Cairo: The UN health agency reported on Tuesday that 604 people, including civilians, have died as a result of the ongoing fighting in Sudan. The latest statistics come as negotiators for the warring parties meet in Saudi Arabia.
According to Tarik Jasarevic, a spokesperson for the World Health Organisation, more than 5,100 people were also injured as a result of the fighting. The Sudanese Doctors' Syndicate, which only keeps track of civilian deaths, reported on Monday that there had been 487 fatalities.
After months of rising hostilities between the military, under the command of Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and a rival paramilitary organisation known as the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, under the command of Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the conflict broke out on April 15.
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In addition to the 3.7 million people who were already internally displaced within the country prior to the start of the conflict, the fighting has turned urban areas into battlegrounds and displaced nearly 700,000.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry announced on Monday that negotiations between representatives of the warring parties were anticipated to go on for a few more days in the coastal city of Jeddah.
The talks are a component of a diplomatic initiative that the kingdom and the US have put forth in an effort to put an end to the fighting. Burhan, meanwhile, charged that the RSF was using civilians as human shields and using residential areas as military bases.
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He insisted that before any truce agreement could be reached, all of their troops must be withdrawn from the capital, Khartoum, in an interview he gave late Monday to an Egyptian TV channel, Al-Qahira Al-Akhbariya.
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He declared that there would be no point in travelling to Saudi Arabia or holding any negotiations if this goal was not met. "We won't move forward with any initiative that doesn't restore normalcy and guarantee the safety of our citizens," the statement reads. Burhan's statement has received no response from the RSF.