Sudan, “Here the truce has never started again, it opens up and bombs”: the political and economic knot of the conflict remains to be resolved

ROME – There is a truce only announced in Khartoum, according to testimonies arriving from Sudan. And this despite the crossed declarations of wanting to suspend the fighting. Late yesterday evening, sporadic shelling still echoed in the country’s capital. Therefore, it appears evident how the differences between the two strong men in power in Sudan – Abdel Fattah al Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, respectively president and vice president of the governing junta, first allies and now rivals – essentially concern the future of the paramilitary forces of rapid support (Rsf). In short, the return to the democratic transition depends on their inclusion in the regular troops. The leaders of the Sudanese army do not reject this compromise, but want to impose their admission conditions and limit their integration. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hededti), on the other hand, claims a broad inclusion and, above all, a central role within the general staff.

The political and economic knot. The crucial question is therefore that of the role of the armed forces and their composition. In fact, the army has always played a fundamental role in Sudan and holds a large part of the power, not only politically, but also economically. It controls many key activities for the country. And here also lies the reason for the stiffening of the head of the Rapid Support Forces. But other problems continue to undermine the feasibility of the agreement, despite the two factions announcing truces and willingness to reopen the airports to allow the evacuation of foreign nationals.

The testimony of an Emergency doctor. “According to what we have learned and heard, there has never been a truce here – he tells theSAY agency Franco Masini from Emergency Heart Surgery Center Salam in Khartoum, where he is the medical coordinator – we are in a peripheral area of ​​the capital and yesterday around 6 pm, when the second truce should have taken place, we heard much louder shots about a kilometer away, probably near the disputed bridge over the Nile by army and militiamen. Clashes continued into the night. Now there is silence, probably the exchanges have only moved”.

Blackout, hundreds of dead and thousands injured. In the capital of Sudan, the second truce agreed yesterday since the beginning of hostilities, Saturday 15 April, between the army and paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), protagonists of six days of hostilities, did not hold. Almost 300 dead according to the World Health Organization, and over 3 thousand injured. Blackouts of electricity, water and communications in various neighborhoods. Clashes are also taking place in other regions of the country. To the Salam Center – literally ‘Peace Center’ in Arabic – “electricity and water have never been lacking”, says the doctor, “but I know from some colleagues in the airport area that supplies have been cut off”.

Forced to undersize the medical staff. What worries the heart surgeon originally from Parma, who has decided to dedicate his retirement years to this center of excellence 4,000 kilometers from home – from 2007 to Salam 91,482 consultations were carried out and 10,262 patients operated on, making it a point of reference in the region – the fact that in the next few hours the holy month of Ramadan will end, opening to the Muslim celebrations of Eid Al-Fitr, which marks the breaking of the fast: “It’s one of the most important holidays, and it lasts three days. A third of our staff comes from distant neighborhoods or other cities and will want to go home to celebrate it with their family, also because they’ve been stuck here since the beginning of the clashes. This – warns the manager – makes us fear to remain with understaffed staff, medical and otherwise”.

Soon there will be a shortage of food and medicines. It is not clear whether a third truce will be attempted during the celebrations, nor what effects it could have, but as Masini points out “it would be important to implement and respect it” because, as the crisis progresses, the suffering for civilians increases: “They will soon start to run short food and medicines. In our hospital we are not having problems, but we, like others, cannot receive supplies either from the country or from abroad, he added – we also have blood supplies but we have run out of platelets”. The surgical center therefore reduced its activities: “We normally do 4-5 surgeries a day, while since Sunday we have only carried out two. It is too risky to operate without platelets – an important component of blood – and we want to avoid having to resort to intensive care”, concludes the coordinator of Emergency.