MSF) condemned on its Twitter account “the unacceptable harassment” suffered by its staff and “the looting and violent occupation” of its facilities medical, although they did not detail new altercations in their centers in Khartoum apart from those suffered last week.
Since its inception in mid-April, the conflict in sudan has killed more than 700 civilians and injured more than 5,000in addition to the internal and external displacement of more than 1.1 million people, the vast majority of them women and children, according to the United Nations.
(With information from EFE)
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Source-www.infobae.com