2023-05-03 11:19:39
- Muhammad Muhammad Othman & Omaima El Shazly & Zainab Dabaa
- BBC correspondent in Sudan
Black smoke covers the sky of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum
Several areas of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, witnessed intermittent clashes between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, which are still continuing.
Eyewitnesses told the BBC that army warplanes bombed some Rapid Support Forces sites in Khartoum and Bahri, especially in the south of the capital, where the Rapid Support Forces camps are located, which in turn targeted the warplanes with anti-aircraft guns.
This comes following South Sudan announced that the two parties to the conflict had agreed to a new seven-day truce, which is scheduled to begin on Thursday, despite repeated violations of previous truces.
The two sides exchanged accusations regarding violating the truce.
A statement issued by the army said the RSF violated the truce in residential areas and attempted to attack military positions.
For its part, the Rapid Support Forces said that army aircraft bombed several residential areas and that the army was using a military hospital in Omdurman as a launch pad for missiles.
On the other hand, evacuations from Sudan continue; The British government announced the transfer of more than 2,300 people to safety.
Armed looting and looting also continues in various regions of Sudan, as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced that its cultural attaché in Khartoum was subjected to large looting and looting operations by an armed force.
A statement issued by the Saudi Foreign Ministry condemned the attack on its headquarters and demanded that those involved be arrested and brought to justice.
Humanitarian aid
On the other hand, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator is visiting Sudan to discuss the delivery of the necessary aid, amid continuing fighting between the two warring military factions.
Martin Griffiths reaffirmed the commitment of the United Nations to the Sudanese people.
This comes in conjunction with the visit of the Secretary-General of the United Nations to Kenya. To discuss how to deliver the necessary aid to Sudan, stressing the need for a permanent ceasefire between the warring military factions in the country.
The United Nations World Food Program said its ability to resume aid deliveries in Sudan depended on the ceasefire continuing.
A WFP spokesperson told the BBC that the agency would prioritize emergency food distribution to pre-existing refugees as well as to those newly displaced by violence.
Tragic conditions in West Darfur
In West Darfur, civil society organizations warned of the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the city of El Geneina, the state capital, and made a distress call to international and regional organizations to intervene urgently to contain the humanitarian crisis.
The governor of West Darfur, General Abdullah Khamis Abkar, told the BBC that “service institutions, including markets, were targeted, and the centers of organizations operating in the state that were providing food to the displaced were destroyed, which led to the cessation of basic services such as health, electricity and water.”
“West Darfur state is now completely devastated in a way I have never seen in the region before.”
Earlier, he estimated the death toll at more than 300 and the same number of wounded, most of them women and the elderly, as a result of the targeting of shelters, and that the El-Geneina Specialized Hospital, the main hospital in the city for receiving critical cases, was completely destroyed.
Abkar appealed to civil society organizations to intervene urgently, saying that doctors are working to treat the wounded outside the hospital, in light of an acute shortage of medical supplies.
An official of a local organization told the BBC that the region is on the verge of famine due to the lack of food and the cessation of the work of international organizations.
He added that the residents of the city of El Geneina suffer from a shortage of food and drinking water, in addition to the lack of medicines and the suspension of hospitals from work.
The official explained that the residents were already suffering before the start of the armed clashes between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, and that most of them were displaced due to tribal conflicts in the past.
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