Global Courant 2023-04-20 10:12:35
Clashes continue despite countries trying to evacuate their citizens after days of conflict that left nearly 300 people dead and thousands injured, despite lobbying for a 24-hour ceasefire.
People gathered at a station in Khartoum on Wednesday to escape clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the military. (Reuters)
An attempt to reach a new ceasefire between Sudanese troops and paramilitary forces in Khartoum has failed, leaving people with fears about dwindling food supplies and disruption to medical services.
The 24-hour ceasefire, advocated by countries trying to evacuate their citizens after days of fighting, was supposed to go into effect at 18:00 local time (1600 GMT) on Wednesday. However, two eyewitnesses living in different parts of the capital told Reuters news agency that clashes continue.
About 300 people were killed and 2,600 injured, according to Sudanese Ministry of Health estimates.
Horrified, Sudanese fled Khartoum earlier in the day, taking everything they could carry and trying to get out of the capital, where forces loyal to the country’s two best generals have been fighting each other with tanks, artillery and airstrikes since Saturday.
The Sudanese military said 177 Egyptian Air Force soldiers were airlifted back to Egypt a few days after they were detained by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the northern town of Merowe.
The Sudanese army said in a statement that Egyptians were evacuated from Dongola in the north of the country.
In the center of Khartoum, constant shelling could be heard around the compound where the military headquarters of Sudan’s military ruler, General Abdel Fattah al Burhan, said he had deployed earlier in the week.
“The armed forces are responding to a new attack near the General Command,” the army said in a statement.
A Reuters reporter said there was another intense gunfight in the Jabra neighborhood, west of Khartoum, involving the homes of paramilitary leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo and his family, commonly known as Hemetti.
Explosions were also heard from the main airport, and it was shut down after a power struggle between Burhan and Hemetti over a plan to integrate Hemetti’s RSF into the regular army.
Closed to their homes, residents grappled with power cuts and worried how long their food stocks would last.
“Today we started consuming some of our basic needs,” said architect Hadeel Mohamed, who was concerned for the safety of her brother, who went in search of food.
READ MORE: Hundreds of Sudanese soldiers flee to Chad as fighting escalates
‘Past disaster’
The Sudanese Doctors Association said nine hospitals had been hit by artillery fire and 16 had to be evacuated, none of them fully operating within the capital.
Osama Othman, spokesperson for Sudan’s Red Crescent, said, “Hospitals have completely collapsed, deprived of all needs. The disaster is over…”
While Burhan chaired a board set up after the 2021 military coup and the ouster of senior leader Omar al-Bashir in 2019, Hemetti was his deputy on the council, which analysts say could command more than 100,000 fighters.
The conflict between them has destroyed hopes of progress towards democracy in Sudan, it risks attracting its neighbors and could escalate into regional rivalry between Russia and the United States.
Sudan is strategically located between Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Africa’s volatile Sahel region.
Chad’s defense minister added that Chad’s armed forces disarmed 320 Sudanese soldiers who entered its territory on Monday, adding that Chad does not want to be involved in the conflict.
The military controls access to Khartoum and is apparently trying to cut off the supply routes to the RSF fighters. According to witnesses and residents, army reinforcements were brought in from near the eastern border with Ethiopia.
Meanwhile, warlord Khalifa Haftar’s so-called Libyan National Army (LNA) denied on Thursday providing support for one side against the other in Sudan.
“The General Command categorically rejects reports that one side is providing support against the other,” LNA spokesman Ahmad Mesmari said in a statement.
READ MORE: Turkey mediates ceasefire in Sudan conflict
Source: TRTWorld and its agencies
