At least 33 civilians were killed Thursday in Khartoum, including 23 in air force bombings on a neighborhood in the southeast of the capital, a committee of pro lawyers reported overnight from Thursday to Friday. -democracy.
The committee announced Thursday that ten civilians had been killed by exchanges of artillery fire in the southern outskirts of Khartoum, capital of Sudan torn apart since April 15 by a war for power between two rival generals in this African country. from the east.
The conflict, which pits the army, under the command of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, against the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (FSR) of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, has left more than 12,000 dead, according to an estimate by the NGO Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (Acled).
The war has also displaced more than seven million people, according to the UN. Among them are “3.5 million children,” Mandeep O’Brien, director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Sudan, told AFP.
“The conflict in Sudan seriously endangers the health and well-being of 24 million children, and therefore the future of the country, with serious consequences for the entire region,” added Ms.me O’Brien in an interview with AFP.
Thursday in Khartoum, “23 civilians were killed in an aerial bombardment of the Soba district […] and there are many seriously injured,” according to the lawyers’ committee.
“Impunity”
In the southern belt of Khartoum, “ten civilians were killed in exchanges of artillery fire in a residential area and in the local market”, reported Thursday the local “resistance committee”, a neighborhood organization which manages the mutual aid between residents.
Diplomatic efforts for peace negotiations in Sudan, notably by the United States, Saudi Arabia and, more recently, the East African regional bloc Igad, have so far failed.
In a report Thursday, the NGO Human Rights Watch denounced the “massive violations” of civilian rights in Sudan by the two rival generals, castigating the “impunity” which has led to “repeated cycles of violence” in this country since two decades.
Before confronting each other, generals Burhane and Daglo had joined forces to carry out a putsch and oust representatives of civil society from power in October 2021, putting an end to two years of democratic transition.
Unable to gain the advantage since the start of the war, both camps are stalling but neither intends to make any concessions at the negotiating table.
On the ground, however, the paramilitaries seem to have been taking control of new territories across the country for months in the face of weak resistance from the army.