The corpses are piled up in the streets due to the impossibility of removing them due to the hardness of the fighting and the civilians, frightened, try to flee from Khartoum in the face of the increasingly fierce battle that is being waged. In just six days of fighting, several truces for humanitarian purposes have been agreed and, shortly after, violated. More than 400 people have lost their lives in Sudan after a conflict broke out last Saturday that had been warning of its potential virulence for weeks.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) again announced this Friday a 72-hour truce on the occasion of the eid al fitrthe date that marks the end of Ramadan, but the Army has not ruled. Witnesses present in the area assure that the fire and shots continue to weaken the city. In the midst of this complicated scenario, several humanitarian organizations have announced the temporary end of their missions in Sudan. It is the case of Save The Children, For example.
The NGO’s director in Sudan, Arshad Malik, asked all parties a few days ago to protect humanitarian assistance in a country where 15.8 million people, a third of the population, need help. “For the past three days, fear has gripped people across Sudan, who do not know if it is safe to leave their homes, and now have to choose between facing that fear or starving,” he warned.
failed truces
Likewise, it has considered “absolutely crucial for the survival of children and families” that there be a truce, “so that life-saving aid can be provided.” The World Food Program (WFP) already announced last Sunday the suspension of its operations after the death of three employees, and this Friday another worker of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has lost his life in a shooting at the convoy in Who was traveling.
United Nations has insisted since the outbreak of violence last Saturday at the opening of humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians and wounded, but neither side has respected them on the multiple occasions that have been announced. The UN special envoy in SudanVolker Perthes, He said he was “extremely disappointed” by the failure to comply with the truces, which he explained that “they are only partially fulfilled” despite the commitment of both parties.
In these brief pauses, for example, last Monday, it was possible to evacuation of more than 1,000 people in the capital in barely an hour, as confirmed by sources from the Sudanese Red Crescentas is the case of a school in the center of Khartoum, from which some 450 boys and girls who had been trapped since the start of the fighting on Saturday were able to get out.
Assistance and supplies
The Tripartite Mechanism, which includes the UN, the African Union (AU) and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), has been urging the warring parties in Sudan to respect “humanitarian pauses”, so that civilians can access aaassistance and supplies given the impossibility of receiving care and medicines in their own country. The Sudanese Doctors Union has denounced that hospitals in Khartoum and other cities in the country are being attacked and several of them have been “completely out of service” due to the clashes.
“The pause would provide an opportunity to allow civilians trapped in conflict zones to access critical assistance and supplies, receive medical assistance or exit safely,” the tripartite spokesmen said in the note. On the other hand, they insist that it is the obligation of both leaders, Abdelfatah al Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, “to communicate the decision well among their ranks.” “Only the Armed Forces and the RSF have the power to ensure that the pause is maintained and can guarantee the protection of civilians,” the mechanism warned.
The Sudanese Minister of Health, Ibrahim Haizam, assured this Friday in statements given to the Al Arabiya and Al Hadath television networks that there are “a large number” of corpses lying on the streets because they could not be removed due to the intensity of the the fighting, before warning that this poses a threat of epidemics.
Likewise, he stressed that close to a third of Khartoum hospitals are not operational and added that in some cases it is due to water cuts, hours after the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesusstated that “these reprehensible acts of violence not only endanger the lives of the healthcare workersbut deprive vulnerable people of essential medical care.
many children injured
The coordinator of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in sudanCyrus Ray, He explained on Thursday that the hospital that supports the non-governmental organization in the city of El Fasher has received 279 wounded since the start of the fighting, 44 of whom have died. “The situation is catastrophic. Most of the injured are civilians hit by stray bullets and many of them are children,” he said.
“They have fractures from gunshots, or have gunshot or shrapnel wounds to their legs, abdomen or chest. Many need blood transfusions. There are so many patients, who are being cared for on the floor of the corridors because there are simply not enough beds to accommodate the large number of injured,” Ray said, according to a statement from the organization.
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In this sense, he pointed out that “all the other hospitals in the city have had to close due to their proximity to the fighting or the inability of staff to reach them due to the intensity of the conflict.” “Surgeons from those hospitals have now come to our hospital and have been able to perform a series of surgical operations. However, they are rapidly running out of supplies,” he lamented.
“We were able to get to the hospital for resupply on Tuesday when there was a lull in the fighting, but if we can’t get more supplies to Darfur, and if we continue to receive such a high number of wounded, the existing medical supplies will only last us another three weeks.” , he said, before insisting that “within Sudan, nothing can move”.