Sudan’s Army Agrees to Three-Day Truce to Mark Eid

In this photo provided by Maheen S , smoke fills the sky in Khartoum, Sudan, near Doha International Hospital on Friday, April 21, 2023. (Maheen S via AP)
In this photo provided by Maheen S , smoke fills the sky in Khartoum, Sudan, near Doha International Hospital on Friday, April 21, 2023. (Maheen S via AP)
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Sudan’s Army Agrees to Three-Day Truce to Mark Eid

In this photo provided by Maheen S , smoke fills the sky in Khartoum, Sudan, near Doha International Hospital on Friday, April 21, 2023. (Maheen S via AP)
In this photo provided by Maheen S , smoke fills the sky in Khartoum, Sudan, near Doha International Hospital on Friday, April 21, 2023. (Maheen S via AP)

Sudan's army said it had agreed to a three-day truce starting on Friday to enable people to celebrate the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Fitr following almost a week of fighting between its troops and a rival paramilitary force.

"The armed forces hope that the rebels will abide by all the requirements of the truce and stop any military moves that would obstruct it," an army statement said.

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had agreed to the 72-hour truce earlier in the day.

Gunfire tore through residential neighborhoods of the capital Khartoum after the army deployed on foot for the first time in its almost week-long fight with the RSF.

Soldiers and gunmen from the RSF shot at each other in neighborhoods across the city, including during the call for special early morning Eid prayers.

It was not immediately clear when the truce would begin. Gunfire crackled without pause all day, punctuated by the thud of artillery and air strikes. Drone footage showed several plumes of smoke across Khartoum and its Nile sister cities, together one of Africa's biggest urban areas.

The fighting has killed hundreds, mainly in the capital and the west of Sudan, tipping the continent's third-largest country - where about a quarter of people already relied on food aid - into a humanitarian disaster.

With the airport caught in the fighting and the skies unsafe, nations including the United States, Japan, South Korea, Germany and Spain have been unable to evacuate embassy staff.

In Washington, the US State Department said without elaborating that one US citizen in Sudan had been killed. The White House said no decision yet had been made to evacuate American diplomatic personnel but the US was preparing for such an eventuality if it becomes necessary.

Reuters reported on Thursday that the United States was sending a large number of additional troops to its base in Djibouti in case of an eventual evacuation from Sudan.

At least five aid workers have been killed, including three from the World Food Program, which has since suspended its Sudan operation - one of the world's largest food aid missions.

A worker at the International Organization for Migration was killed in the city of El Obeid on Friday, after his vehicle was hit by crossfire as he tried to move his family to safety.

The army has pressed forward, fighting the RSF on the ground after having previously stuck largely to air strikes and artillery shelling across the capital since the power struggle erupted last weekend.

In a statement, the army said it had begun "the gradual cleaning of hotbeds of rebel groups around the capital".



US Piles Pressure on Yemen's Houthis with New Airstrikes 

A person (L) inspects the damage at a cordoned off area a day after US airstrikes targeted a nearby position, in Sanaa, Yemen, 16 March 2025. (EPA) 
A person (L) inspects the damage at a cordoned off area a day after US airstrikes targeted a nearby position, in Sanaa, Yemen, 16 March 2025. (EPA) 
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US Piles Pressure on Yemen's Houthis with New Airstrikes 

A person (L) inspects the damage at a cordoned off area a day after US airstrikes targeted a nearby position, in Sanaa, Yemen, 16 March 2025. (EPA) 
A person (L) inspects the damage at a cordoned off area a day after US airstrikes targeted a nearby position, in Sanaa, Yemen, 16 March 2025. (EPA) 

The United States carried out new airstrikes on Yemen on Monday, the Houthis' Al Masirah TV said, expanding the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since President Donald Trump took office in January.

Responding to the Iran-aligned Houthi militias' threats to international shipping, the US launched a new wave of airstrikes on Saturday. On Monday, the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah and Al-Jawf governorate north of the capital Sanaa were targeted, Al Masirah said.

At least 53 people have been killed in the attacks, Anees Alsbahi, a spokesperson for the Houthi-run health ministry, said on Sunday. Five children and two women were among the victims and 98 have been hurt, Alsbahi added on X.

The Houthis, which launched a coup against the legitimate government a decade ago, have launched scores of attacks on ships off its coast since November 2023, disrupting global commerce. The US campaign to intercept missiles and drones has burned through stocks of US air defenses.

The strikes, which one US official told Reuters might continue for weeks, come as Washington ramps up sanctions pressure on Iran while trying to bring it to the negotiating table over its nuclear program.

Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said on Sunday the militants would target US ships in the Red Sea as long as the US continues attacks on Yemen.

"If they continue their aggression, we will continue the escalation," he said in a televised speech.

The Houthi political bureau described the US attacks as a "war crime." Moscow urged Washington to stop them.

The Houthis' military spokesman, without providing evidence, said in a televised statement early on Monday that the militias had launched a second attack against the US aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea.

Israel has weakened a large part of Iran's "Axis of Resistance" against US influence in the Middle East - including Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Palestinian group Hamas since being attacked by Hamas gunmen in October 2023.

Top Hamas and Hezbollah leaders have been assassinated and fall of another Iranian ally, Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in December also dealt a blow to Tehran.

But the Houthis are still standing, along with pro-Iranian militias in Iraq.

US WARNING

The Houthis said last week they would resume attacks on Israeli ships passing through the Red Sea if Israel did not lift a block on aid entering Gaza.

They had launched scores of attacks on shipping after Israel's war with Hamas began in late 2023, saying they were acting in solidarity with Gaza's Palestinians.

Trump warned Iran, the Houthis' main backer, that it needed to immediately halt support for the group. If Iran threatened the US, he said, "America will hold you fully accountable and, we won't be nice about it!"

In response, Hossein Salami, the top commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, said the Houthis made their own decisions.

"We warn our enemies that Iran will respond decisively and destructively if they carry out their threats," he told state media.

US warplanes shot down 11 Houthi drones on Sunday, none of which came close to the Truman, a US official told Reuters. US forces also tracked a missile that splashed down off the coast of Yemen, the official said.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures": "The minute the Houthis say we'll stop shooting at your ships, we'll stop shooting at your drones. This campaign will end, but until then it will be unrelenting."

He said reopening freedom of navigation was a core national interest for the US and that Iran had been "enabling the Houthis for far too long."

"They better back off," he said.

The Houthis suspended their campaign when Israel and Hamas agreed on a Gaza ceasefire in January. But on March 12 they said their threat to attack Israeli ships would stay in effect until Israel reapproved the delivery of aid and food into Gaza.