World

(NEW YORK) — More than a year after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine, the countries are fighting for control of areas in eastern and southern Ukraine.

Ukrainian troops have liberated nearly 30,000 square miles of their territory from Russian forces since the invasion began on Feb. 24, 2022, but Putin appeared to be preparing for a long and bloody war.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Apr 25, 1:03 PM EDT
At least 2 dead, 10 injured in strike that hit Ukrainian museum

At least two people were killed and 10 injured after a Russian missile hit a Ukrainian museum Tuesday, officials said.

The local history museum is located in the city center of Kupiansk, in the Kharkiv region.

“The terrorist country is doing everything to destroy us completely. Our history, our culture, our people,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media while sharing a video that showed the damaged building. “Killing Ukrainians with absolutely barbaric methods.”

Apr 24, 5:48 AM EDT
Russian passports pushed on occupied Ukraine

Russian officials have warned Ukrainians in occupied Kherson that they may be “deported” if they don’t accept Russian passports, the U.K. Ministry of Defence said Monday.

“Russia is using passports as a tool in the ‘Russification’ of the occupied areas, as it did in Donetsk and Luhansk before the February 2022 invasion,” the ministry on Twitter.

Residents of Kherson have been warned of penalties for those who don’t accept Russian passports by June 1. Some may be removed from the territory or may have their property seized, according to the U.K.

Apr 23, 11:42 PM EDT
Russia says US has denied journalist visas, vows it ‘will not forgive’

Russia said Sunday that the U.S. has denied visas to Russian journalists who wanted to cover Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s trip to New York.

Lavrov promised that the decision will not be forgotten by their side.

“The country that calls itself the strongest, smartest, most free, fairest has chickened out, has done a silly thing and shown what its sworn assurances on protecting freedom of speech, access to information and so on are worth,” he told reporters at the airport before his flight to New York.

“Most importantly, you can be sure: we will not forget, we will not forgive this,” the minister told the pool of journalists who have not been granted U.S. visas.

The journalists had planned to cover Lavrov’s appearance at the United Nations to mark Russia’s chairmanship of the Security Council.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov called the U.S.’s decision “outrageous” on Sunday, Interfax, a Russian news agency, reported.

-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva, Edward Szekeres, Natalia Shumskaia

Apr 21, 3:35 PM EDT
Over 16,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been trained in the EU so far

Over 16,000 Ukrainian soldiers trained in the European Union, Josep Borrell, an EU representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said Friday.

The EU has delivered over $600 million of ammunition and missiles to Ukraine, according to Borrell.

-ABC News’ Oleksiy Pshemyskiy

Apr 20, 7:08 PM EDT
Russian warplane accidentally fires weapon into Russian city of Belgorod: Defense ministry

The Russian Defense Ministry reported that ammunition from a Russian Su-34 military aircraft fell in Belgorod, a city in the southern region of Russia.

“On the evening of April 20, during the flight of the Su-34 aircraft over the city of Belgorod, an abnormal descent of an aviation munition occurred,” the agency said.

The ministry claimed buildings were damaged but there were no immediate reports of victims. An investigation is underway, according to the agency.

-ABC News’ Will Gretsky

Apr 20, 5:18 PM EDT
Ukraine’s ‘rightful place’ is in NATO: Secretary-General

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg held a press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv, to highlight the more than €150 billion of support to Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion.

“Allies are now delivering more jets, tanks, and armored vehicles, and NATO’s Ukraine fund is providing urgent support,” he said in a statement. “All of this is making a real difference on the battlefield today.”

While in Ukraine, the secretary-general visited Bucha and paid his respects to the victims of Russian atrocities.

He also laid a wreath at the Wall of Remembrance of the Fallen for Ukraine, paying tribute to all those who have lost lives or suffered wounds in defense of their homeland.

“Ukraine’s rightful place is in the Euro-Atlantic family. Ukraine’s rightful place is in NATO. And over time, our support will help to make this possible,” Stoltenberg said.

-ABC News’ Will Gretsky

Apr 20, 4:13 PM EDT
Russian athletes will not be accepted in 2024 Olympics if war goes on: Paris mayor

Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, which is hosting the 2024 summer Olympics, told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Russian athletes “cannot be accepted in Paris,” if the war with Ukraine is still ongoing when the games begin.

“Paris is the capital of human rights,” Hidalgo said in a statement. “We are trying to convince athletes, international federations and countries. We stand with you.”

Hidalgo and Vasco Cordeiro, the president of the European Committee of the Regions, met with Zelenskyy as part of the International Summit of Cities and Regions Thursday.

Zelenskyy thanked Hidalgo for her support and presented her with Ukraine’s “Rescuer City” honorary award.

-ABC News’ Max Uzol and Ellie Kaufman contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — U.S. military officials released two handout photos of the evacuation of the U.S. embassy staff from Sudan, marking the first official view of evacuees landing at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti.

