♪ mohammed: can the current cease-fire in the fighting in sudan? the country has been embroiled in war for more than a month. despite many agreements, battles are raging in khartoum and other areas. so what will it take to persuade the warring sides to stop? this is inside story. ♪ mohammed: hello and welcome to the program. i'm mohammed jamjoom. for more than a month, fighting in sudan has turned once

bustling cities into battlefields. now there's hope the latest ceasefire will change that. the truce is meant to enable the safe transportation of humanitarian aid to millions of people who are trapped. but fighting has reportedly continued in hotspots. so what will happen to those who need food and medicine? and will ceasefire violations fuel more mistrust between sudan's warring sides? we will explore these issues with our guests, but first, this report by our correspondent. reporter: during the last five weeks, ismael lost everything. he fled sudan when fighting hit too close to home. he says his life is now unrecognizable. >> it took us several days to get out of sudan. there were several checkpoints along the way. it has been quite challenging for my pregnant wife and i reached this refugee camp in a few be a. we have nothing.

reporter: back home in sudan entire communities remain trapped in and around the capital khartoum. most cannot afford to leave. >> the fighting has devastated the city. it has destroyed infrastructure and killed people. i hope the cease-fire will last so that everything can get back to normal. reporter: that cease-fire, between sudan's army and the paramilitary rapid support forces, was brokered on monday by the u.s. and saudi arabia. it is meant to guarantee the safe passage of food and medicine for millions of people in dire need. >> people are leaving cartoon because there is no food, water or electricity and there is very high levels of insecurity, but the future is very bleak for those people. it is bleak for sudan. it is bleak for the region. reporter: but despite the

cease-fire, aid organizations say they still face security and logistical challenges. some people have welcomed their respite from the fighting but they are worded with at last. >> hopefully the traffic in and around khartoum will be easier to navigate during the cease-fire. hopefully we can go back home when the situation calms down. reporter: some streets that live recently looked like war zones, now look quiet. an uneasy calm. but for many, it isan uneasy calm. people forced from their homes in and outside sudan must now weight, and hope the latest cease-fire will mark a turning point. katya lopez, for "inside story." mohammed: alright, let's go ahead and bring in our guests. joining me in london is nisreen elsaim, general coordinator for youth and environment sudan. she's the former chair of the u.n. secretary general's youth advisory group on climate change.

in cairo is aseel geries, public health specialist and civil servant with sudan's federal ministry of health. in london, is dallia abdelmoniem, a sudanese political commentator. she fled the country during the fighting. a warm welcome to you all and thanks for joining us today for an inside story. nisreen, let me start with you today. this cease-fire that was brokered by the u.s. and saudi arabia, how is it holding up so far? guest: unfortunately the cease-fire collapsed very big from the early morning hours of today. my husband is still in h khartoum and he recorded voice notes and talk to me about hearing a lot of gunfire, a little bumming around him. in fact, one hour ago, a --

flights were dropped by the rsf from the army side and resolve videos, two pilots had to actually use parachute to jump out of their planes. it is escalating, unfortunately. not going down. also, the army announced that the rsf right now have reached the area where we actually have a lot of gold reserves for the country, but also a lot of cash that was freshly printed for the country. i think we are now witnessing a severe collapse of the cease-fire, although yesterday many areas around khartoum, khartoum north and omdurman were quiet. a lot of people are saying it is the first time they have slept for more than a month. and yet, it looks like some areas are not exactly the same

way. now today i think it is escalating as more news is coming about massive bombing and massive clashes between the rsf and the army. mohammed:aseel, when the cease-fire was announced, some are calling it a cease and some temporary truce, some are saying it was meant to guarantee food and transportation for people who are in need, to create essentially a humanitarian corridor. whether or not it collapses, do you think this humanitarian corridor can actually be achieved? guest: firstly, before this started, there was no way to provide any kind of services. as they say the truth is ongoing, the rsf has actually broken into two hospitals in the past two hours, they kicked out the patients and stole four

