Looting, destruction and fires are increasing in Sudan, where fighting has been raging since April 15.
In Sudan, fierce fighting between the army and the paramilitaries entered its third week on Saturday 29 April. According to the latest official report, the fighting has already left at least 528 dead and 4,599 injured. The country has been plunged into chaos since the outbreak, on April 15, of a bloody power struggle between the head of the army, Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, and his number two, Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, known as “Hemedti”, at the head of the dreaded Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The two camps accuse each other of violating the extended truce, under international mediation, supposed to be held until Sunday, at midnight.
On the Al-Arabiya channel, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres lamented that “the war for power continues as the country crumbles”. Looting, destruction and fires are increasing in Sudan, while witnesses quoted by AFP report air raids and heavy gunfire in the capital, Khartoum.
75,000 displaced people
According to the United Nations, 75,000 people have been displaced by the particularly violent fighting in Darfur. Tens of thousands of Sudanese have fled to neighboring states including Egypt, Ethiopia, Chad and South Sudan, while foreign countries are carrying out mass evacuations of their nationals.
On Saturday, a new boat carrying around 1,900 evacuees arrived in Saudi Arabia. The country has so far hosted nearly 5,000 Saudi and foreign nationals. The United Kingdom has already warned that its last evacuation flight will take place on Saturday evening after having released more than 1,500 people from Sudan.
Civilians are trying to flee or survive barricaded without electricity, water or food, while around 70% of hospitals in combat zones are out of service, according to the doctors’ union. In West Darfur, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) had to “stop almost all of [ses] activities”because of the violence, regrets the deputy head of the NGO in Sudan, Sylvain Perron.
The UN estimates that millions more people could sink into hunger when a third of the 45 million Sudanese already suffered from it, in the country, one of the poorest in the world.