The photos, taken by Navy and Air Force photographers, show staffers arriving at an airfield in Djibouti, the first stop as embassy workers fled the war-torn country.

One photo shows John T. Godfrey, the U.S. ambassador, being greeted by Maj. Gen. Jami Shawley, the general in charge of U.S. forces in Djibouti. In the other, two people hug on the tarmac with a plane wing visible behind them.

U.S. Africa Command released the images, which were dated April 23, 2023.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — After intense negotiations, the Sudanese Armed Forces & Rapid Support Forces had agreed to implement a 72-hour cease-fire across the country beginning at midnight Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Monday afternoon in Washington.

Blinken added that the U.S. would “coordinate with regional and international partners, and Sudanese civilian stakeholders, to assist in the creation of a committee to oversee the negotiation, conclusion, and implementation of a permanent cessation of hostilities and humanitarian arrangements in Sudan.”

The statement comes after a successful operation over the weekend rescued dozens of U.S. embassy personnel and their families from war-torn Sudan, and top officials in Washington saying Monday they aren’t losing sight of the thousands of American citizens still believed to be in the country.

“In just the last 36 hours since the embassy evacuation operation was completed, we continue to be in close communication with U.S. citizens and individuals affiliated with the U.S. government to provide assistance and facilitate available departure routes for those seeking to move to safety via land, air and sea,” Blinken told reporters hours earlier.

While it’s unclear exactly how many Americans remain in Sudan, Blinken said officials had been in contact with “some dozens” who “expressed an interest in leaving.”

Blinken also said that the State Department was exploring ways to reestablish a diplomatic footprint in Sudan, possibly in Port Sudan — a city on the Red Sea and a destination for many fleeing intense violence in the capital, Khartoum. But Blinken cautioned it would depend on the conditions in the country, which he described as “very, very challenging.”

The secretary also said officials within the department were closely monitoring convoys transporting some Americans as well as other foreign nationals away from Khartoum.

“Some of them have encountered problems including, robbery, looting, that kind of thing,” he said.

While the Biden administration is standing by its warning that Americans in Sudan should not expect a mass evacuation, during a White House briefing on Monday national security adviser Jake Sullivan said it wasn’t completely off the table.

“There’s certainly a willingness to take steps to help Americans be able to get out of the country,” he said. “The president has asked for every conceivable option to be able to help Americans.”

Sullivan noted that conditions in the country would have to be deemed secure enough to carry out a larger operation before one could take place.

“Right now, we believe that the best way for us to help facilitate people’s departure is in fact to support this land evacuation route, as well as work with allies and partners who are working on their own evacuation plans as well,” he said.

Earlier on Monday, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said U.S. drones were watching over a United Nations-led convoy that consisted of dozens of Americans, ensuring its safety as it navigated to Port Sudan.

Volker Perthes, the U.N.’s special representative of the body’s security-general to Sudan, said the journey took 35 hours to complete.

“We had some challenges on the road. It wasn’t first class airlift, but I think it was good that we all together moved out,” Perthes said. “Thirty-five hours in a not-so-comfortable convoy is certainly better than three hours bombing and sitting under the shells.”

While the White House is continuing to advise U.S. citizens still trapped in Sudan to shelter in place, saying it’s not safe to facilitate a mass evacuation, Blinken said American officials have been able to “facilitate Americans being folded into” some convoys.

The State Department is also collecting information from Americans in Sudan through a crisis-intake form that allows citizens to indicate they want to leave the country and need assistance.

Blinken said because the majority of Americans still there are dual citizens, the State Department anticipates many won’t want to leave.

But as the fighting enters its second week, remaining in an active warzone is becoming increasing untenable for many, like a Massachusetts teacher Trillian Clifford and her 18-month-old daughter Alma.

“To think that the two of them are in this much danger is horrific. She’s telling us stories about airstrikes within a kilometer of her apartment,” Rebecca Winter, Clifford’s sister-in-law said in an interview to ABC News. “Her situation is becoming more dire every day.”

Over 420 people have already been killed during the course of the conflict, and thousands more have been injured.

Explosions have inflicted heavy damages on Sudan’s infrastructure, complicating civilians’ efforts to flee. Widespread phone and internet outages have also been reported across the country, impacting stranded individuals’ ability to communicate with embassy officials or friends and family outside of the country who can provide guidance.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — Fighting in Sudan between forces loyal to two rival generals has triggered a mass exodus of foreigners, while locals struggle to escape.

A number of countries — including the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, Japan, Italy, Germany, France and Canada — airlifted and evacuated diplomats, embassy staff and others from Sudan’s war-torn capital over the weekend. Both the U.S. and Canadian governments also announced temporary suspensions of operations at their embassies in Khartoum.

An estimated 16,000 Americans — most of whom are dual U.S.-Sudanese citizens — remain in Sudan, according to John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council in the White House.

