Sudan: fighting intensifies and nothing seems to be able to stop the violence
Abandoned stalls along a market south of Khartoum on April 17, 2023, as fighting rages in the Sudanese capital. AFP--
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More than 180 dead and 1,800 wounded, in three days, in Sudan, this is the balance sheet indicated, this Monday, April 17, by the head of the UN mission in Sudan, Volker Perthes, following the fighting between the two rival generals who compete for power. Fighting continues between the Sudanese armed forces led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces, whose patron is General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, known as "Hemedti".
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With our special envoy in Khartoum, Eliott Brachet
On Monday, clashes continued in Khartoum and across the country. Artillery fire, heavy weapons and air strikes are now the daily life of the people of Khartoum.
The city is under siege, besieged by its own armed forces, its own generals who were still sitting in the burning palaces in the heart of the city.
The humanitarian situation is catastrophic. Two hospitals were evacuated after being riddled with bullets and hit by rockets. Everything is running out: water, food and electricity are cut off. But both armies are stubborn and ignore multiple calls for de-escalation.
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According to several witnesses, regular forces sent many reinforcements to Khartoum on Monday night. It is still impossible to know which force controls what in the capital.
General al-Burhan on Monday ordered the dissolution of the Rapid Support Forces, now considered an armed rebellion. For his part, General Hemedti, speaking in English on Twitter, called on the international community to support him against his rival whom he described as a "radical Islamist who bombs civilians from the air.
»Beyond Khartoum, the news from Darfur is worrying. They report numerous civilian casualties and constant looting. The RSF relies on local armed militias that multiply abuses. Many NGOs have borne the brunt. So far, nothing seems to be able to stop the spiral of violence.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier in the day called on the two generals to "immediately cease hostilities."
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- Sudan
- Abdel Fattah al-Burhan