Sat, Apr 22, 2023 page5

• Sudan clashes continue despite truce calls

  • AFP, KHARTOUM
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  Sudan’s warring forces yesterday battled with heavy gunfire and explosions in the capital and elsewhere in the country, as they ignored appeals by world powers for an end-of-Ramadan ceasefire.

  More than 300 people have been killed and thousands injured since the fighting erupted on Saturday last week between forces loyal to Sudanese army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, the commander of the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) who is commonly known as Hemeti.

  The Central Committee of Sudan Doctors said that overnight, as the Eid al-Fitr celebrations marking the end of the Muslim Ramadan month of fasting began, “several areas of Khartoum were bombed” and reported “shelling and clashes” for the sixth straight night.

  

  Smoke covers the sky above Khartoum on Thursday.

  Photo: AFP

  Khartoum has seen some of the fiercest fighting with airstrikes and tanks firing in densely packed districts, with most of its 5 million people sheltering at home in baking heat without electricity, food or water. Communications are heavily disrupted.

  UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called separately for a ceasefire of “at least” three days to mark Eid al-Fitr, as explosions and gunfire resounded in Khartoum.

  The RSF, a powerful force formed from members of the Janjaweed militia, which led years of extreme violence in the western Darfur region, said they would commit to a 72-hour ceasefire starting at dawn.

  However, like two previously declared 24-hour ceasefires, it failed to take hold.

  The crackle of intense gunfire continued in the morning, with columns of black smoke rising above the capital.

  For the first time since hostilities began a week ago, al-Burhan appeared on television.

  “For Eid this year, our country is bleeding. Destruction, desolation and the sound of bullets have taken precedence over joy,” he said in a pre-recorded video, which showed him sitting behind a desk in military uniform. “We hope that we will come out of this ordeal more united ... a single army, a single people ... towards a civilian power.”

  The International Crisis Group (IGC) said urgent steps were needed to stop a descent into “full-blown civil war,” adding that “the nightmare scenario that many feared in Sudan is unfolding.”

  The World Food Programme said that the violence could plunge millions more into hunger in a country where 15 million people — one-third of the population — need aid.

  The UN agency on Saturday suspended its Sudan operations after three of its workers were killed.

  Al-Burhan and Daglo’s bitter dispute centered on the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army, a key condition for a final deal aimed at restoring Sudan’s democratic transition.

  Civilians are becoming increasingly desperate with thousands risking the dangerous streets to flee Khartoum, with many reporting streets strewn with corpses.

  International efforts are being planned for the potential evacuation of citizens, including with the US deploying forces for the possible airlift of US embassy staff.

  Medics have warned of a catastrophe, with more than two-thirds of hospitals in Khartoum and neighboring states rendered “out of service” by the fighting, a doctors’ union said.

  Four hospitals in Obeid in North Kordofan state had also been shelled, the union said.

  The WHO said it had reports of almost 330 people killed and 3,200 wounded across Sudan, but medics fear the death toll is likely to be far higher, with many wounded unable to reach hospitals.

  Al-Burhan and Daglo toppled former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir together in April 2019, following massive protests against his three decades of iron-fisted rule.

  In October 2021, they again worked together in a coup to oust a civilian government installed after al-Bashir’s downfall, derailing an internationally backed transition to democracy.

  “With neither Burhan nor Hemeti appearing ready to back down, the situation could get much worse,” the ICG said, adding that while some analysts thought the army would succeed in on its “home turf” in Khartoum, the risk of an all-out conflict remained.

  “Even if the army eventually does secure the capital, and Hemeti retreats to Darfur, a civil war could well follow, with potentially destabilizing impact in neighboring Chad, the Central African Republic, Libya and South Sudan,” it said.
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