“These are people that grew up in Sudan, work in Sudan, families are in Sudan and they want to stay in Sudan, so it’s a number that is difficult to plan to specifically,” Kirby told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an interview Monday on Good Morning America.

There are also several dozen Americans currently making their way to Sudan’s main seaport via a United Nations-led convoy, which the U.S. is monitoring via “intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets to ensure their safety,” according to Kirby.

“We still have military forces prepositioned in the region ready to respond if need be. But right now, it’s not very safe to try to run some larger evacuation either out of the nearby air base or even just through rotary lift like we did the other night because the fighting is so intense,” he added. “The safest thing for Americans to do — those who have decided to stay in Sudan despite the warnings to leave — is to shelter in place and to not move around too much in the city of Khartoum.”

Meanwhile, many Sudanese civilians are trapped in the crossfire or are risking their lives attempting to flee by car to neighboring countries. Sudanese filmmaker Amjad Abu Alala, who lives in Egypt’s capital, wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday that his family is “on the road from Sudan to Cairo through Aswan.” But he said his uncle’s wife, who has been in a coma since before the conflict, still needs help getting out.

Abu Alala also posted photos that his family had shared showing stray bullets on the balcony and in the exterior walls of their home in Khartoum. He wrote in an earlier Facebook post that he was “very worried about what is happening” in his home country but that “we all saw it coming.”

The violence erupted in Sudan on April 15 in a culmination of weeks of tensions between Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, the commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces, and Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a powerful Sudanese paramilitary group. The two men were once allies who had jointly orchestrated a military coup in 2021 that dissolved Sudan’s power-sharing government and derailed its short-lived transition to democracy, following the ousting of a long-time dictator in 2019. Now, they are battling for control of the resource-rich North African nation and neither has shown any real indication of backing down, as proposed cease-fires have persistently collapsed.

The clashes started in Khartoum and quickly spread to other Sudanese cities, though “the heaviest concentration of fighting” remains centered in the densely populated capital, according to the World Health Organization, the global health arm of the U.N. The international community has repeatedly called on Sudan’s warring parties to immediately lay down their arms and engage in dialogue.

More than 420 people have been killed and over 3,700 others have been wounded in the conflict, according to the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office. At least 273 civilians are among the dead and 1,579 among the injured, according to the Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate, a pro-democracy group monitoring casualties. At least one American citizen has been killed in Sudan since the violence broke out, according to the U.S. Department of State.

The widespread clashes have left dozens of hospitals across Sudan either damaged or destroyed, according to the Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate, which called the issue “a clear violation of international humanitarian law.” As of Sunday, about two-thirds of hospitals in and around the conflict zones were out of service after being bombed, while others were under threat of closure due to a lack power, staffing, medical supplies, food and water.

The U.S. is concerned that Sudan’s conflict could spread further and has been in contact with the rival sides “every single day … trying to get them to put down their arms, to abide by the cease-fires that they themselves say they want and to return to some sort of civilian authority,” according to Kirby.

“We’re doing everything we can to get this fighting stopped,” he told ABC News. “This is a centrally located, very important, very large African country. We are concerned that other partners, other nations will be affected by this — not just in the region, but beyond — so that’s why we’re working so hard to get this violence stopped.”

ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawi, Shannon Crawford, Ellie Kaufman, Luis Martinez, Joe Simonetti and Edward Szekeres contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(KHARTOUM, Sudan) — Under pitch black conditions and amid fighting, U.S. military forces swooped into war-torn Sudan in two Chinook helicopters and evacuated the American embassy in a “fast and clean” operation, military officials said late Saturday evening.

President Joe Biden confirmed the evacuation of U.S. government personnel from Khartoum under his orders and said the administration would continue to assist Americans in Sudan. Biden praised embassy staff, saying ina statement they “embodied America’s friendship and connection with the people of Sudan.”

“I am grateful for the unmatched skill of our service members who successfully brought them to safety,” he said. “And I thank Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Saudi Arabia, which were critical to the success of our operation.”

Biden said the embassy had been temporarily closed but “our commitment to the Sudanese people and the future they want for themselves is unending.”

Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Sims, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described evacuation operation as being “fast and clean.”

Sims said at a briefing that the mission got underway at 9 a.m. ET on Saturday, when two MH-47 Chinook helicopters took off from Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, refueled in Ethiopia and flew into the Sudanese capital of Khartoum to evacuate the U.S. embassy. He said the special forces team was on the ground in Khartoum for less than an hour.

Sims said that “under” 100 people, including Americans from the embassy and other personnel from unidentified embassies, were evacuated, including all U.S. Marines who were providing security at the embassy.

Overall, the rescue helicopters flew 1,600 miles from Djibouti to Khartoum and back.

