KHARTOUM – Not even the three-hour truce brokered by the United Nations to get the wounded to hospitals has held up: yesterday in Sudan was another day of hard fighting between the army and militias. The death toll – not yet confirmed due to the high number of seriously injured, over 700 – on the second day of the coup attempt which risks triggering a wider conflict, is heavy: over a hundred dead.
Clashes between the regular army and the Rapid Support Forces, backed by Russian mercenaries from Wagner, intensified at dawn but the explosions and gunfire hadn’t stopped the previous night either.
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Volleys of bullets, explosions of grenades, use of armored vehicles and other vehicles with heavy artillery firing on civilian targets, including the offices of the Mobile Network Operator telephone company, from both sides: the militias under the command of General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo and soldiers loyal to the general Abdel Fattah al-Burhanwhich ordered the closure of airspace in Sudan.
The paramilitaries claim to control 90% of the defense areas and of the country’s security apparatus, as Dagalo himself, known as Hemeti, declared to the Arab press, defining his rival “a criminal who hides underground and pushes the sons of Sudanese to fight”. The RSF leader also claims that a large number of army officers have joined the Rapid Support Forces. But the head of the Sovereign Council, Burhan, made it known that he has the situation under control and that the air force has hit numerous “rebel” bases, as he defined them on state television. It is not yet clear who is telling the truth. Certainly the toughest battle is the one being fought around the defense headquarters, where Burhan is perched.
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The situation has also precipitated in other important cities of the country, in particular in Darfur, already for months tortured by the Hemeti militias, the same ones responsible for the genocide perpetrated since 2003 in the western Sudanese region when they were known as “janjaweed”, “devils on horseback ”. The number of victims is currently incalculable. In Nyala alone, the capital of the state of South Darfur, there are 25 confirmed dead, including some faithful and the imam of the Great Mosque. Three World Food Program operators were also killed, and the United Nations agency involved in providing food aid to local populations exhausted by drought has stopped all operations.
Reports of explosions and gunfire also come from the city of Gadaref while foreign aircraft movements have been reported in the city of Port Sudan. The calls by the United States, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, China, Russia to the parties involved to “immediately end hostilities” were of no use.
Sudan, increasingly heavy clashes: more than 100 dead. Electricity and water emergency in hospitals
by Antonella Naples
The civilian population tries to protect itself by taking refuge in the basements of their homes. Many are stuck in their workplaces or schools, such as the 250 students of the Comboni school in the center of Khartoum. Most of the shops have closed, making it difficult to get food and other basic necessities. The phone company has blocked the internet on orders from the Telecommunications Authority. In many areas of the capital there is neither water nor electricity. Hospitals work in difficult conditions and the doctors’ union has asked the army and the RSF to provide safe passage to the wounded in order to continue to guarantee assistance, but the truce agreed for the humanitarian corridors did not last.