Sudan Live updates: Attempt at Cease-Fire Fails as Reports of Fighting Continue
The hospital in Sudan has been running out of supplies since the first day of fighting, according to World Health Organization Msgr. Dr. Eric Paye
A third day of intense fighting in Sudan left at least 100 people dead, with hundreds more injured, as warplanes rained bombs on the capital.
The RSF insisted that they had tried to abide by the ceasefire but were forced to fire back because of the constant firing.
Video footage shows military jets and helicopter hitting the airport and another shows the charred remains of the army’s General Command building next to it.
According to the preliminary committee of the Sudanese Doctors trade union, 97 people have been killed. More than 1,200 were injured, according to the World Health Organization.
Mr. Paye said the hospital was running out of supplies to treat survivors. It is short on blood and medicines. There has also been a power outage in the city since the beginning of the fighting, and fuel supplies for the hospital generator are also running low.”
The situation in Darussein: the end of the army and the era of civilian control? A comment on Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdul Fateh
He speculated that the army chief and his rival, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, had lost control of the military. When asked if his endgame was to rule Sudan, Dagalo said he had “no such intentions,” and that there should be a civilian government.
There is fighting in the streets and snipers on top of buildings. The humanitarian assistance has been completely jeopardized. We have medical supplies that we can’t move. We can’t take the risk to move our staff when there is no guarantee of their safety. Most people are sheltering wherever they were on Saturday, so in the worst areas people have been trapped for four days. In other areas, movement is restricted due to armed vehicles in the neighborhood.
“All we can hear is continuous blast after blast. They said that it felt like it was over their heads when they didn’t know what was happening.
Deriving News from a Conflict in Sudan: Warring factions and the future of the army-dominated government-owned TV channels, aid groups and the United Nations
The government-owned national TV Channel is off the air, making it impossible to get information. Television employees told CNN that it is in the hands of the RSF.
The turn of events has worsened a crisis in a nation where one-third of its 45 million people were already in need of food aid. Now, the violence has forced aid groups to suspend operations. Three of its workers died, according to the United Nations World Food Program.
Save the Children said on Monday that some looters had stolen medical supplies for children, a fridge and laptops, and cars during a raid on one of its offices. Arshad Malik, the group’s Sudan director, had some words of caution for the soldiers.
Meanwhile, Mexico is working to evacuate its citizens from Sudan, with the country’s foreign minister saying Sunday it is looking to “expedite” their exit.
The US Embassy in Sudan says there are no plans to evacuate Americans as a result of the closed Khartoum airport. US citizens can shelter in place and be advised that an announcement may be made if the need arises to evacuate private citizens.
The fresh clashes have prompted widespread calls for peace and negotiations. Faki, head of the African Union Commission, will be in Sudan on Monday in an attempt to stop the fighting.
People in Sudan want the military back in the barracks, they also want a civilian-led government. Sudan needs to return to that path,” Blinken said, speaking on the sidelines of the G7 foreign minister talks in Japan on Monday.
The UN’s political mission in Sudan has said the country’s two warring factions have agreed to a “proposal” although it is not yet clear what that entails.
The duo played a big part in the military coup in 2001 that ended the power sharing between the military and civilian groups.
Sources in Sudan’s civilian movement and Sudanese military sources told CNN the main points of contention included the timeline for the merger of the forces, the status given to RSF officers in the future hierarchy, and whether RSF forces should be under the command of the army chief, rather than Sudan’s commander-in-chief, who is currently Burhan.
The Central Committee for Sudanese Doctors said that more than a dozen hospitals had been forced to close. “Hospitals in Sudan are under bombardment,” the group said.
The fighting began on Saturday, when forces loyal to Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, the head of the paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces, began clashing with forces loyal to the Sudanese army chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
When the shelling exploded in the Al-Moallem hospital, Sudanese-British doctor and the family of a child who was killed
Some patients were left behind when staff were forced to evacuate the Al-Moallem hospital.
The medic who was in the hospital on Sunday said that he had no doubts that the hospital was targeted by theRSF. CNN did not use any of the real names of the hospital medics for safety reasons.
A medic said a 6-year-old child died in the building. Two children were wounded. As the shelling intensified, medics and patients huddled together in the corridor and prayed.
At first we were praying for salvation,” the medic said. “Then when the shelling got worse, we started to discuss what would be the most painless part of the body to be shot in and began to pray instead to die painlessly.”