Sims said that for much of their transit, the helicopters flew in at 100 knots and low to the ground in pitch black conditions. He said the helicopters did not take any ground fire on their way in and out of Khartoum.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the suspensions of operations at the embassy in Khartoum were due to the growing security risk and ensuring the safety of personnel.

“The widespread fighting has caused significant numbers of civilian deaths and injuries and damage to essential infrastructure and posed an unacceptable risk to our Embassy personnel,” Blinken said in a statement.

The State Department updated its travel advisory for Sudan to reflect that the U.S. embassy in Khartoum had suspended operations. The department’s advisory for Sudan remains at its highest warning level — where it has been since August of 2021.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin noted the successful evacuation operation was conducted at Biden’s direction. He also highlighted the countries that assisted the operation.

“We also thank our allies and partners, including Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Saudi Arabia, which were critical to the success of this operation,” Austin said in a statement.

The Rapid Support Forces, the Sudanese paramilitary group battling Sudan’s army, issued a statement claiming to have aided in the U.S. evacuation.

“Today, Sunday, the Rapid Support Forces, in coordination with the US forces mission consisting of 6 planes for the purpose of evacuating diplomats and their families, supervised the necessary arrangements that preceded the evacuation process,” the statement read.

State Department Under Secretary for Management John Bass refuted those claims.

“That was not the case. They cooperated to the extent that they did not fire on our service members in the course of the operation,” he said. “I would submit that was as much in their self-interest as anything else.”

The Sudanese army said Saturday that evacuations of foreign diplomatic staff from the U.S., U.K., France and China will begin in the coming hours on military airplanes, as fighting persisted in the capital, including at its main airport. Their evacuation will be by air in military transport aircrafts belonging to their armed forces, the army said.

The Saudi Arabian mission was earlier evacuated by land to Port Sudan then by air to Saudi Arabia, Sudan’s army said. A similar evacuation plan will be secured for the Jordanian mission at a later time.

The rescue mission is the product of days of preparation across the administration and comes as the violent power struggle for control of Sudan that has already claimed almost 100 lives enters its second week.

On Friday, Austin told reporters U.S. forces had deployed to Africa to assist with a possible evacuation of U.S. embassy personnel.

“We’ve deployed some forces into theater to ensure that we provide as many options as possible if we are called on to do something,” he said during a news conference in Ramstein, Germany.

Austin and other senior administration officials said at that time that no final call had been made to evacuate the embassy.

Speaking late Saturday, Bass said the quickly deteriorating situation in recent days left the administration with no other option other than to turn to the military to rescue embassy personnel. But he said private U.S. citizens in the country should not expect similar assistance

“We certainly continue to be in close touch with many American citizen residents in Khartoum and elsewhere in Sudan to give them our best assessment of the security environment and to encourage them to take appropriate precautions to the best of their ability in and around that environment,” he said.

National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby emphasized the challenges in conducting even a limited military operation in Sudan during a press briefing on Friday, remarking that it was “not as simple as jumping in a taxicab” and that at the time, all U.S. government personnel had not yet been consolidated in a single location.

Despite a 72-hour ceasefire agreed upon to coincide with the religious holiday of Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, deadly clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, a powerful paramilitary group continued through the weekend.

In a statement on Friday, Blinken urged both sides to uphold the truce.

“I reiterate my call on both sides to pause the fighting to allow civilians to take care of themselves and their families, to permit full and unimpeded humanitarian access, and to enable all civilians, including diplomatic personnel, to reach safety,” he said.

But both sides show little interest in laying down arms, and the violence seems poised to continue. An estimated 16,000 Americans are still in Sudan, but despite the ongoing danger, the Biden administration has repeatedly declared they should not expect a government-led mass evacuation.

“It is not our standard procedure to evacuate American citizens living abroad,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a White House press briefing on Friday.

The U.S. Embassy in Sudan reiterated this saying, “Due to the uncertain security situation in Khartoum and closure of the airport, it is not currently safe to undertake a U.S. government-coordinated evacuation of private U.S. citizens,” in a statement Saturday.

Principal Deputy State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel said that officials had been in touch with several hundred U.S. citizens in Sudan concerning “security measures and other precautions they can take on their own.”

But during the press briefing Saturday night on the evacuation operation, Chris Maier, assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, said the U.S. military is working on ways to help American citizens who make it to Port Sudan via an overland route get out of the country.

“In the coming days, we will continue to work with the State Department to help American citizens who may want to leave Sudan,” said Maier, adding that one way was to make the overland route out of Sudan “potentially more viable.”

“So DoD is at present considering actions that may include use of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities to be able to observe routes and detect threats,” Maier said. “Secondly, the employment of Naval assets outside the Port of Sudan to potentially help Americans who arrive at the port.”

The State Department has confirmed that one American citizen has been killed through the course of the conflict, but the limited information flow in Sudan could mean there are other victims not yet accounted for.

At the Vatican on Sunday, Pope Francis called for the resumption of talks to end the fighting in Sudan and offered a special prayer for “our Sudanese brothers and sisters.”

