Fighting between rival government factions is intensifying across much of Sudan as diplomatic efforts to end the conflict begin to gather momentum.
At least 97 people have been killed and hundreds wounded as clashes have spread since Saturday, when violence erupted between army units loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of Sudan's transitional governing Sovereign Council, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, who is deputy head of the council.
In Khartoum, fighting has centred on key sites such as the international airport, presidential palace and the army headquarters, where Burhan is thought to be based. Military jets flew low over the capital at first light on Monday, after a night of repeated bouts of firing and shelling.
Witnesses told Reuters the army was renewing airstrikes on RSF bases in Omdurman, Khartoum's sister city across the Nile. Dozens of bodies have been seen by witnesses in one central neighbourhood of the capital, while hundreds of students remain trapped by the fighting in schools.
The African Union's top council called for an immediate ceasefire "without conditions". It also asked the AU Commission chair, Moussa Faki Mahamat, to "immediately travel to Sudan to engage the parties towards a ceasefire."
Arab states with stakes in Sudan - Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - made similar appeals. The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Farhan bin Faisal, spoke by phone with Sudan's rival generals and urged them to stop "all kinds of military escalation", Saudi state TV reported.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has called for an immediate ceasefire and a return to talks to put Sudan back on track to a civilian-led government.
People in Sudan want the military back in the barracks, they want democracy, they want a civilian-led government. Sudan needs to return to that path - so that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) can be restored in the Republic of the Sudan.
Hence it is imperative that both General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo stop the violence and commence with Peace Talks - to put Sudan back on track to a civilian-led government, so that Democracy can be restored in Sudan.
Otherwise an intervention from the NGO Community will be necessary; so that humanitarian disaster can be averted, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) can be restored in the Republic of the Sudan.

Sources:
https://www.africanews.com/2023/08/17/over-60-dead-in-migrant-boat-sinking-off-cape-verde-coast/
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/7/22/saving-senegals-sons-from-vanishing-in-european-seas
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/4/11/iom-african-migrants-traded-in-libyas-slave-markets
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/19/people-smugglers-migrant-boat-disaster-greece
https://www.theguardian.com/world/refugees
https://edition.cnn.com/specials/cnn-crews-migrant-crisis
https://www.theguardian.com/world/africa
https://www.africanews.com/2022/10/20/malawi-finds-mass-grave-of-suspected-ethiopian-migrants/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/01/ethiopians-found-in-malawi-mass-grave-thought-to-have-suffocated
There are increasing reports of abductions of those being transported, who are only freed after families pay substantial ransoms to traffickers.
Families often paid money in advance to major smugglers in Ethiopia. Other less significant actors often make further cash by exploiting Ethiopian migrants and refugees on the way.
"It becomes a relay, with the migrants taken from one to another agent and each charging their own money. They hijack them and demand ransom money."
Abductions often occur immediately after people have been smuggled across the border from Zimbabwe into South Africa - after weeks of traveling from east Africa.
"The kidnappers wait for them and then hide them and send to their relatives asking for more money ... It is big business. Even police and immigration officials are [involved]"
The IOM report found that close to 51,000 Ethiopian migrants had gone missing since 2016. 4,265 deaths and 1,707 disappearances were recorded along the route to South Africa.
An overwhelming number of migrants said they had experienced a severe lack of food, water or shelter on their journey, the IOM researchers found. Most had suffered abuse, violence, assault or torture, while one in four had been asked to find additional money for bribes, despite already paying an average of US$5,000 for the journey.
Hence African law enforcement agencies - together with the assistance of the International Intelligence Community - must bring the perpetrators of these severe crimes to Justice.
Furthermore, the International Community must provide greater assistance to disadvantaged communities who are challenged with socioeconomic deprivation - so that abductions, kidnapping and murder through forced migration can be stopped.