Clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Force and the army in Khartoum, Sudan. (file)
Khartoum, Sudan:
Sudan’s devastating war raged into a third month on Thursday as the reported death toll topped 2,000 and after a state governor in the remote Darfur region was killed.
Since 15 April, the regular army headed by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has been locked in fighting with the paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF), which is commanded by his former deputy, Mohammed Hamdan Dagallo.
According to the International Organization for Migration, the fighting has driven 2.2 million people from their homes, including 528,000 who have fled to neighboring countries.
“In our worst expectations, we have never seen this war drag on for so long,” said Mohammed al-Hassan Othman, one of more than a million civilians who fled heavy fighting in the capital Khartoum.
“Everything has changed in our lives,” he told AFP. “We don’t know whether we will return home or need to start a new life.”
The death toll has topped 2,000, according to the latest figures from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, which includes fighting as of June 9.
In the long-restile West Darfur state, violence claimed the life of Governor Khamis Abdullah Abkar, hours after he made comments critical of paramilitary forces in a telephone interview with a Saudi TV channel.
The United Nations stated that “compelling eyewitness accounts attribute the act to Arab militias and the RSF”, while the Darfur Lawyers Association condemned the act of “barbarism, brutality and brutality”.
Burhan accused his paramilitary forces of a “treacherous attack”. RSF denied responsibility and said it condemned Abkar’s “murder in cold blood”.
Kholud Khair, a Sudan analyst at the Khartoum-based think tank Confluence Advisory, said the “heinous killing” was meant to “silence his highlighting of genocide in Darfur”.
Meanwhile, UN aid chief Martin Griffiths warned that the situation in Darfur was “quickly escalating into a humanitarian disaster”.
“The world cannot allow this to happen. Not again,” he said in a statement, describing the reality there as a “living nightmare”.
The US State Department also condemned the violence in Darfur, calling it an “ominous reminder” of the bloodshed there 20 years ago that killed hundreds of thousands.
“The United States condemns in the strongest terms the ongoing human rights violations and abuses and appalling violence in Sudan, particularly reports of widespread ethnic-based sexual violence and killings in West Darfur by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and associated militias ” Matthew Miller said.
Daglo’s RSF has its origins in the Janjaweed militia, which former strongman Omar al-Bashir unleashed on ethnic minorities in the region in 2003, accusing it of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Miller said more than 1,100 civilians have been killed in El Jinina, the capital of West Darfur alone, while the United Nations reports that more than 273,000 people have been displaced from the region.
completely devastated
US and Saudi mediation efforts are at an impasse after several ceasefires failed in the face of open violations by both sides.
The East African Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has attempted to restart discussions by announcing this week that Kenya will chair a quartet, including Ethiopia, Somalia and South Sudan, tasked with resolving the crisis. Has gone.
The Burhan loyalist Foreign Ministry, in a statement on Thursday, “objected to Kenya’s presidency”, alleging that Nairobi “adopted RSF militia positions, sheltered its men and offered them various forms of support”. “.
The office of Kenyan President William Ruto – who has met with senior officials from both the RSF and the army in recent weeks – released a draft communique stating his intention to arrange “(a) face-to-face meeting” between (Burhan and Dagalo) was issued .. in one of the regional capitals”.
A Sudanese official told AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, that Burhan “will not sit at the same table” as the fighting showed no signs of ending.
A record 25 million people — more than half the population — are in need of aid, according to the UN, which says it has received only a fraction of the money it needs.
Saudi Arabia has announced an international pledging conference for next week.
Ahmed Taha, another man living in the capital, said, “We are left with nothing.” “The whole country is completely devastated … Every inch of Sudan is a disaster zone.”
Anja Volz of the aid group Doctors Without Borders said many of the displaced had lost loved ones, as well as “all their belongings and livelihoods”.
Meanwhile, Darfur has emerged as one of the main battlegrounds of the war.
Homes and markets have been burned, hospitals and aid facilities looted and more than 149,000 people have been deported to neighboring Chad.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)