Concerns grow for the Sudanese truce as ex-regime members flee

A wanted Sudanese war crimes suspect has confirmed that he and other members of the Islamist regime ousted in 2019 have escaped from prison during recent fighting, raising new fears for a fragile ceasefire that has enabled foreigners to flee. Ahmed Harun, a top Bashir aide who led the regime's infamous counter-insurgency operations in Darfur in the mid-2000s, said the 79-year-old had already been transferred to hospital before the current fighting erupted on April 15. Members of Bashir's regime, including the strongman himself, had been moved to a military hospital "due to their health conditions" and remain in the hospital under the guard of the judicial police. Security fears had already been raised on Tuesday when the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of a "huge biological risk" after combatants occupied a Khartoum laboratory holding samples of cholera, measles, polio and other infectious diseases. The fighting between rival generals in Khartoum has killed hundreds of people and left some neighbourhoods in ruins.

Foreign governments organised road convoys, aircraft and ships to get their nationals out. A ship carrying nearly 1,700 civilians from more than 50 countries docked in Saudi Arabia early Wednesday. Sudanese workers complained of being left in a state of desperation, unable to leave their homes during the fighting. The Sudanese government has declared a ceasefire in Khartoum North, but the two sides have both made unverifiable claims to control key sites. The UN is bracing for an exodus of up to 270,000 refugees to neighbours Chad and South Sudan, and the fighting has killed at least 459 people and wounded more than 4,000, according to UN agencies.

The RSF emerged from the Janjaweed militia that then-president Bashir unleashed in the Darfur region two decades ago, and the military toppled Bashir in a palace coup in April 2019. The two generals seized power in a 2021 coup, but later fell out over the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army.