Global Courant 2023-04-18 19:32:30
The Sudanese army and the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have clashed in the capital and other cities.
At least 185 people have been killed and another 1,800 injured in three days of fighting between rival factions in Sudan, according to the United Nations Special Representative for Sudan.
In the power struggle, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the commander of the armed forces, faces General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group.
Fighting broke out after bitter disagreements between al-Burhan and Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti, over the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army – a key condition for a final agreement to end an ongoing crisis since the 2021 coup d’état.
The map below shows the areas across the country where fighting has been reported.
(Al Jazeera)
Khartoum
Fighting broke out Saturday morning at a military base south of Khartoum, the country’s capital.
Since then, millions of people have been trapped in their homes or wherever they could find shelter, while supplies are running low in many areas.
Emergency services have stopped at al-Shaab Hospital and al-Khartoum Hospital after they were bombed on April 17. The Al-Shaab Hospital near the army command building was subjected to continuous shelling, injuring staff and patients.
Ahmed Omar Khojaly, a journalist and political analyst in Khartoum, has told Al Jazeera that water and electricity cuts and “the inability of the injured to reach hospitals” are causing a “humanitarian crisis”.
Fires near a hospital in Khartoum, Sudan, Sunday, April 16, 2023 (Planet Labs PBC via AP)
Heavy fighting was also reported in and around Khartoum International Airport, where satellite images showed passenger planes completely destroyed. The Sudanese civil aviation authority closed the country’s airspace after the airport was attacked on Saturday.
Burning buildings and military patrol northeast of Khartoum International Airport, Sudan, Monday, April 17, 2023 (Maxar Technologies via AP) (Reuters)
Merowe
There has also been fighting in the northern town of Merowe.
Al Jazeera’s correspondent Osama Sid Ahmed, reporting from Merowe airport, said there have been airstrikes against a number of RSF ground targets in the area.
“There is a state of near-total paralysis in the town of Merowe. We now hear artillery bombardments in the vicinity of the airport. It is not known which side launched it,” he said on Tuesday.
Burning and destroyed MiG aircraft at Merowe Airport in Merowe, Sudan, Monday, April 17, 2023 (Maxar Technologies via AP)
Through the whole country
According to OCHAsignificant clashes were reported in al-Fasher in North Darfur, el-Obeid in North Kordofan, Nyala in South Darfur and Kassala in Kassala State.
On Sunday, three World Food Program employees were killed in a crossfire at a military base in Kabkabiya, western Sudan.
Gunfire was heard on the eastern side of the country in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, where the Sudanese army says it has captured a strategic RSF base.
Fighting has also been reported in Gadariff, Damazin and Kosti.