“Unfortunately, the situation in Sudan remains grave,” Francis told worshipers gathered in St. Peter’s Square. “Thus, I am renewing my appeal so that violence ceases as soon as possible and that the path of dialogue resumes.”

ABC News’ Morgan Windsor, Matt Seyler, Josh Margolin and Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.

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(KOSTYANTYNIVKA, UKRAINE) — Alina Ivanchenko and her 9-year-old daughter, Zlata, waited as long as they could before leaving the city of Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine. Preparing to leave the relative safety of the central city of Dnipro along with a dozen other locals, the overriding emotion is bittersweet.

“We were postponing till the last minute,” Alina, 40, told ABC News. “We are leaving because of the child. She is afraid of the explosions.”

Zlata’s friends have already left, and many of their neighbors have long fled abroad.

The city, less than 20 miles from the frontline battleground of Bakhmut, has been on the receiving end of near daily shelling from Russian forces for the past two months, she said. Yet the instinct to stay close to their roots stopped them leaving until now.

“I don’t know [why it took so long],” Alina said. “We were thinking: later, later, because we don’t want to leave our home.”

Across the street from the bus stop, the reasons for their departure could not be more evident. In a Soviet-era residential area targeted by Russian shelling at the beginning of April, a destroyed house and a damaged apartment building stand as testament to what the city has endured. Six people were killed and more than 20 residential buildings in the series of Russian strikes on the city, according to the local administration.

Even so, Liubov Zaikina, 72, continues to pick litter from the streets in the heavy rain, the debris sunk into the pools of collecting water. She says she has no choice but to stay in the city.

“Where can I go?” she told ABC News. “I don’t have money to pay rent. There is nothing good I can say now about how it is in the city.”

The main civilian hospital in Kostyantynivka has been treating the wounded from Bakhmut and Chasiv Yar, the cities further east where the daily shelling is even more intense.

Dennis Borshov, 50, a resident of Bakhmut who was a farmer before the full-scale invasion, is recovering at the hospital. Earlier this month he was helping evacuate civilians from the city along with his wife and three other volunteers, when a Russian mortar exploded near their vehicle.

“There was fear,” he told ABC News. “Because just in one moment we all could have died. Thanks to the soldiers, they helped us and pulled us out of there in time. If not for them, we would have been left there. That’s it.”

Borshov now moves with a walker, and the scars on his leg show the area where shrapnel pierced his thigh. Luckily, he said, the shrapnel missed the bone, and the group survived, though one other was seriously injured. But his elderly mother is still in the city, he said, and because there is no cell signal, he has no way to contact her.

The months-long battle for Bakhmut has become the latest byword of destruction in the conflict. Heavy shelling has transformed the landscape, and Borshov’s hometown is now unrecognizable, he said.

“The city has been razed from the face of the earth,” he said. “It basically doesn’t exist anymore.”

Many of the doctors here have left, but crucially all of the surgeons have remained in their posts, tending to the complex wounds of those injured under the bombardment.

The hospital receives patients from the surrounding areas, and while many have been injured in by Russian shelling, the stress of living under the looming threat of the war has had an impact on the health of the elderly and pregnant women, Olena Fillipova, the hospital’s medical director, said. The maternity ward is in the hospital’s basement, and there Fillipova has observed an increased number of complications at birth.

But for the staff remaining there is a job to do, and the work continues — despite the daily challenges of living so close to the frontline.

“It’s hard to say, but I’m coping with this,” she said. “I’ve managed to hold on. We are all holding on. Our team are holding on. We have a faith that all of this will stay Ukrainian territory. And we deeply believe in Ukrainian victory. And this gives us hope for hold on.”

ABC News Uliana Lototska, Natalia Popova and Scott Munro contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — Deadly clashes in Sudan between forces loyal to two rival generals appeared to continue Friday, despite one side’s pledge to adhere to a three-day truce on humanitarian grounds.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a powerful Sudanese paramilitary group, released a statement on Friday morning announcing that it has agreed to a 72-hour cease-fire from 6 a.m. local time, coinciding with the religious holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. However, in the hours since the truce was due to begin, there has been reports of gunfire, shelling and bombing in several areas of the capital, Khartoum, and other parts of Sudan.

Earlier Friday, the commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, delivered a speech declaring the military’s commitment to a civilian-led government but made no mention of a cease-fire.

“We are confident that we will overcome this ordeal with our training, wisdom and strength in a way that preserves the security and unity of the state and enables us to secure a safe transition to civilian rule,” Burhan said.

It was Burhan’s first speech since the fighting erupted in Sudan on April 15 in a culmination of weeks of tensions between the Sudanese Armed Forces commander and Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of the RSF. The two men were once allies who had jointly orchestrated a military coup in 2021 that dissolved Sudan’s power-sharing government and derailed its short-lived transition to democracy, following the ousting of a long-time dictator in 2019. Now, they are battling for control of the resource-rich North African nation and neither has shown any real indication of backing down, as proposed pauses in the fighting have persistently collapsed over the past week.

