Between 10,000 and 20,000 people have fled the war in Sudan to take refuge in Chad, according to data released by the UN. The war yesterday entered the sixth day of fighting and shootings in the center of the capital of Sudan, Khartoum, and other areas of the country, while many of its inhabitants tried to flee the city on the eve of the holiday of Id al- Fitr (end of fasting), which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. The situation in Khartoum and its sister cities, Omdurman and Bahri, is extreme because since the beginning of the clashes between two rival generals, everything has been missing: running water, electricity, medicine and food.
Armed clashes between the Sudanese army and the powerful paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RFS) have caused 330 deaths and 3,200 injuries since Saturday, according to the WHO.
“It is an unprecedented, very serious, chaotic situation. No one expected that such intense fighting would suddenly begin in the main cities of the country”, said the executive director of Médecins Sans Frontières in East Africa, Jairo González. The Sudanese Doctors Union said that 70% of hospitals in Khartoum and other affected areas are out of service. None of them work fully in the capital. “The health collapse was reached on the first day of the conflict”, remarked the Spanish aid worker to Efe. Several UN organizations and agencies have been forced to suspend operations in a country where more than one in three inhabitants go hungry in normal times.
Fighting continued in the capital on Thursday after both sides again ignored a 24-hour truce they agreed on Wednesday for the second day in a row. “At quarter to five in the morning we were awakened by the sounds of airstrikes. We closed all the doors and windows because they were afraid that a stray bullet would pass us,” a resident of Khartoum told AFP. Nevertheless, a few tens of kilometers from the capital, life continues and houses are opened to accommodate the displaced. Thousands of people try to escape on foot or by car, under the crossfire. Many walked for hours, among corpses and charred vehicles. “Life is impossible in Khartoum,” said Alawia al-Taieb, 33, on her way south. “I did everything so that my children did not see the corpses.”
Also yesterday, some 170 Egyptian soldiers who were held by the rebels were evacuated in three planes to Cairo, in what is considered a gesture of communication between the two contenders.