ambulances today and yesterday. one hospital went out of service , making 28 hospitals in khartoum taken by the rsf, with more than 21 ambulances stolen. the cease-fire, or the so-called truth, if you ask me the one reason it might not be successful, is that it didn't include evacuation of the soldiers of the rsf from khartoum. it is to be discussed and agreed upon later, but the violation will continue. the safe routes will not be made if the rsf continues to be in khartoum. not only khartoum, yesterday around five people were killed and 30 injured. hospitals are running out of service and electricity. surgeries are being made with

phone lights. the network is out of service completely. with the network being out, hospitals being destroyed. and it is not just that, they are surrounding areas around cities like -- and terrorizing people. they cannot access services. 14 children died out of electricity shortage in the past few days. so, i don't think this is successful in any way so far. nastasya: i saw you nodding along t along to what aseel was. she's describing horrific circumstances, especially on the humanitarian front, especially when it comes to the health care needs of millions of people who are trapped because of the fighting. did you want to jump in? did you want to add to what she was saying? guest: i do.

basically she said it's not just khartoum, other places are being badly affected by what is happening. darfur has really seen a spike in attacks and clashes and the number of those dead keeps going up. already the infrastructure outside of khartoum was poor, now the infrastructure has been brought down to its knees. in addition, the looting of humanitarian supplies, medical supplies, the msf has been hit badly. they have had their cars stolen. the people that were brought in to help victims of the rape crimes that have been occurring have lost all access. the truth is that has been no cease-fire, so to speak. there was relative peace, and i say that in quotation marks, but in general, the cease-fire was

not going to work if there is no implementation of accountability on both the rsf and the sudanese army. i keep hearing that they have methods in place, but we need methods now, we need action now, we need accountability now, they need to be held accountable for breaking the cease-fire's. it has been more than one month. there has been no change in the current situation in sudan. and it keeps getting worse. people have lost their livelihoods. people who depend on daily incomes have nothing. people have lost their homes, their businesses. more than one million have been internally displaced in addition to those who were already displaced from previous conflicts, let alone those who were able and lucky enough to get out of the country. so it is a catastrophe. it seems that the international community is kind of dragging its feet little bit in regards to how to react to this crisis,

when in fact, they should have reacted yesterday. not today, not tomorrow, they should have reacted from day one. the longer it takes for them to react, the worse it becomes for those in sudan and even those who are outside. a lot of people outside have no income. how are they going to survive? when will they be able to go back? can they go back? there is a lot of questions and no one has the answers. no one seems to be able to provide those answers. mohammed: nisreen , with regards to the lack of effort from the international community, what do you say? why do these cease-fire people collapsing? to your point, do more international players need to be involved in the mediation efforts? guest: well, to be honest, first i need to react a little bit on what dallia

mentioned in a minute. she was talking about accountability. who can hold whom accountable. unfortunately, in past years, the rsf gained very big legitimacy and it was the army who gave them legitimacy to the rsf at the beginning. so now, who will account to whom? regarding the international community? i always believed in proactive. the international community could have helped saddam to avoid reaching this point at the beginning. a lot of steps could have been taken at the moment we had the coup d'etat on october 25, 2021. a lot of steps could have been taken. we have been talking since the beginning about reforming the army. about the breaking of the rsf forces and the possible joining

them to one uniform army. we have been talking since the beginning about protecting civilians and training police. the international community was very much more focusing on supporting the political processes -- and talking about me and you only, but all of us here watching, we know that political processes cannot really protect civilians. there is a rule of law in place. unless there is democracy in place, unless there is an armed movement and armed body, normally the army that is protecting both democracy and civilians. i think all the efforts being taken by the international community right now are rather trying to save the situation that, firmly, is unsalvageable. a lot has been lost already.

we are just trying to -- they try to call it damage control. i would also add that a lot of the international community, even the people who are now doing the mediation are not serious enough in stopping the situation. the evidence is very clear. they still have a lot of leaders from both sides, from the army and the rsf, a lot of countries who are also part of the process have the resources that go into the rsf in their countries and they are not doing anything to stop it. the army leaders are still hiding when they actually should be in the front line, trying to -- mohammed: sorry to interrupt, but i see aseel reacting and i want to jump in here too. from your vantage point, do you think more international actors need to be involved in the mediation efforts?

