KHARTOUM, Sudan
The conflict in Sudan, which has left thousands dead and seven million people displaced over seven months, is spreading to new regions of the nation, the UN said Thursday, warning of a mounting “humanitarian calamity.”
The deadly unrest includes
outbreaks of interethnic violence and attacks against women, according to the
global body.
The United Nations assistant
secretary-general for Africa, Ghanaian diplomat Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee,
expressed alarm over the deteriorating crisis in a Security Council meeting,
where she told members: “Sudan is facing a convergence of a worsening humanitarian
calamity and a catastrophic human rights crisis.”
War erupted in Sudan on April
15, pitting army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan against his former deputy, Rapid
Support Forces (RSF) commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, in fighting that has left
more than 9,000 people dead, according to the Armed Conflict Location &
Event Data Project. The number is widely considered an underestimate.
“Hostilities have spilled over
to new areas, such as Gezira, White Nile and West Kordofan states, placing even
more civilians at risk as well as humanitarian operations,” Pobee said.
She said the RSF made
significant military gains in Darfur from October 26 to November 4, taking
control of Sudanese army bases in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur state;
Zalingei in Central Darfur; and the West Darfur state capital of El Geneina.
“The warring parties have
reportedly carried out indiscriminate attacks, while also conducting targeted
attacks against civilians, in apparent violation of international humanitarian
law,” she added.
Despite the difficulties, some
4.1 million people have received humanitarian aid in the last seven months —
but that amounts to just 22 percent of the people whom humanitarian
organizations aim to assist this year.
Sudan’s warring parties
resumed negotiations late last month in Jeddah, brokered by Saudi Arabia and
the United States. While both parties expressed willingness to negotiate a
cease-fire, the fighting on the ground has intensified, Pobee said.
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