A few hours before the end of a fragile ceasefire in Sudan, the warring parties agreed on a five-day extension on Monday, according to the U.S. State Department.

Saudi Arabia and the United States, mediating between Sudanese forces and the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF), welcomed the agreement.

A 10-day ceasefire, which would have expired at midnight (2200 GMT), had been extended by five days by both parties, the U.S. State Department announced on Twitter.

The department added that the extension would allow time for the delivery of further humanitarian aid, the restoration of essential services, and further negotiations on a longer-term solution.

While the ceasefire has not been fully observed so far, some two million Sudanese have received humanitarian aid in recent days.

The UN World Food Programme said on Monday it had been able to start distributing food in Khartoum on Saturday and had already reached thousands of people.

Recently, there have been repeated reports of shootings, airstrikes, bombings and looting in the capital Khartoum.

The Sudanese army and RSF accuse each other of being responsible for breaking the ceasefire.

According to the coordinator of the UN refugee agency in Darfur, there has also been heavy fighting recently in the west of the country.

Humanitarian aid has, therefore, not yet reached this region.

The army under the command of de facto president Abdel Fattah al-Burhan is fighting the paramilitary units of his former deputy Mohammed Hamdan Daglo.

The two generals seized power together in 2021 but later fell out. 

(dpa/NAN)