Students were trapped in hospitals and diplomats were attacked

The university of Khartoum, in a bloody tussle between army and paramilitary forces, recalls the death of a soldier killed in the street

Students at the University of Khartoum have been trapped inside campus buildings for more than three days due to gunfire and shelling around them.

Due to its close proximity to the general command of the armed forces, the university area has become the epicenter of the fighting between the army and paramilitary group.

While inside the university library, 20-year old Al-Muzaffar Farouk said it was frightening that his country would turn into a battlefield.

One student has already been killed by gunfire outside and leaving is not an option as food and water are running low. He was struck while trying to run to the library from a nearby building.

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 people from the campus.

Khartoum has been wracked by violence and chaos in a bloody tussle for power between Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan’s military leader, and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, head of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The leaders blamed each other for insingating the fighting and breaking temporary ceasefires. Meanwhile, civilians are paying the price, with at least 180 people killed and 1,800 others injured, according to UN officials on Monday.

“I can see outside smoke rising from buildings. I can hear blasts from my house, heavy gunfire outside. The streets are empty, according to a Red Cross staffer.

They describe a dire situation in the city, with no electricity, water or medicine, as they cower amid the brutal urban warfare going on in their residential neighborhoods.

The majority of civilian injuries are from being caught in the crossfire. The injured are not able to reach hospitals due to the heavy use of street fighting. There are dead bodies lying in the streets and nobody can retrieve them. 183 wounded patients have been brought to the hospital supported by the Doctors Without Borders. Eleven have died.

Yesterday, an American diplomatic convoy was fired on. “All of our people are safe, but this action was reckless and irresponsible and it could have dire consequences,” said the Secretary of State.

Western officials claim that the EU ambassador in Sudan was held at arm’s length and robbed after armed men broke into his home.

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. The United Nations World Food Program says three of its workers were killed.

A spokesperson for the RSF rebutted the accusation, claiming that they had been trying to abide by the ceasefire, but “they keep firing which leaves no choice” but for the RSF to “defend itself by firing back.”

“The secretary expressed his grave concern about the death and injury of so many Sudanese civilians due to the sustained, indiscriminate fighting, and stressed the responsibility of the two generals to ensure the safety and well-being of civilians, diplomatic personnel, and humanitarian workers,” Mr. Patel said.

In his own statement, Dagalo said the RSF “will have another call” to continue dialogue. Burhan’s office also confirmed he had spoken with Blinken about the critical situation in Sudan.

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The foreign ministers of the G7 nations called on warring parties to stop hostilities immediately in a joint statement from Japan.

Volker Perthes, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Sudan, said on Monday the organization has been trying to convince the two rival parties to “hold the fire” for a period of time, and asked them to protect embassies, UN offices, humanitarian and medical facilities.

When CNN talked to Burhan on Monday, the sound of gunshots rang out in the background as he claimed that the truce had been violated for the second day in a row.

The two generals, who together seized power in a coup in 2021, have now turned against each other — rebuffing all attempts by mediators who for months had been pressing them to unite their fighting forces under one umbrella, relinquish power and allow a transition to civilian rule.

The morning started with shelling at a medical center. Then members of a paramilitary force barged in, ordered newborns and others to be evacuated, and then took up positions, the doctor said.

“The hospital turned into a battlefield,” said the doctor, Musab Khojali, an emergency room physician at the Police Hospital in Burri, northeast of the capital, Khartoum.

Heavy fighting has been raging across Sudan for the last four days as a power struggle between the country’s two top military commanders has led to bloodshed. Sudan’s Ministry of Health said that 270 people have been killed and more than 2,600 wounded. The United States’ diplomatic convoy was attacked on Monday in a sign of the security situation in the capital.

It was not clear who was in control of Sudan, despite leaders in the world calling for a cease-fire.

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A mechanical engineer goes out to try and charge his cellphone, and everyone is afraid. It can be seen in their eyes. People are in panic.

The fighting began when forces loyal to the commander in chief of the Sudanese army clashed with those that were loyal to the head of the paramilitary group.

Only the army has aircraft, and on Monday, General Hamdan accused his rival of “bombing civilians from the air.” The army said that it was following the rules of conflict and international humanitarian law.

And on Monday, the U.N. envoy to Sudan, Volker Perthes, said gunmen had been looting and burning warehouses holding critically needed aid, as well guesthouses and offices of agencies like the World Food Program and UNICEF.

António Guterres, the U.N. secretary general, said he had spoken with both warring generals and expressed deep concern. He said the humanitarian situation in Sudan was already precarious.

The secretary of state spoke to General al-Burhan and General Hamdan about the need for an immediate cease-fire, according to a State Department spokesman.

General hamdan had discussed their shared dedication to freedom, justice and democracy with Mr. Blinken in a vital conversation.

