Global Courant 2023-05-14 15:28:55
Shelling and airstrikes hit parts of the Sudanese capital on Sunday, but there is little evidence that the warring military factions are willing to retreat in a conflict that has claimed hundreds of lives despite talks of a ceasefire in Saudi Arabia. Arabia.
Khartoum and the adjacent cities of Bahri and Omdurman on the other side of the Nile, along with the western province of Darfur, have been the main battleground since the army and paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces began fighting a month ago.
Shelling hit Bahri and airstrikes hit Omdurman early on Sunday, according to a Reuters reporter and witnesses. The television channel Al Arabiya reported heavy clashes in the center of Khartoum.
“There were heavy air raids near us in Saliha that shook the doors of the house,” said Salma Yassin, a teacher in Omdurman.
The fighting has killed hundreds, sent 200,000 as refugees to neighboring countries, and displaced another 700,000 within Sudan, causing a humanitarian catastrophe and threatening to attract outside powers and destabilize the region.
The death toll in fighting on Friday and Saturday in Geneina, the capital of western Darfur, reached more than 100, including the imam of the city’s old mosque, the Darfur Bar Association said in a statement.
The local human rights organization blames the killings, looting and arson in Geneina, where hundreds were killed last month, on attacks by armed groups on motorcycles and the RSF. The RSF has denied responsibility for the unrest.
Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, had shared power following a 2021 coup that in turn followed a 2019 uprising that ousted veteran Islamist autocrat Omar al-Bashir.
But they fell out over the terms and timing of a planned transition to civilian rule and neither man has shown he is ready for concessions, while the military controls the air force and the RSF has dug deep into the boroughs.
Ceasefire agreements have been repeatedly broken, but the United States and Saudi Arabia are mediating talks in Jeddah aimed at securing a lasting ceasefire.
“You don’t know how long this war will last… The house became unsafe and we don’t have enough money to leave Khartoum. Why are we paying the price of Burhan and Hemedti’s war? said Yassin, the teacher.
On Thursday, the sides agreed on a “statement of principles” to protect civilians and secure access for humanitarian aid, but with Sunday’s talks on oversight and enforcement mechanisms for that deal, the fighting hasn’t stopped.
