Sudan, Khartoum: soldiers and tanks on the streets, shots and explosions in the night, Emergency staff evacuated

ROME – The balance of clashes between the armed forces of the regular army and rapid support troops (RSF) worsens in Sudan. At the expense – as always – it is above all the civilian population. The people killed, at the moment, are at least 56; about 600 were injured. This was learned from a twitter broadcast by the Central Committee of Sudanese doctors. In the capital Khartoum alone there are currently 27 dead and 300 wounded. Among the victims there are also soldiers. Fighting in the streets of Khartoum are army troops loyal to the de facto leader of the African country, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, opposed to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), to the command by Sudan’s number 2, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commander of the notorious Janjaweed, accused of a truly impressive amount of crimes against humanity and massacres of entire black villages in Darfur and Kordofan.

Fighting all night long. Both forces in the field make it known that they keep the airport of the capital and other key places under their control. The bursts of automatic rifles and explosions were heard all night long – report the humanitarian workers of EMERGENCY, who work in the Salam Center for cardiac surgery in Khartoum. The rapid support formations also claimed to be present and control three other Sudanese airports, the army chief’s residence and the presidential palace. Claims instead denied in an interview with Al-Jazeera by a general of the regular army. firefights were also reported close to the state television station, at the moment it seems controlled by the rapid intervention forces.

Three WFP-WFP employees killed. Meanwhile, the number of victims is increasing by the hour. One of the Sudanese doctors’ unions has made it known that it cannot calculate, at the moment, exactly how many civilian victims there are. However, it was known that three employees of the World Food Programme (WFP-WFP), a United Nations body that provides food assistance to vulnerable communities, were killed during a clash between armed forces fighting in the western region of the country. Two other staff members were seriously injured. there are also reports of looting by soldiers of the rapid intervention forces from WFP vehicles.

The shipwreck towards the democratic transition. The civil war broke out not only due to tensions between the two military factions, in a context of transition to civilian government, but also due to opposing economic interests. The transition to a civilian-led government, after the coup d’état of October 25, 2021, when General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan seized power with arms. Thus, a tiring democratic transition that began in April 2019, when Omar Hassan el Bashir was deposed by popular acclaim, after 30 years of government, was drastically interrupted. The shipwreck of the attempt to build a democratic structure in the hands of civilian political forces, and the attempt to integrate the RSF into the regular army – opposed by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the janjaweed – has thrown the country back into chaos.

The voices of EMERGENCY operators. “At the moment we have remodeled the activity in our centers – explains Muhameda Tulumovic, director of the program in Sudan of the Organization founded by Gino Strada – in Salam Center for Cardiac Surgery in Khartoum many Sudanese staff members cannot go home for security reasons and will remain here. We closed the Mayo Children’s Center, at the gates of the capital, by evacuating the staff. From the cities where we operate with our other two pediatric centres, the news that we receive at the moment is, from Port Sudan, of the forces of order, the army and military tanks on the street, ready to intervene in the event of the spread of the clashes even if the situation is still under control; from Nyala, of the airport and closed shops and the armed forces just outside the city”. It should be remembered that EMERGENCY is present in Sudan with the Salam Center and with the pediatric centers of Mayo (Khartoum), Nyala (South Darfur) and Port Sudan where it offers free treatment to children under the age of 14.