Bodies and burial as Sudan fighting resumes after 24-hour ceasefire

A witness said that only 10 minutes after the truce ended at 6am local time on Sunday, the city was rocked again by shelling and clashes

Fighting has raged in the African country since mid-April, when Sudan’s army chief and his former deputy, who commands a paramilitary force, turned on each other

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Mourners gather to bury victims killed by an artillery shell strike in southern Khartoum, Sudan on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Published: 4:45am, 12 Jun 2023Updated: 10:07am, 12 Jun 2023

Mourners gathered to bury their dead and bodies lay in a Khartoum hospital on Sunday as deadly shelling and gunfire resumed after the end of a 24-hour ceasefire in Sudan.

Fighting has raged in the northeast African country since mid-April, when army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, turned on each other.

The United States and Saudi Arabia on Sunday strongly condemned the resumption of violence. In a joint statement, the US and Saudi Arabia said the two countries have been “deeply disappointed by the immediate resumption of intense violence.”

The latest in a series of ceasefire agreements enabled civilians trapped in the capital Khartoum to venture outside and stock up on food and other essential supplies.

But on Sunday they gathered on a sandy plot of land in the south of Sudan’s capital to bury victims of an artillery strike.

A witness told Agence France-Presse that only 10 minutes after the truce ended at 6am local time on Sunday, the city was rocked again by shelling and clashes.