The clashes started in Khartoum and quickly spread to other Sudanese cities, though “the heaviest concentration of fighting” remains centered in the densely populated capital, according to the World Health Organization, the global health arm of the United Nations. The international community has repeatedly called on Sudan’s warring parties to immediately lay down their arms and engage in dialogue.

There has been a wide range in the reported number of casualties and an expectation that the figure will continue to climb with the ongoing violence. Sudanese Health Minister Haitham Mohamed told Arabic news television channel Al Arabiya on Thursday that more than 600 deaths have been recorded in hospitals across the country since the conflict began. WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris said during a press briefing in Geneva on Friday that at least 413 people have died while 3,551 others have been wounded. The Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate, a pro-democracy group monitoring casualties, put the civilian death toll at 243 and said 1,335 others were injured as of Thursday. Catherine Russell, executive director of the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), said Thursday that at least nine children have been killed in Khartoum and more than 50 children have been wounded.

At least one American citizen is among the dead in Sudan, according to the U.S. Department of State.

The United States is sending additional military forces and equipment to a base in Djibouti, a country on the Horn of Africa, south of Sudan, to pre-position in case they are needed for the possible evacuation of Americans from Sudan, two U.S. officials told ABC News on Thursday. White House spokesperson John Kirby said during a press briefing in Washington, D.C. on Thursday that U.S. President Joe Biden had “authorized the military to move forward with prepositioning forces and to develop options in case — and I want to stress right now — in case there’s a need for an evacuation.”

The widespread clashes have left dozens of hospitals across Sudan either damaged or destroyed, according to the Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate, which called the issue “a clear violation of international humanitarian law.” As of Thursday, approximately 70% of hospitals in and around the conflict zones were out of service after being bombed, while others were under threat of closure due to a lack power, staffing, medical supplies, food and water. In Khartoum alone, 125 hospitals have been affected by the fighting, according to Mohamed, the Sudanese health minster.

ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawi, Shannon Crawford, Luis Martinez and Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(KHARTOUM, Sudan) — Dead bodies lined the streets of the Sudan capital of Khartoum, as intense fighting between the Sudanese military and Rapid Support Forces continued for a sixth day. The fighting has caused thousands in Khartoum and across the country to shelter in place with limited food, electricity and water, as an all-out war rages in the streets.

So far, at least 330 people have been killed and 3,200 have been injured from the fighting, according to the World Health Organization, but these numbers are likely an “underestimation of the true impact of the crisis,” WHO regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, Ahmed Al-Mandhari said Thursday at a press conference.

One-third of the health facilities in Sudan are out of service, WHO representative in Sudan, Nima Saeed Abid said Thursday.

“20 hospitals have been forced to close due to attacks or lack of resources, and another eight health facilities are at risk of closure due to staff exhaustion or lack of medical staff and supplies,” Al-Mandhari said.

Since the fighting began, nine hospitals have been hit by artillery and 19 have been forced to evacuate, the Sudanese Doctors Union said Thursday. Multiple aid organizations said they have received reports from workers on the ground being assaulted and deliberately targeted.

Two unsuccessful ceasefires called earlier this week left those who were injured and in need, stranded in place without resources. The ceasefires were called to allow injured people to get to hospitals and allow aid organizations to provide needed support, but calm never came to the capital or in other parts of the country.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for a three-day ceasefire over the Eid al-Fitr celebrations “to allow citizens trapped in conflict zones to escape and seek medical treatment,” on Thursday.

The cessation of hostilities must be followed by a “serious dialogue allowing for the successful transition, starting with the appointment of a civilian government,” Guterres said.

“The fighting must stop immediately,” he added.

The head of the Transitional Sovereignty Council in Sudan, Army Commander Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan said there is “no room” for talking with the Rapid Support Forces in a televised interview with Al-Jazeera on Thursday after Guterres called for a three-day ceasefire.

In the capital, residents saw bodies from both sides of the conflict lining the streets.

“Dead bodies were lying all around the ground in a main street in Al-Taif and on the western road outside of Khartoum,” Hadeel Mohamed, a resident of Khartoum’s Al-Taif district, told ABC News.

Al-Taif is about five miles from the main battlefront around the military headquarters in Khartoum. Mohamed fled to her family’s house in the outskirts of the capital on Wednesday.

“Everyone was staying home. No one could move,” Mohamed said of the situation in Khartoum. “No one wanted to dare move. We had supplies of food, but people who started running out of supplies would walk out to try to find stores to get food.”

Mohamed and Mosdalefa, a resident of the Jabra neighborhood in west Khartoum, said most stores and banks are closed in the capital city, making it hard for residents who do venture out for more supplies to find anything.

