UN aid chief in Saudi for Sudan talks as fighting flares

The UN’s top aid official was in Saudi Arabia on Sunday for ceasefire talks between Sudan’s warring generals, as concern grows for the humanitarian situation at the start of a fourth week of gun battles and air strikes in the Sudanese capital.

Multiple truce deals have been declared, without effect, since fighting erupted between army and paramilitary forces on April 15 in the poverty-stricken country with a history of political instability.

Fierce combat since then has killed hundreds of people, most of them civilians, wounded thousands and sparked multiple warnings of a “catastrophic” humanitarian crisis.

More than 100,000 people have already fled the country.

Ahmed al-Amin, a resident of the Haj Yousif district in northeastern Khartoum, on Sunday told AFP he “saw fighter jets flying above our heads and heard the sounds of explosions and anti-aircraft” fire.

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.

Those unable to flee face dire shortages of water, food, medicines and other staples.

Even before the war began about one-third of Sudan’s people required humanitarian assistance, the UN said.

The fighting has seen aid workers killed, health facilities attacked, and the UN projects that the number of “acutely food insecure people” in Sudan could increase by between two and 2.5 million if the war is prolonged.

Analysts expect that it will be.