Conflict and Peace

Russia has launched another wave of missile strikes at Ukraine before dawn on Friday (28 April), killing at least nineteen people as of 3pm CET. According to Ukrainian national police, at least 17 people were killed after two Russian missiles hit a nine-storey residential building in the central city of Uman. Three children were also rescued from the rubble. In a separate attack, a 31-year-old woman and her 2-year old daughter were killed after a Russian missile hit the eastern city of Dnipro, according to the regional governor, Serhii Lysak. Four people were also wounded. In total, according to Ukrainian authorities Russia fired 23 missiles and two drones at Ukraine before dawn on Friday (28 April). 21 missiles in total were shot down, with 11 missiles and the two drones were intercepted by air defense over Kyiv, said the city hall, with no immediate reports of missiles hitting targets and no reports of casualties. It is the first attack on the city since March. Interfax news agency also reports there have been explosions in the cities of Poltava and Kremenchuk.

The processes that have been taking place in the Gulf region and the wider Middle East over the last year - which healed the schism within the GCC, reconciled Turkey with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, started the process of bringing back Syria within the Arab fold, and, even more dramatically, started the process of reconciling Saudi Arabia and Iran - appeared in recent days to have even reached Yemen, when the exchange of large numbers of prisoners during the Ramadan month, and the meetings between Saudi officials and the Houthi leadership, augured well for that painful conflict to be also finally resolved. Yet, just as pundits hailed a new era of peace in the Middle East, Sudan erupted into a civil war that has already claimed hundreds of lives, and potentially can be hugely devastating.

A ceasefire agreed between the Sudanese military and a rival paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), appears to be holding after taking effect at midnight on Tuesday (25 April). It is the fourth attempt at a ceasefire between the warring parties since a power struggle erupted into violence on Sunday (15 April), with previous truces since then having failed. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the 72-hour truce had been agreed between the army and the RSF after 48 hours of negotiations. At least 400 people have been killed by the fighting over the past 10 days. United Nations Secretary General António Guterres has warned the violence in Sudan risks causing a "catastrophic conflagration" that could spread to the rest of the region, and beyond. Meanwhile, over the weekend and on Monday countries began evacuating diplomatic staff and foreign nationals from Sudan, including the US, Argentina, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, as well as many Gulf countries.

Countries have begun evacuating their diplomats and nationals from the Sudanese capital of Khartoum as fighting between the army and a rival paramilitary group continues to rage after a power struggle erupted into violence on Sunday (15 April). The United Kingdom and the United States announced on Sunday (22 April) that they had evacuated their respective diplomats, as had France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The US embassy in Khartoum is now closed, while a tweet on their official feed has said that it is no longer safe to evacuate private US citizens. Meanwhile the UK Foreign Minister James Cleverly said options to evacuate the remaining British nationals in Sudan were "severely limited". The French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed that a plane carrying both French and Dutch citizens had arrived in Djibouti on Sunday, while another evacuation took place on Monday, taking the number of people evacuated so far to 388. The German army has said that the first of three planes had left Sudan bound for Jordan, with 101 people on board.