The UN warned on Sunday that Sudan was “on the brink of an all-out civil war potentially destabilizing for the entire region”, following the death of dozens of civilians in an air force raid on a neighborhood residential area of the capital Khartoum.
In a video posted online by the Khartoum state health ministry, bodies lie on the ground, some with shredded limbs protruding from sheets thrown hastily to cover them. Several are women.
The bombardment, which occurred on Saturday in the district of Dar al-Salam in Omdurman, the northwestern suburbs of the capital, left 22 civilians dead and a large number of injured, according to the ministry.
For their part, the Rapid Support Forces (FSR), paramilitaries at war against the army since April 15, denounced “the tragic loss of more than 31 lives and many wounded”.
All these sources, like several residents contacted by Agence France-Presse (AFP), claim that the bombardment came from the air.
But the army assured in a press release on Sunday that its “air forces had not targeted any objective on Saturday in Omdurman”.
According to residents, the air force again struck the center of Khartoum on Sunday near the presidential palace.
Fighting with heavy weapons also opposed the two camps in several districts in the south of the capital, according to witnesses on the spot, and airstrikes were reported in Oumdourman.
Meanwhile, civilians on Sunday began digging graves for victims of the previous day’s airstrike, other witnesses said.
In nearly three months of war between the FSR of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo and the troops of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, nearly 3,000 dead have been recorded, a very underestimated toll, bodies still littering the streets being inaccessible.
No respect for human rights
Nearly three million Sudanese have been forced to leave their homes, including more than 600,000 abroad, mainly Egypt in the north and Chad in the west, as the abuses from both sides are increasing.
Farhan Haq, a spokesperson for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, denounced “a total lack of respect for humanitarian law and human rights”, particularly in Darfur, a region martyred in the 2000s again at the heart of fights.
In this vast region of western Sudan, where tribal fighters and armed civilians have joined the two warring sides, the fighting has taken on an “ethnic dimension”, says the UN as residents report “executions” on the basis of ethnic origin.
According to the UN, Sudan is “on the brink of an all-out civil war potentially destabilizing for the entire region”, on the borders of the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and the Middle East, areas already plagued by violence before the war.
Starting from the heart of the capital, the fighting, air raids and looting that followed spread to Darfur and Kordofan, south of Khartoum, and the Blue Nile, bordering Ethiopia to the south.
During the night, residents again reported to AFP fighting in El-Obeid, capital of North Kordofan, then again on Sunday afternoon.
Meeting in Ethiopia
To attempt a way out of the crisis, the UN pleads for the proposals of Igad.
This East African bloc will bring together leaders of the four countries involved in the Sudanese dossier in Addis Ababa on Monday: Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and South Sudan.
An Igad official told AFP that the two warring generals had been invited, but said they could send lieutenants to Addis Ababa.
Since April 15, General Burhane has only been filmed twice with his men and General Daglo has only appeared for a few seconds in a video shot by his troops. The two men only intervene by sound messages or interposed media.
Khalid Omer Yousif, one of the civilian officials sacked from government in 2021 by the now-warring two generals’ coup, said several civilian figures were in Addis Ababa to “discuss with Sudanese and international actors to to accelerate peace efforts”.
Negotiations led by Americans and Saudis have so far only resulted in temporary truces, which are almost never respected.
For its part, Egypt announced on Sunday that it would host a summit of Sudan’s neighbors on Thursday July 13 to discuss “ways to end the conflict” and its “repercussions” on neighboring countries, according to a statement from the media. the Presidency.