KHARTOUM, Sudan
Fierce fighting raged in Sudan's capital despite an hours-long pause Sunday to address humanitarian needs including the evacuation of wounded, on the second day of battles that left three UN staff among more than 50 civilians killed throughout the country.
The World Food Programme said
it was suspending operations in the impoverished country after the killing of
its three workers.
The battles between the
powerful armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) sparked an
international outcry and regional concern, including border closures by
neighbours Egypt and Chad.
Deafening explosions and
intense gunfire rattled buildings in the capital Khartoum's densely-populated
northern and southern suburbs as tanks rumbled on the streets and fighter jets
roared overhead, witnesses said.
Fighting continued after
nightfall on Sunday, as Sudanese hunkered down in their homes with fears of a
prolonged conflict that could plunge the country into deeper chaos, dashing
long-held hopes for a transition to civilian-led democracy.
Violence erupted early
Saturday following weeks of power struggles between army chief Abdel Fattah
al-Burhan and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo who heads the heavily-armed RSF.
The pro-democracy Central Committee of Sudan Doctors reported 56 civilians killed as well as "tens of deaths" among security forces, and around 600 wounded.
Late Sunday afternoon the army
said they had "agreed to a United Nations proposal to open safe passage
for humanitarian cases", including the evacuation of wounded, for three
hours which ended at 1700 GMT.
RSF confirmed the measure,
though they said it would last four hours, and both sides maintained their
right to "respond in the event of transgressions" from the other
side.
Despite the pause, heavy
gunfire could still be heard in central Khartoum near the airport, and dense
black smoke billowed from the surrounding area.
"The gunfire and
explosions are incessant," Ahmed Hamid, 34, from a northern Khartoum
suburb, said earlier.
Ahmed Seif, another Khartoum
resident, called the situation very worrying and said: "It doesn't seem
like it will calm any time soon."
Daglo's RSF say they have
seized the presidential palace, Khartoum airport and other strategic locations,
but the army insist they are still in control.
As the fighting continued, the
stench of gunpowder wafted through Khartoum's streets, deserted except for
soldiers.
Medics pleaded for safe
corridors for ambulances and a ceasefire to treat the victims because the
streets were too dangerous for transporting casualties to hospital.
Fighting also erupted in the
western Darfur region and in the eastern border state of Kassala, where witness
Hussein Saleh said the army fired artillery at a paramilitary camp.
The UN said its WFP employees
had been killed Saturday in clashes in North Darfur and announced a
"temporary halt to all operations in Sudan".
After their deaths as well as
other civilians, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for "justice
without delay". He had earlier warned that an escalation in the fighting
would "further aggravate the already precarious humanitarian situation".
The UN says one-third of
Sudan's population need humanitarian aid.
WFP said an aircraft managed
by the organisation "was also significantly damaged" at Khartoum
airport.
"We cannot do our
lifesaving work if the safety and security of our teams and partners is not
guaranteed," WFP head Cindy McCain said.
Created in 2013, the RSF emerged from the Janjaweed militia that then-president Omar al-Bashir unleashed against non-Arab ethnic minorities in Darfur a decade earlier, drawing accusations of war crimes.
The RSF's planned integration
into the regular army was a key element of talks to finalise a deal that was
hoped to restore Sudan's civilian transition and end the political-economic
crisis sparked by the military's 2021 coup by Burhan and Daglo.
Appeals to end the fighting
have come from across the region and the globe, including the US, Britain,
China, the European Union and Russia, while Pope Francis said he was following
the events "with concern" and urged dialogue.
After a meeting on the
situation in Sudan, the African Union said a senior official would
"immediately" travel there on a ceasefire mission.
The Arab League bloc held an
emergency meeting in Cairo, at the request of Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Sudan's former prime minister
Abdalla Hamdok, at a press conference in Abu Dhabi, described the humanitarian
situation as "catastrophic", called for a truce, and appealed for
"a helping hand" particularly from Arab countries.
But the two generals appeared
in no mood for talks, having described each other as criminals.
Their October 2021 coup
triggered international aid cuts and sparked near-weekly protests met by a
deadly crackdown.
Burhan, who rose through the
ranks under the three-decade rule of now-jailed Bashir, has said the coup was
"necessary" to include more factions in politics.
Daglo later called the coup a
"mistake" that failed to bring about change and reinvigorated
remnants of Bashir's regime ousted by the army in 2019 following mass protests.
No comments:
Post a Comment