East African leaders call for immediate ceasefire as fighting rages in Sudan

NAIROBI, April 16 (Xinhua) -- East African leaders on Sunday called for an immediate end to the ongoing fighting in Sudan where military clashes have killed at least 56 people and injured nearly 600 others.

The Kenyan Presidency said the leaders from the regional bloc, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), held an emergency virtual session on Sunday where they called for an immediate cessation of hostilities between the parties to the conflict in Sudan.

Those in the emergency session were President William Ruto of Kenya, Salva Kiir of South Sudan, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Ismail Omar Guelleh of Djibouti, and Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of Somalia.

"President William Ruto asked IGAD leaders to take a firm position on the crisis to restore peace in the country," the presidency said in a statement issued in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.

The leaders resolved to send presidents Kiir, Ruto and Guelleh at the earliest possible time to reconcile the conflicting groups.

The leaders also asked the two parties to the conflict in Sudan to provide a safe corridor for humanitarian assistance in Khartoum, Sudan's capital, and other affected towns.

Violent clashes erupted on Saturday between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Khartoum and other cities, where the two sides traded accusations of initiating the conflict.

Sudan's Central Doctors' Committee said that at least 56 civilians had been killed while 595 more have been injured, among them soldiers who are in critical condition.

The tension between the two military forces has escalated since Wednesday in the Merowe region in northern Sudan, after the RSF moved military vehicles to a location near the military air base there, a move that the army considered illegal.

Deep differences have emerged between the Sudanese army and the RSF, particularly regarding the latter's integration into the army as stipulated in a framework agreement signed between military and civilian leaders on Dec. 5, 2022.