Thousands of residents have fled Khartoum, Sudan’s capital as the war between the army and paramilitary forces continues across the city for a fifth day.
A United States-brokered ceasefire between the army and paramilitary
forces failed to hold, as continuous shelling, automatic rifle fire and loud
blasts shook the centre of Sudan’s capital from first light on Wednesday.
The Guardian UK reported that the fighting seemingly focused around the
defence ministry compound and the airport.
The truce between the army and the paramilitary
Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which came after pressure from foreign powers,
including the US, was supposed to allow residents trapped by the fighting to
obtain desperately needed relief and supplies.
It, however, collapsed within minutes on Tuesday evening amid mutual
accusations from the battling factions that the other had failed to respect the
truce.
The fighting has involved army units loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah
al-Burhan, the head of Sudan’s transitional governing sovereign council, and
the RSF, led by Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, who is deputy head
of the council.
According to the Guardian UK, their power struggle has derailed a shift
to civilian rule and raised fears of a long, brutal civil war.
The director-general of the UN’s World Health Organization, Tedros
Ghebreyesus, said on Wednesday that at least 270 people had been killed and
more than 2,600 wounded since fighting began, without giving a breakdown of
civilians and combatants killed.
According to the Sudan Doctors’ Union, the deaths of 30 civilians had
been confirmed on Tuesday, though the total is likely to be much higher. There
were also 245 civilians reported injured.
Two-thirds of civilian fatalities were recorded outside Khartoum, the
new statistics showed, indicating how much of the fighting was occurring in
remote regions.
In Nyala, in the restless South Darfur state, six people died and 63
were wounded as a main food market was set on fire and the offices of aid
agencies looted.
Also, in al-Fashir, in North Darfur, nine people died and 36 were
injured, while in Zalingei, in Central Darfur, five people died and 60 were
wounded.
There were also reports of airstrikes and fighting around the
international airport at the town of Merowe, a well-known archaeological site
and commercial centre 270 miles (440km) north of Khartoum.
“The situation for civilians is not good anywhere in the country, but it
is especially bad in the capital, Nyala and Merowe,” said one doctor contacted
by the Guardian UK in Khartoum.
“Four of my colleagues have been killed. Almost all the main hospitals
are suffering acute shortages in medical staff, medicine, water, electricity,
fuel and food. Many patients have been sent home. For civilians, the main
problems is the cut-off water and electricity supplies.
“I am personally in a place where there is no supply of water and
electricity for two days,” the doctor asked for anonymity for fear of
reprisals.
Across Sudan, prices of staples such as sugar, milk, flour and oil are
increasing, aggravating an acute economic crisis.
Aid workers in al-Qadarif said long-life items such as dehydrated milk
had disappeared from shelves. UN agencies said many of their programmes across
the vast country, already in a precarious humanitarian situation, had been
suspended.
On Wednesday morning, thousands of Khartoum residents began leaving
their homes, some in cars and others on foot. “Khartoum has become a ghost
city,” said Atiya Abdalla Atiya, secretary of the Sudanese Doctors’ Syndicate,
who was still in the capital.
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