Sudan battle, gun fights with air strikes and fire.
Gun and fire battle in Sudan. According to witnesses, artillery fire, air strikes, and gun fights rocked Sudan’s capital on Saturday, as the UN demanded a halt to “wanton killings” that have left festering bodies in Darfur.
After more than two months of combat between competing generals, relief efforts have stopped.
Fighting continued unabated in Khartoum, residents claimed, with entire families sheltering in place and running out on essential supplies in the searing July heat.
According to the UN, approximately 1.5 million people have fled the city since fighting broke out in mid-April, pitting the regular army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Several Khartoum districts no longer have flowing water, and those who remain in the capital have had no electricity since Thursday, according to AFP.
According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, the power struggle between army head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has murdered almost 2,000 people.
The bloodiest battle has raged in Darfur, a wide western region bordering Chad where the UN has warned of probable crimes against humanity and stated the conflict has taken on a “ethnic dimension.”
Residents in the South Darfur state capital Nyala reported they had been caught in the crossfire. Battles, bombardment, and artillery attacks were all reported.
“Civilians were killed, and wounded are arriving at the hospital,” an unidentified medic told AFP, many died as a result of a bullet from a gun.
The United Nations called for “immediate action” to stop the killings of people fleeing El Geneina, the West Darfur state capital, by Arab militias assisted by paramilitaries on Saturday.
According to the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Office, witnesses provided “corroborating accounts” of militias targeting non-Arab Masalit men.
It claimed that all but two of the 16 people interviewed had witnessed “summary executions” and civilian targeting on the road from El Geneina to the border between June 15 and 16.
“All those interviewed also spoke of seeing dead bodies scattered along the road — and the stench of decomposition,” according to the UN.
Aid has been halted, according to the Sudanese doctors’ union, two-thirds of health institutions in the main battlegrounds are still closed. The few hospitals that are still open are running low on medical supplies and are having difficulty obtaining fuel to operate generators.
According to the UN, a record 25 million people, or more than half of Sudan’s population, require relief and safety, relief has reached at least 2.8 million people, but agencies report substantial challenges in their work, ranging from obtaining visas for foreign humanitarians to establishing safe passageways.
According to the International Crisis Group (ICG), “the army is… loath to let aid into the capital, fearing that packages will end up in the hands of the RSF,” as has happened in the past, “allowing the paramilitary to hold out longer.”
The United States, which has worked to mediate between the warring parties and ensure humanitarian relief reached those in need, announced Thursday that it had suspended its efforts.
“Both sides seek to use humanitarian talks for tactical advantage… with the military demanding that the RSF vacate residential areas and the RSF demanding that the army cease its aerial barrages,” the International Crisis Group stated in a report this week.
Mercenaries’ haven
No side appears willing to back down, raising the prospect of a protracted battle with regional repercussions.
According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 150,000 people have fled Darfur across the border into Chad.
Chad, which has already received over 680,000 refugees, requires substantial financial and technical assistance to deal with this “unprecedented migratory crisis,” according to Prime Minister Saleh Kebzabo on Saturday.
The RSF of Daglo are descended from the Janjaweed militias that former strongman Omar al-Bashir launched in response to an ethnic minority revolt in Darfur in 2003, drawing claims of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
“A collapsed Sudan could provide a safe haven for transnational militants… mercenaries and traffickers who could wreak havoc on the country’s neighbors for years to come,” ICG warned.
Maha Abdullah, a sobbing Sudanese housewife who made it to Saudi Arabia for the hajj pilgrimage, sees only one solution: “It needs God’s intervention to change things.”