“I went to the supermarket today and didn’t find most of the things I needed,” Mosdalefa told ABC News. “The shop owner said suppliers have since Saturday stopped providing dairy, chicken and other products because of the poor security situation.”

At least nine children have been killed in Khartoum and more than 50 children have been injured, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement Thursday.

The fighting has “already disrupted life-saving care for an estimated 50,000 severely acutely malnourished children,” Russell said.

The UN World Food Programme estimated the conflict has the “potential to plunge millions more into hunger,” in a statement released Thursday. The UN WFP was “forced” to temporarily halt operations in Sudan because of the fighting.

For people who are brave enough to leave amid the fighting, the options are to leave on foot or in cars. The airspace over Sudan is closed.

An estimated 10,000 to 20,000 refugees have arrived in Chad in the past two days fleeing the conflict in Sudan, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said in a release Thursday.

“The majority of those arriving are women and children who are currently sheltering out in the open,” UNHCR said in the release.

In the meantime, the fighting continues without any sign of letting up.

Mohamed described the fighting in the capital as “militias fighting each other,” because “the military is acting like a militia,” she said.

“There was no ceasefire,” Mohamed said. “They both never stopped firing.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(KHARTOUM, Sudan) — Dead bodies lined the streets of the Sudan capital of Khartoum, as intense fighting between the Sudanese military and Rapid Support Forces continued for a sixth day. The fighting has caused thousands in Khartoum and across the country to shelter in place with limited food, electricity and water, as an all-out war rages in the streets.

So far, at least 330 people have been killed and 3,200 have been injured from the fighting, according to the World Health Organization, but these numbers are likely an “underestimation of the true impact of the crisis,” WHO regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, Ahmed Al-Mandhari said Thursday at a press conference.

A U.S. citizen is confirmed to be among the dead in Sudan’s ongoing conflict, a State Department spokesperson said Thursday.

One-third of the health facilities in Sudan are out of service, WHO representative in Sudan, Nima Saeed Abid said Thursday.

“20 hospitals have been forced to close due to attacks or lack of resources, and another eight health facilities are at risk of closure due to staff exhaustion or lack of medical staff and supplies,” Al-Mandhari said.

Since the fighting began, nine hospitals have been hit by artillery and 19 have been forced to evacuate, the Sudanese Doctors Union said Thursday. Multiple aid organizations said they have received reports from workers on the ground being assaulted and deliberately targeted.

Two unsuccessful ceasefires called earlier this week left those who were injured and in need, stranded in place without resources. The ceasefires were called to allow injured people to get to hospitals and allow aid organizations to provide needed support, but calm never came to the capital or in other parts of the country.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for a three-day ceasefire over the Eid al-Fitr celebrations “to allow citizens trapped in conflict zones to escape and seek medical treatment,” on Thursday.

The cessation of hostilities must be followed by a “serious dialogue allowing for the successful transition, starting with the appointment of a civilian government,” Guterres said.

“The fighting must stop immediately,” he added.

The head of the Transitional Sovereignty Council in Sudan, Army Commander Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan said there is “no room” for talking with the Rapid Support Forces in a televised interview with Al-Jazeera on Thursday after Guterres called for a three-day ceasefire.

In the capital, residents saw bodies from both sides of the conflict lining the streets.

“Dead bodies were lying all around the ground in a main street in Al-Taif and on the western road outside of Khartoum,” Hadeel Mohamed, a resident of Khartoum’s Al-Taif district, told ABC News.

Al-Taif is about five miles from the main battlefront around the military headquarters in Khartoum. Mohamed fled to her family’s house in the outskirts of the capital on Wednesday.

“Everyone was staying home. No one could move,” Mohamed said of the situation in Khartoum. “No one wanted to dare move. We had supplies of food, but people who started running out of supplies would walk out to try to find stores to get food.”

Mohamed and Mosdalefa, a resident of the Jabra neighborhood in west Khartoum, said most stores and banks are closed in the capital city, making it hard for residents who do venture out for more supplies to find anything.

“I went to the supermarket today and didn’t find most of the things I needed,” Mosdalefa told ABC News. “The shop owner said suppliers have since Saturday stopped providing dairy, chicken and other products because of the poor security situation.”

At least nine children have been killed in Khartoum and more than 50 children have been injured, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement Thursday.

The fighting has “already disrupted life-saving care for an estimated 50,000 severely acutely malnourished children,” Russell said.

The UN World Food Programme estimated the conflict has the “potential to plunge millions more into hunger,” in a statement released Thursday. The UN WFP was “forced” to temporarily halt operations in Sudan because of the fighting.

For people who are brave enough to leave amid the fighting, the options are to leave on foot or in cars. The airspace over Sudan is closed.

An estimated 10,000 to 20,000 refugees have arrived in Chad in the past two days fleeing the conflict in Sudan, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said in a release Thursday.

