By Janet Ekstract
ISTANBUL-The Turkish Foreign Ministry said evacuations of its citizens would be finished on Saturday. The ministry said it’s monitoring the situation and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had offered to mediate between the leaders who he spoke to earlier in the week. Several days earlier, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoglu said Türkiye was offering to evacuate foreign nationals as well. Turkish President Erdogan has been in touch with the leaders of both rival groups and had offered to mediate a ceasefire.
Meanwhile, reports from the ground in Khartoum indicate that the situation is dire and becoming much more dangerous by the minute ever since rival militias got involved in the conflict that was primarily between the Sudanese Army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Both rival groups have had longstanding disagreements ever since they ousted the former Sudanese government in 2021. According to the latest reports, the Sudanese people have run out of water, food, fuel and other essential supplies while increasing numbers of refugees flee across the border into neighboring countries, Chad and Egypt.
Analysts speaking to TRT World on Friday, said the situation is growing worse by the hour and that the influx of refugees into Egypt and Chad will put pressure on both those governments and that they will need aid from other countries to handle the refugee situation. One analyst said that the fact that various armed groups are now involved in the conflict, has made the situation much more dangerous with the possibility of the conflict turning into what he termed as a “multi-sided civil war that could become a very complicated conflict” that he reiterated, could take a very long time to end.
Though the previous ceasefire brokered by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia has now been extended for another 72 hours, reports on the ground, indicate it’s tenuous at best, since a number of militias began raiding homes and government offices in the main city of Geneina.. Sudanese attempting to flee Khartoum and other areas are finding bus ticket prices hiked from $10 to $17 which most Sudanese can’t afford. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. is directly involved and working on talks toward a more lasting ceasefire. Blinken said he’s in touch with the two rival leaders who have been at odds for months before the conflict broke out in April.