Another medic said that they left behind children in intensive care without medical personnel and that they were left behind by the hospital. “The smell of death was everywhere.”
“Food in the fridge and freezers have gone bad,” Eman Abu Garjah, a Sudanese-British doctor based in Khartoum, told CNN. “We don’t have any supplies at the moment, that’s why we’re trying to go somewhere where the shops are open.”
“It’s Ramadan, we’re up for early morning prayers and after that usually you have a little bit of a siesta and wake up again for the afternoon prayers. But sleep was just not possible. The house was shaking and the windows were shaking.
Burhan’s Army Headquarters in Sudan under Janjaweed Law Violations of the Vienna Convention and the March 2019 Unrest in Khartoum
When CNN spoke to Burhan on Monday afternoon, the sound of gunshots rang out in the background despite the supposed ceasefire – and Burhan claimed Dagalo had violated it for the second day.
“Yesterday and today a humanitarian ceasefire proposal was put forward and agreed upon,” said Burhan from army headquarters, as gunshots rang out in the background.
“Sadly, he did not abide by (the ceasefire),” he added. “You can hear right now the attempts to storm the Army headquarters, and indiscriminate mortar attacks. He is using the humanitarian pause to continue the fight.
“We’re under attack from all directions,” Dagalo told CNN’s Larry Madowo in a telephone interview on Sunday. The other side stopped fighting and we had to keep fighting to protect ourselves, he claimed.
He led Sudan’s notorious Janjaweed forces from the early 2000s, which were involved in human rights violations and atrocities.
In 2007, its troops were part of the country’s intelligence services, and in the following year, they were created as a paramilitary group overseen by him and led by Dagalo. Dagalo turned against Bashir in 2019.
Months before the coup that unseated Bashir in April 2019, Dagalo’s forces opened fire on an anti-Bashir, pro-democracy sit-in in Khartoum, killing at least 118 people.
This constitutes a gross violation of the Vienna convention according to Josep Borrell Fontelles, the top diplomat for the bloc. The responsibility of security of diplomatic premises and staff is shared by Sudan and other countries.
This is NAIROBI, which is in Africa. Hospitals trying to help the wounded in Sudan on Monday were no longer able to do so as two competing generals duked it out for power.
The doctor said that the police hospital in north Sudan had turned into a battlefield.
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It was not clear who was in control of Sudan, even though world leaders called for a cease-fire.
“I can see outside smoke rising from buildings. And I can hear from my residence blasts, heavy gunfire from outside. The streets are totally empty,” said Red Cross staffer Germain Mwehu from Khartoum.
The mechanical engineer who went to try to charge his cellphone said that everyone was afraid. You can see it in their eyes. People are confused.
Only the army has aircraft, and on Monday, General Hamdan accused his rival of “bombing civilians from the air.” The Sudanese Army said in a statement that it was “operating within the rules of conflict and international humanitarian law.”
António Guterres, the U.N. secretary general, said he had spoken with both warring generals and expressed deep concern. “The humanitarian situation in Sudan was already precarious and is now catastrophic,” he said.
The American Secretary of State called for an immediate cease-fire and said General al-Burhan must ensure the protection of civilians and people from third countries.
Mr. Perthes told us that the commanders of both military groups had made it clear that they had no intention of ending the fighting. They are, however, receptive to the idea of a “pause” to allow humanitarian access, he said.
“For the past three days,” he said in a statement, “people across Sudan have been gripped by fear, not knowing if it is safe to leave their homes, and now having to make the choice between facing that fear and starving to death.”
Cyrus Paye, a coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in North Darfur, said in a statement that most of the wounded there were “civilians who were caught in the crossfire — among them are many children.”
Western officials reported that the European Union ambassador to Sudan had been threatened at gun and robbed after armed men broke into his home.
The conflict in Sudan between the paramilitary group and rapid support forces: an attack on civilians in the presence of the Sudanese army
The assailants were members of the Rapid Support Forces paramilitaries, identified by their uniforms, several officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity for security reasons.
The United Nations’ spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, said that people were being forced out of their apartments in Khartoum.
With concern growing that the conflict may entangle other nations, observers were paying close attention to Egypt, which has enmeshed itself deeply into the affairs of its neighbor.
