A massacre near Khartoum and no one takes responsibility in the fierce fratricidal struggle that Sudan has suffered since April 15 and that brings it closer to total civil war. Between 22 and 31 people, according to the sources, died under shells on Saturday in the city of Omdurman, neighboring the capital, in one of the worst attacks on civilians since the conflict between rival generals began. The country’s army denied being behind the bombing.
The Rapid Support Forces (FAR) paramilitary group insisted yesterday to Efe that it has no intention of withdrawing from its positions in Khartoum or any other region of Sudan amid an increase in violence in a conflict that has lasted for almost three months. .
António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, warned that Sudan is on the verge of “a full-scale civil war”, as clashes continued yesterday in the capital. The conflict directly threatens not only the balance in the country, which has been shattered, but that of the entire region, as Farhan Haq, spokesman for Guterres, analyzed yesterday.
Egypt has agreed to host an urgent summit on Thursday to calm things down. All statements and movements warn of a conflict that can reach deep and poisonous roots, especially for the civilian population.
Chaos has engulfed Sudan as a result of strong disagreements between chief general Abdel Fattah Burhan and his rival, also general Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commander of the aforementioned FAR paramilitary group. The confrontation between these two figures has its origin in the alliance that both forged to carry out a coup a year and a half ago, in 2021, and thus overthrow the transitional government supported by the West. The coup cut short the hopes of the population to move towards a democratic model longed for by the population, which had risen up against the long-standing autocrat Omar al Bashir in April 2019. For weeks, the streets of both Khartoum and other cities Sudanese have become battlefields.
The Minister of Health, Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim, commented a few days ago that the escalation of violence since mid-April has claimed the lives of more than 3,000 people and injured at least twice as many. The number of fatalities, however, aims to be much higher than officially declared and there is talk of more than 11,000 injuries, according to data handled by the World Health Organization. Nearly three million people (out of a country of 45 million total) have left their homes to seek refuge in safer areas of the country.
“The armed forces clarify that the Air Force did not deal with any hostile targets in Omdurman yesterday,” the army said in a statement a day after rival FAR militias reported the deaths of “more than 31 people.” The situation in the area makes counting difficult.
The countries bordering Sudan – Egypt, Libya, Chad, South Sudan, Central African Republic, Ethiopia and Eritrea – will hold a summit on Thursday to discuss “ways to end the conflict” and how to mitigate the “negative repercussions” of the war on Sudanese soil, which has sparked a wave of refugees and intensified concerns about insecurity in the region. The meeting has been convened by the Egyptian president, Abdul Fatah al Sisi, in order to “create a common vision for the neighboring countries of Sudan.”
