2023-05-02 12:13:41
Fighting raged on Tuesday May 2 in Sudan between the army and the paramilitaries at war for power, who thus ignored the truce. The international community is alarmed by a humanitarian situation that is turning into « catastrophe ».
“We hear gunshots, warplanes and anti-aircraft fire”reports to Agence France-Presse (AFP) a resident of Khartoum, the capital, in the throes of chaos since April 15, the day fighting began between Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Al-Bourhane, Head of State and the army, and its number two, Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, known as “Hemetti”, at the head of the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Violent clashes in Khartoum and other regions, particularly in Darfur, left more than five hundred dead and ten times as many injured, according to largely underestimated reports. On Sunday, a new truce was renewed for seventy-two hours; it was hardly observed. Foreigners continue to leave the country, and Sudanese flee by the tens of thousands. The United Nations (UN) expects “more than 800,000 people” seeking refuge in neighboring countries such as Egypt, Chad, Ethiopia and the Central African Republic. Those who remain face shortages of water, electricity and food, as the temperature in Khartoum exceeds 40°C.
Violence and looting
The conflict transforms the already existing humanitarian drama into “real disaster”, alerted Abdou Dieng, coordinator of humanitarian aid in Sudan, during a meeting Monday at the UN. For the Kenyan president too, the crisis is reaching a “catastrophic level”. And the two warring men refuse “to hear the calls” of the international community, regretted William Ruto, who called for the delivery of humanitarian aid “with or without a ceasefire”.
Generals Al-Bourhane and Daglo had joined forces to oust the civilians with whom they shared power since the fall of dictator Omar Al-Bashir (in 2019), during the putsch of 2021. Differences then appeared, then the conflict between the two escalated when they failed to agree on the integration of the RSF into the regular army, and eventually turned into an armed struggle. In an appeal to the Kenyan President, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken “reiterated the support of the United States” diplomatic efforts to “end the conflict” and ensure “unimpeded humanitarian access”.
The UN chief for humanitarian affairs, Martin Griffiths, traveled to Nairobi on Monday on an emergency mission. The situation “since April 15 is catastrophic”, he tweeted. This year’s aid package is currently only 14% funded and aid agencies are $1.5 billion short of the humanitarian crisis aggravated by ongoing fighting, the government said. UN on Tuesday.
The violence and looting have spared neither hospitals nor humanitarian organizations, many of which have had to suspend a large part of their activities. The World Health Organization (WHO) also fears a « catastrophe » for the health system, already very fragile before the war in Sudan, one of the poorest countries in the world and under international embargo for two decades. Only 16% of health establishments are really functioning in Khartoum, but even there, equipment and exhausted staff are in short supply.
“Emergency evacuations” of humanitarian teams in Darfur
Aid is coming in a trickle, however: six containers of WHO medical supplies have arrived, primarily to treat seriously injured and acutely malnourished patients. Increasingly scarce fuel has been distributed to some hospitals that rely on generators.
The World Food Program has also started to resume its activities, after a temporary suspension justified by the death of three employees.
Beyond Khartoum, chaos has taken over West Darfur, where even civilians are now taking part in the violence, according to the UN, which evokes a hundred deaths since last week, when the fighting began in this region already marked by a bloody civil war in the 2000s. “The health system has completely collapsed in Al-Geneina”capital of West Darfur, worries the doctors’ union, which adds that the looting of dispensaries and camps for the displaced have caused “emergency evacuations” humanitarian teams.
In total, more than 330,000 people have fled inside the country since mid-April, more than 70% of them to West Darfur and South Darfur, according to the International Organization for Migration.
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