Since pro-democracy protesters forced Sudan’s authoritarian president to step down, analysts have said that Egypt has been eager to keep a civilian led democracy from taking root in its southern doorstep. Ruled by a military-backed government that came to power after its own antigovernment uprising in 2011, Egypt has sought to replicate similar leadership in Sudan.
Egyptian officials see a strongman as the best way of keeping its neighbor stable — and off a democratic path that could inspire Egyptians — and they have embraced General al-Burhan as an ally, especially after one Rapid Support Forces faction captured Egyptian soldiers and seven Egyptian warplanes over the weekend.
The fighting makes transit in and out of the country difficult. At the main airport in Khartoum, airplanes were targeted again on Monday as the rival military factions fought for control over critical infrastructure.
The New York Times has used satellite images to find 20 planes that have been damaged or destroyed at the airport.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/04/17/world/sudan-fighting-news/who-are-the-rapid-support-forces-the-paramilitary-group-fighting-the-sudanese-army
An Israeli student killed by gunfire and artillery on a university campus in Omdurman: “It will turn into a battlefield overnight”
Many people came out of their homes in the city of Omdurman, northwest of the capital, on Monday evening, saying the situation was quiet. Many households, however, still lacked water or electricity.
In the capital, many residents found it safest to stay home. The electrical engineer, Mr. Abuhurira, went to charge his phone but was not approached by anyone on the street.
For more than three days, students at the University of Khartoum have been trapped inside campus buildings as artillery and gunfire rain down around them in Sudan’s capital.
The university area is located close to the general command of the military and has become a flashpoint for fighting due to the fact that there are warplanes overhead.
“It is scary that our country will turn into a battlefield overnight,” said 23-year-old Al-Muzaffar Farouk, one of 89 students, faculty members and staff sheltering inside the university library.
Food and water are running low, but leaving is not an option – one student has already been killed by gunfire outside. Khalid Abdulmun’em had been trying to run to the library from a nearby building when he was struck, said Farouk.
The university confirmed Abdulmun’em’s death in a Facebook post, saying he had been shot in the campus’ surroundings. In a separate post on Monday, the university urged humanitarian organizations to help evacuate dozens of people stranded on campus.
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The Sudanese capital has been engulfed with bloodshed in a bloody struggle between the military leader, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Force head, Hemedti.
“Yesterday, we had an American diplomatic convoy that was fired on. The action was irresponsible and unsafe and the people of the United States are not, according to Blinken, all safe.
The RSF accused the army of conducting airstrikes on residential neighborhoods and of attacking the EU ambassador’s headquarters in Khartoum; meanwhile, the army accused the RSF of targeting the ambassador’s residency, and of targeting the WFP’s headquarters in Darfur.
The RSF will have another request from him to continue dialogue, according to his own statement. Burhan’s office also confirmed he had spoken with Blinken about the critical situation in Sudan.
The foreign ministers of G7 nations, comprised of some of the world’s largest economies, urged the factions to “end hostilities immediately” in their joint statement from Japan on Tuesday.
The UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Sudan said on Monday the organization had been trying to convince the two sides to hold the fire for a while, and asked them to protect UN offices, humanitarian and medical facilities.
General Hamdan shared that he had spoken with Mr. Blinken about their dedication to freedom, justice and democracy for our people.
The Fourth Day of Fighting in Intense Sector of the Los Alamos-La Ceiba: A Mission to Restore Health and Safety for the Humanitarian Community
In my office we have electricity, but stray bullets have hit the water pipes. Other parts of the city have had no electricity or water for four days. People were queueing for water yesterday, even though there was a risk of crossfire. So far, the phone network is operational, though sometimes weak. But without electricity people can’t charge phones. Even if you have a generator, it is difficult to refuel it as gas stations are not open. If this situation continues the suffering will increase.
It was a shock to everyone that fighting broke out early Saturday morning. Nobody had time to stock up for an extended period. We are now on the fourth day and supplies have been depleted. Medicine access is very difficult. Food was mostly available in the first two days but all of the food in markets and small shops have run out. If this continues, we will have food shortages and most people will try to leave the city to the villages if they can.
Our priority is to get our staff from the intense fighting areas and restore access to health facilities. We are ready and prepared; we have stocks [of medical supplies] and manpower but very little access. When a humanitarian corridor opens, we are on stand-by.
