A view of streets as clashes proceed between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) despite the agreement on stop fire in Khartoum, Sudan on April 30, 2023.
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As foreign states wind down their evacuations from Sudan, the United Nations warned of a humanitarian “breaking point” with no let up in fighting between rival military factions despite a supposed ceasefire extension.
A whole bunch of individuals have been killed and 1000’s wounded over 16 days of battles since long-simmering tension between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted into conflict on April 15.
There seems little prospect of a fast resolution to the crisis, which has unleashed a humanitarian disaster, damaged swathes of the capital Khartoum, risked drawing in regional powers and reignited a simmering conflict within the Darfur region.
Each side had agreed on Sunday to increase a much-violated truce by 72 hours, however the sound of airstrikes and anti-aircraft fire rang out across Khartoum on Monday morning.
Sudanese who ventured out said town was transformed.
“We saw dead bodies. An industrial area that was all looted. We saw people carrying TVs on their backs and large sacks looted from factories,” said Mohamed Ezzeldin, who had fled Khartoum but returned since the influx of displaced people had made costs too high elsewhere.
Many fear for his or her lives in a nationwide power struggle between the military chief and RSF head, who had shared control of presidency after a 2021 coup but fell out over a planned transition back to civilian rule.
Hundreds of Sudanese have fled, together with many foreigners pulled out by their governments over the past week in a series of complex operations by air, sea and land. European countries including Germany have ended their evacuations and Britain’s last evacuation flight will depart on Monday.
Those remaining face bitter hardship and terrible danger.
“I show as much as work for 2 or three hours then I close up because it isn’t protected,” said Abdelbagi, a barber within the capital Khartoum who said he had to maintain working as prices were rising.
Power and water supplies are uncertain, there’s little food or fuel, most hospitals and clinics are out of service and soaring transport cost are making it ever harder to go away.
The United Nations and other aid organizations have needed to cut services due to insecurity and with most foreign staff evacuated, though the World Food Programme said it was resuming operations on Monday after staff were killed early within the war.
The U.N. refugee agency said at the least 50,000 people had managed to go away Sudan, crossing borders with Chad, Egypt, South Sudan and Ethiopia in addition to crossing the Red Sea on boats.
At the least 528 people have been killed and 4,599 wounded, the health ministry said. The United Nations has reported the same variety of dead but believes the true toll is far higher.
Sudanese refugees from the Tandelti area who crossed into Chad, in Koufroun, near Echbara, sit near temporary shelters on April 30, 2023 for an aid distribution.
Gueipeur Denis Sassou | Afp | Getty Images
‘Highly precarious’
The United Nations fears for the war’s impact each on Sudan and the broader region, said Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator on the United Nations.
“The dimensions and speed of what’s unfolding in Sudan is unprecedented,” he said.
A couple of third of Sudanese were already recipients of foreign aid before the war, with a few quarter receiving food support. United Nations agencies and the Red Cross are attempting to herald medical supplies through Port Sudan, but need security guarantees to take them on to Khartoum.
World Food Programme head Cindy McCain said operations were starting again in states of Sudan which were mostly unaffected by the conflict. “The safety situation is very precarious,” she said.
Victoria, certainly one of the tea sellers that used to dot Khartoum’s streets before the fighting began, said her children are struggling to grasp what is going on.
“So I risk my life to attempt to work and if God helps me I’ll get them some food and if he doesn’t I’ll keep trying. But just sitting useless doesn’t help and being scared doesn’t help,” she said.
Jamila, a girl still in Khartoum together with her family, is barely eating one meal a day because so little food is offered. RSF troops are stationed in front of their house and refuse to go away. “The sound of fighting is in our ears all day,” she said.
Each side said on Monday they were making progress without commenting directly on the ceasefire violations.
The military said it had cut RSF’s combat effectiveness by half and stopped it trying to strengthen its positions within the capital. The RSF said it still controls major locations of Khartoum and was itself beating back army reinforcements.
Reuters couldn’t confirm either side’s claims.
Army leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF head Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also generally known as Hemedti, have been under pressure to implement a ceasefire and provides protected passage for aid.
But though they’ve nominated representatives for talks on monitoring the ceasefire they’ve agreed, each are also digging in for what could possibly be a protracted battle.
Burhan has said he would never sit down with Hemedti, who in turn said he would talk only after the military ceased hostilities.
In Khartoum, the military has been battling RSF forces entrenched in residential areas. Fighting has thus far seen the more agile RSF forces fan out across town as the higher equipped army tries to focus on them largely by utilizing air strikes from drones and fighter jets.