and what about the african union? does it need to have a more prominent role in all of this? guest: 100%. first of all, just to alert to what they were saying, currently, there is no cease-fire. there is an apparent violation. if you ask me the reason, it is the lack of trust between the two parties, the rsf and the staff. and the lack of leadership. apparently they cannot control their soldiers on the ground, hence we cannot come to a successful cease-fire. most of these troops and soldiers were young children who have been trained to carry guns, but they have nothing and they understand nothing about the international humanitarian laws of war. this is where we face problems. if i may add, it is upon the u.n. council, security council, to actually work this time on creating an accountability framework. it is on the international

community to work on restriction and on stopping, as nisreen said earlier, it is who is funding the rsf and who must stop. if you ask me who is responsible and who should be the mediator, i would say, of course, the african union. we witnessed back in 2019 the successful democratic transition. it was the only party that actually took the opinion of the people into consideration, into the bargain of having a civilian government. it is the african union. it is the advantages of having, interests, regional similarities , and the countries have more understanding. but also, i must say, there is an absence of the international community not only in stopping or providing a statement, but in ensuring the rates of those who want to migrate.

where -- those who had their passports triggered. those who are seeking refugees or they have the ability to, but they are not getting any response from these countries. not being conflicting, but it was not the same scenario that happened in ukraine where all the international community has stepped in. but there's a huge absence in the sudanese war that i cannot call a civilian work, as the rsf at this moment routing houses, killing and raping. this will continue, unless there is immediate action and interventions from parties that are trusted and familiar to both parties of the rsf and the army. thank you. mohammed: fsllis, asleel, was talking about lack of trust, but you need more effective actors involved in the mediation process, according to aseel.

>let me ask you from your vantae point, what would it take, what factors need to be combined in order to end the fighting, to try to build trust? does something like sanctions work? is that the way to go? what other steps need to be taken? guest: individual sanctions, for example should have been put in place after the crew in 2021, but they were not. also the legitimization of both the rsf and al-burhan should not have happened. but it did. it happened when they were included as part of the civilian government. . it happened right after the coup. and it is continuing to happen during the transitional talks to a civilian government. i think at this moment in time, sanctions are the best option that we have. it is the only thing that will bring them to the table and force them to acknowledge the fact that this cannot continue

any longer. and i think it also matters that outside international parties that have invested interests with both sides, need to understand that this will affect them negatively the longer that this conflict continues. so it is easier said than done, but it is something that has been done and has been effective in the past. i don't understand why it is taking them so long to actually implement these sanctions. i would also like to add a point that aseel was saying about the violation of humanitarian, international conflict law. these violations have always taken place in sweden. they were taking place in the niba maintains and in therefore, for decades. nobody cared. now that it is, to the center, people are worried. these two sites have no other

way of fighting a war other than through these violations. they do not abide by law, whether local, or international. we need to understand this will only get worse the longer this conflict drags on. at this moment in time, for me personally, i think sanctions are the way to go. there are measures in place that those who allow the two sides to continue, they, the punishment can also reach them or affect them in one way or the other. otherwise -- already we are seeing so many people trying to flee sudan and our neighboring countries have problems -- egypt has economic problems, ethiopia, chad. no one wants an influx of people coming in and adding to their own woes. this is what is happening. and then you also have an influx of people internally. like i said, there is no infrastructure in place, so how

do we -- mohammed: let me ask you about one component of this humanitarian crisis. the red cross has warned it would be impossible to relocate refugees streaming into neighboring chad before the start of the rainy season in june. what does that mean when it comes to contending with cholera, malaria? with other factors? how much more difficult does this make the situation? guest: we are speaking at 80,000 to 90,000 people since the start of the war that have tried to flee from darfur. this is a huge number given it has only been four weeks. in the fighting continues. putting in context, we need help. . we have been working, we have something called the emergency room for raining season. fortunately and unfortunately, the minister of health is trying

