2023-04-28 12:28:46
Fighting in Sudan continues this Friday in Khartoum and especially in the Darfur region, despite an extension of the truce concluded between the army and the paramilitaries who are waging a war that has left more than 500 dead in nearly two weeks. Shortly before the expiry at midnight of a three-day ceasefire which was almost never respected by the two camps, the army of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, known as “Hemedti”, announced that they had approved an extension of the truce for seventy-two hours.
In a joint statement released in Washington, the members of the “Quad” on Sudan (Saudi Arabia, Emirates, United Kingdom and United States), as well as the African Union and the United Nations, considered this extension “welcome”. of the ceasefire and called for “its full implementation” and “unimpeded humanitarian access”. But since the start of the conflict on April 15, which also injured thousands, the capital Khartoum has been bombarded every day by army planes and paramilitary heavy artillery. Other towns have been affected by the fighting, particularly in the Darfur region (west) on the border with Chad.
Darfur affected
Lawyers and doctors in Sudan sounded the alarm on Friday for Darfur ravaged by deadly fighting that does not weaken despite the truce. In El-Geneina, capital of West Darfur, fighters took out “submachine guns, heavy machine guns and anti-aircraft fire machines” and “fired rockets at houses”, reports the Darfur Bar Association. The UN indicates for its part that “weapons are distributed” to civilians. The violence increased after the departure of the foreigners, says the doctors’ union, referring to a “massacre” which left “dozens of dead and injured”.
Some 50,000 children “suffering from acute malnutrition” are deprived of food aid in Darfur, warns the UN, which suspended its activities there after the death of five humanitarian workers at the start of the fighting. Few information filter from this region where a civil war started in 2003 between the regime of Omar el-Bashir, deposed in 2019, and insurgents from ethnic minorities left around 300,000 dead and nearly 2.5 million displaced. , according to the UN.
mass exodus
Damping hopes of a democratic transition, the two now rival generals had together ousted civilians from power during a putsch in 2021. But they failed to agree on the integration of paramilitaries into the army before to go to war on April 15. In Khartoum, the inhabitants of this city of five million are trying to flee by all means. There is no longer running water or electricity. Internet and phone work intermittently. Gasoline is running out and so is cash.
Several tens of thousands of people have already arrived in neighboring countries, notably Ethiopia in the east and Egypt in the north where, according to the Egyptian authorities, more than 14,000 Sudanese and 2,000 nationals of other countries have arrived. A total of 270,000 people could flee to Chad and South Sudan, according to the UN. Foreigners, for their part, now most often leave by sea. A new Saudi ship thus arrived Thursday evening in the port city of Jeddah (west), bringing the number of people evacuated by Riyadh to 2,744. Many countries around the world, including the United States, China, France and the United Kingdom have evacuated their nationals from Sudan in recent days.
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