Mr. Perthes said that they had made it clear that they had no intention of ending the fighting, and that he was talking to their leaders daily. They are, however, receptive to the idea of a “pause” to allow humanitarian access, he said.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/04/18/world/sudan-khartoum-fighting-news/the-eus-top-humanitarian-aid-officer-in-sudan-was-shot-in-khartoum

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Aid workers say that although toll on civilians is the main concern in Khartoum, they are also concerned about the situation outside of the capital.

Save the Children, an aid organization, said on Monday that looters had stolen medical supplies for children, as well as a refrigerator, laptops and cars in a raid on one of its offices in Darfur. The group’s Sudan director, Arshad Malik, called on the combatants to safeguard humanitarian services.

“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.”

Mr. Paye said that the hospital was running out of supplies to treat survivors. “It is running out of medicines and blood. Fuel supplies for the hospital generator are running low, and there has been a power outage in the city since the fighting began.

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 top diplomat for the bloc said this constitutes a violation of the Vienna Convention. Sudan’s authorities have a primary responsibility for the security of diplomatic premises and staff.

The destruction of airplanes and medical supplies at the airport of Khartoum during the weekend civil-military braneworld violence

observers were paying close attention to Egypt because of concerns that the conflict may entangle other nations.

Since 2019, when pro-democracy protesters forced Sudan’s autocratic president to step down, Egypt has been eager to keep a civilian-led democracy from taking root on its southern doorstep, analysts have said. 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 their neighbor stable and off a path that could inspire Egyptians, and they have embraced General al-Burhan as an ally, even after one Rapid Support Forces faction captured Egyptian soldiers and seven Egyptian warplanes over the weekend.

It has been difficult to get from one place to another because of the fighting. 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, using satellite imagery, has identified 20 planes that have been destroyed or badly damaged at the airport since the conflict erupted.

Many people came out of their homes, traffic started to build in some areas and the situation was quiet on Monday evening, according to the residents of Omdurman. Many homes still did not have water or electricity.

Many residents in the capital prefer to stay at home. Mr. Abuhurira, the electrical engineer who charged his phone on the street said there was no one to see or hear him.

Millions of people trapped in their homes are bearing the brunt of the violence, as humanitarian workers are unable to deliver supplies and medical facilities are under attack.

Our priority is to get our staff from the intense fighting areas and restore access to health facilities. We have stock of medical supplies, but little access, so we are prepared. We are ready to go if there is a humanitarian corridor opening.

Our warehouses are one of the places that have been looters in Nyala, South Darfur. This is a structure that should be protected, it’s for humanitarian purposes, there is no justification for it to be targeted.

Hundreds of people have been killed in the streets over the last four days. They’ve been trapped in their own houses, and they’re out of business

There are stray bullets hitting the water pipes in my office. The city has had no water or electricity for four days. I saw people queuing for water yesterday, despite the risk of crossfire. The phone network is functioning so far. People aren’t able to charge phones if they don’t have electricity. It is not easy to refuel a generator as gas stations are not open. If this situation continues the suffering will increase.

We’ve heard about attacks on diplomats and videos of shells hitting people’s houses. The noise has been loud since Saturday. While I’m talking to you, I am hearing anti-aircraft fire.

A mother was crouching to protect her child while she shot in the street. A toddler trapped in a building that’s been shelled, separated from her mother. A whole family hiding under a bed, with children crying from the sound of constant gunfire and shelling.

Her voice raw from breathing in smoke from gunfire and bombings, she says: “The children are crying because they’re very, very scared and the house is shaking… all our family stay under the bed, the war planes over us.”

It’s impossible for civilians to reach family members from whom they are separated, Salih says, so people are effectively prisoners in their own homes. One woman she knew had tried to move from one location to a safer place with her children — and was shot dead by the RSF.

“On Saturday morning, everyone was kind of caught unawares,” Khair says. “It’s the kind of warfare one might expect in a battlefield, but instead it’s taking place right in the heart of town. There is uncertainty that is driving people’s fears and anxiety, and that is the biggest problem for a lot of people.

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The art curator, who is five months pregnant, toldNPR she is trapped in a house with her sister and nephew. They are beginning to run out of food.

She says that the fight has come to her neighborhood. Three people were killed two minutes away from my house from anti-aircraft, we’re very frightened and scared and we have a poor situation in terms of supplies.

Tariq, 30, is a member of one of Sudan’s grassroots pro-democracy resistance committees. She was involved in a peaceful people power revolution in 2019 that brought down President Omar al-Bashir, the North African country’s longtime dictator and an indicted war criminal. Since then she’s continued her activism, hoping to see a democratic Sudan.

But that dream has been repeatedly hijacked by military forces. First there was the 2021 coup, and now there’s the fighting between the Sudanese army and the RSF. The RSF was created by the notorious Janjaweed militia that was responsible for the abuses in Sudan’s western region of Darfur.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/04/19/1170838123/sudan-khartoum-fighting

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The neighborhood committees went out last night and did graffiti to remind people that our voices are here. We’re trying to be heard, because you know the bullets are always louder than people’s voices, but we’re trying to make it through.”