to resume its work from river nile, they created a center. the federal minister of health himself is the. this operation team will try to work on helping the health situation, but what is going to happen is that the rainy season, other than it will increase the malaria cases, the cholera, the water will be unclean. actually, other than that, there are injuries that might happen. people might fall, they might break their hands. there is no availability of services at the border. i think there is one hospital bordering darfur. the measures we take in public health to stop and eradicate those communicable diseases include giving mosquito nets and giving anticorruption medication and antibiotics. but are we able to even reach there? msf had one of their people

killed in darfur just yesterday. they had their stores looted. the federal ministry of health is trying to get there. but the rsf are building this wall against that area, easy humans as a shield. we be able to reach their? that is the question to be answered. it is quite hard. i am not even speaking about the repercussions for those fleeing from darfur for, but you should know that about 300,000 people have tried to flee the country. one new people are internally displaced right now. can we provide for these people? are the authorities able? 13 states have been affected in sudan. the international community is trying. the u.n. has pledged $2.4 million in humanitarian aid, but currently, more than 50% of the sudanese population are in need

of humanitarian aid and they are under the poverty line. can we help them all? can we reach the moral, especially those in the conflict areas? mohammed: aseel, i am sorry to interrupt, but we are just starting to run out of time and i want to expand on what you were saying. i want to ask nisreen about this as well. the logistics what it comes to the rainy season in june, that makes it exponentially more difficult to deliver aid, whether or not there is fighting or not, that will make it so much harder, correct? guest: well, i think you are forgetting an important fact which is that when the rainy season starts, it is actually the season for agriculture and if we miss the season, we will deftly have a famine this year. definitely. so we are talking about situation right now, we are

talking about a disastrous situation in three or four months. the agricultural season was missed this year because of the conflict happening. it is always very important to look ahead not only to the problems that we have right now, but the problems will have. in the near future, i am talking three to four months ahead of us. of course it is very much difficult to, do anything even having camps for refugees, because there is very poor infrastructure in terms of growth, in terms of transportation. so it will be almost impossible to reach a lot of places. having said that, it is also very important to highlight that sudan is one of the more vulnerable countries, which makes the situation worse. in the past week, sudan heated to very high degrees of temperature compared to any other country in the african continent and the region. it was the hotspot of the

continent for the past week. i am saying this because a lot of the population in khartoum and outside khartoum had to spend all their days in this very hot weather, 49 to 50 degrees with no electricity and no ac. mohammed: nisreen, sorry to interrupt you again, we have just a minute and a half left, i just want to ask one question to dalia. humanitarian organizations have said that the ongoing conflict in sudan has had a devastating impact on women and girls. how vulnerable are women and girls right now? guest: very. absolutely. especially for the younger females. the reports of rape have been increasing and they are harrowing. they don't have access to it to help, whether it's trauma, help or rape kits or seeking medical help. they have no access. and it's just going to get worse because i think the more people are able to leave, the more the stories that will come out.

there are also women who are pregnant, who are about to give birth. where are the medical facilities ? it is just a nightmare for women, for females, whether they are pregnant or young girls. unless the aid agencies are able to get to them and offer help -- and my understanding is they are unable to, a lot of them are still stuck in port sudan and cannot go out -- it is going to be dire. we are going to see, we are going to hear a horrific, horrific stories of women who are pregnant and have complications and girls have been raped and probably fallen pregnant or catching diseases, just to the trauma they have been through. it is heartbreaking to know that this is going to happen and it is happening right now. mohammed: it is heartbreaking indeed. we have run out of time, so we will have to leave our conversation there. thanks so much to our guests,

nisreen elsaim, aseel geries, dallia abdelmoniem, and thank you, too, for watching. you can see the program again, anytime, by visiting our website, aljazeera.com. and for further discussion, go to our facebook page. that is facebook.com/ajinside story. you can also join the conversation on twitter. our handle is @ajinsidestory. from me, mohammed jamjoom and the whole team here, bye for now. ♪

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