CAIRO, Egypt
At least 12 civilians were killed on Sunday in bombardments by soldiers and paramilitaries who are now clashing in a new town in Darfur, a vast region in western Sudan that is constantly being fled by refugees.
"The first provisional
toll is 12 civilians killed in Nyala," the capital of South Darfur, a
doctor in the town told AFP on condition of anonymity.
"But we know that some
people were killed or wounded before they could reach a hospital, as the
violence of the fighting is preventing people from moving around," he
explained.
Since April 15, the war
between the army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane and the paramilitary
Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo has left more than
2,800 people dead, according to the NGO Acled, and more than 2.5 million displaced
and refugees, according to the UN.
One of the heaviest tolls is
undoubtedly that of El-Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, where since the end
of April, tribal fighters and civilians have mingled in fighting between the
military and paramilitaries.
According to the UN, there
have been "1,100 deaths" in this town, and above all abuses that
could constitute "crimes against humanity".
In the dirt streets of
El-Geneina, corpses hastily covered with clothes lay in the scorching sun,
while the curtains of stores are down or have been ripped open by looters.
In the midst, cohorts of
families flee, dodging bullets along the thirty kilometers or so that separate
them from neighboring Chad. Nearly 160,000 people have already fled there to
escape the war in Sudan.
On the other side of the
border, in Adré, they pile up under tarpaulins stretched over cut branches or
form long queues to obtain water or food.
In all, 2.2 million people are
displaced within Sudan, while half a million others have left the country.
The UN and humanitarian
organizations are working hard to help these families, who left in a hurry,
often without being able to take anything with them from their homes, most of
which are now occupied by paramilitaries.
But funds are in short supply.
At a conference in Geneva, the UN raised only half of what it needed. NGOs, for
their part, criticize Sudanese bureaucracy for blocking their cargoes in the
Red Sea port of Port Sudan, or refusing to issue visas or travel permits to
their teams.
For a long time, Americans and
Saudis negotiated truces to help them move around. But since Wednesday,
Washington has thrown in the towel. Negotiations between emissaries from both
sides never really got underway and, more importantly, while negotiations
stalled, troops from both sides repositioned themselves.
The army stepped up its air
raids on Khartoum. The RSF are stepping up artillery barrages on army and
police bases. And both sides are announcing new offensives every day.
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