2023-04-30 07:29:33
In Sudan, the situation is not improving. The fierce battle for control of power entered its third week on Saturday, with airstrikes and heavy gunfire in Khartoum in violation of a new truce. This one, under international mediation, must last until Sunday midnight.
The country has been plunged into chaos since the outbreak of clashes on April 15 between the head of the army, Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, and his number two, Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, known as “Hemedti”, at the head of the feared paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The fighting left at least 528 dead and 4,599 injured, according to the Ministry of Health, a toll still very underestimated as the bodies littering the streets are inaccessible and therefore impossible to identify.
The majority of hospitals out of service
While around 70% of hospitals in the combat zones are out of service, according to the doctors’ union, the UN secretary general deplored, via the Al-Arabiya channel, that “the war for power continues while let the country collapse”. In the country, “we see tribes who are now trying to arm themselves,” warned Antonio Guterres.
On Friday, the generals at war were torn apart by the media. On the Al-Hurra channel, Burhane described the FSR as “a militia seeking to destroy Sudan” with the help of “mercenaries from Chad, the Central African Republic and Niger”. “Hemedti” spoke to him on the BBC of his rival as a “traitor” who is “untrustworthy”.
Salva Kiir, the president of South Sudan – a historic mediator in Sudan – called on them on Saturday for “constructive and concrete face-to-face dialogue”. He also urged them “not to try to strengthen positions” while many observers believe that no truce has held because the two belligerents do not want to give the other a chance to advance or to provide reinforcements.
The UN is concerned about the risk of famine
The truce, even if precarious, allows the evacuation corridors to remain open. A convoy organized by the United States thus enabled the evacuation of American nationals and other countries to Port-Sudan. From there, a new boat carrying around 1,900 evacuees arrived in Saudi Arabia, which has so far welcomed nearly 5,000 Saudi nationals and foreigners. The United Kingdom, for its part, said on Saturday that it had evacuated 1,888 people on board 21 Royal Air Force aircraft since Tuesday from Wadi Saeedna air base, north of Khartoum.
According to the United Nations, 75,000 people have been displaced by the particularly violent fighting, particularly in Darfur. The UN estimates that millions more people could sink into hunger when a third of the 45 million Sudanese already suffered from it, in the country, one of the poorest in the world.
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