“The majority of those arriving are women and children who are currently sheltering out in the open,” UNHCR said in the release.

In the meantime, the fighting continues without any sign of letting up.

Mohamed described the fighting in the capital as “militias fighting each other,” because “the military is acting like a militia,” she said.

“There was no ceasefire,” Mohamed said. “They both never stopped firing.”

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(SEOUL, South Korea) — South Korea’s presidential office confirmed that the ongoing machine gun bullets, battle tank shell, and reactive armor exports deal to Poland will continue as planned amid controversy after President Yoon Suk Yeol signaled his intentions to send weapons directly to Ukraine if a large-scale attack on civilians is carried out by Russia.

President Yoon’s comments were strongly criticized by Russian officials saying “such actions would definitely ruin Russian-Korean relations.”

In Yoon’s interview with Reuters, he said that if there were to be a large-scale attack on Ukrainian civilians, a massacre or a serious violation of the laws of war by Russia, that it might be difficult for South Korea to insist only on humanitarian or financial support.

The presidential office immediately clarified that President Yoon was merely referring to a “hypothetical situation” and explained to reporters “what South Korea does in the future will depend on Russia’s action.”

President Yoon is expected to meet President Joe Biden at the White House for his second bilateral summit next week and the two leaders are expected to “discuss a shared vision of a strong and deeply integrated U.S.-ROK Alliance that maintains peace, stability, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and beyond,” the White House announced on Wednesday.

South Korean companies have begun to wade into the global arms market to fill the gap in the international arms shortage. Last year, South Korea’s arms exports rose to a record $17.3 billion and Hanwha Aerospace, the largest defense company in South Korea, accounts for more than half of overseas arms exports in the country, according to South Korea’s Defense Ministry.

In the case of Poland, South Korea currently exports tanks, fighter jets, howitzers and multiple rocket launchers as Poland has been sending its conventional weapons to Ukraine.

The arms exported to Poland include 180 K2 main battle tanks by Hyundai Rotem and Hanwha Aerospace’s 672 K9 A1 self-propelled howitzers. The first 24 of Hanwha’s howitzers were delivered to Poland’s soil last December while the company looks for ways to manufacture a portion of their product in Poland as well.

“We have 10 K2 tanks and 24 K9 howitzers on Polish soil. I emphasize that this is only the first batch of equipment that is to be delivered to Poland. There will be more deliveries next year,” Mariusz Błaszczak, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense said during the collection of equipment from South Korea last December.

It took less than half a year for Hanwha Aerospace to land an export deal and deliver the product to Poland — an unprecedented speed in signing and executing an arms contract since it is a process that normally takes four to five years. For Hanwha, it was the largest order from overseas.

“The Ukrainian war is draining inventory of conventional weapons, such as self-propelled guns, missiles, and shells, which are most commonly used in actual war. Since major weapons-producing countries like the U.S. and Germany have reduced production lines for conventional weapons, it will take years to meet the demand, but South Korea was ready,” Chae Woo-suk, the president of the Korea Defense Industry Association, told ABC News. “Poland imported new weapons to defend themselves from South Korea to cover the short supply after they have exhausted a lot of old existing weapons supporting the Ukrainian war.”

A subsidiary of South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group, Hanwha Aerospace provides most howitzers and fighting vehicles for the country’s military. As one of the few countries in the world that is technically still at war, South Korea’s arsenal companies have been maintaining and upgrading the conventional weapons production to equip the more than 3.6 million army personnel.

Despite playing second fiddle in the arsenal industry to companies in the West, South Korean companies like Hanwha have a comparative advantage in their production capabilities. Hanwha explained their biggest advantage is that they can meet the demands in a shorter period of time because they are relatively free from the global logistics disturbance when assembling their howitzers and war vehicles. For instance, 92% of Hanwha’s K9 howitzer parts are manufactured within South Korea.

“Our strong local manufacturing ecosystem has enabled us to be a key player providing high-quality weapon systems like our artillery and armored vehicles. And localization rate reaches over 80%,” Dae-young Kim, Executive Vice President of Hanwha Aerospace told ABC News. “Many thought that conventional weapons like battle tanks and artillery systems do not necessarily belong to the battle environment in the 21st century. But as seen in the Ukraine war, the artillery capabilities still play an essential role, and Hanwha Aerospace has strength in providing them.”

Hanwha’s export deal with Poland has expanded its production line in Changwon and around 50 more workers were committed to the K9 Howitzer production in March to increase production capacity to meet export demand.

“It takes approximately 100 days to complete one K9 howitzer-starting from laying the foundation plate and running a road test,” production manager Cha Yong-su at Hanwha Aerospace Changwon manufacturing plant, told ABC News. “Skilled workers as well as the automated robots who enable the hectic schedule.”

The South Korean government has reiterated its official position that they will not send Ukraine any direct lethal aid in the midst of the current controversy.

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