At least 97 civilians have been killed and 942 injured since the outbreak of fighting between the Sudanese army and paramilitary groups, the official doctors’ union said on Monday.
The union reported the deaths of 56 civilians on Saturday and 41 on Sunday, about half of them in the capital Khartoum. As for the fighters, the dead are counted “by the dozens”, the doctors assure.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said “several of the nine hospitals in Khartoum receiving injured civilians are without blood, transfusion equipment, intravenous fluids and other vital supplies”.
That’s what other medical sources said patients and their families “run out of food or drink” and that patients who have already recovered cannot leave hospitals safely, creating “a congestion that prevents everyone from being cared for”.
The group also mentioned power cuts in the operating rooms.
In some districts of Khartoum, both the electricity supply and the supply of drinking water have been completely cut off since Saturday. The few supermarkets that remain open have already warned that they could run out of food in a matter of days.
The Sudanese army assured on Sunday evening that the situation was “extremely stable” and that fighting was “limited”, while paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF, in its English acronym) said they were “on track for victory”. definitive”.
The paramilitaries claimed to have captured the airport and entered the presidential palace, something the Sudanese armed forces denied.
More than a thousand people were evacuated from centers and facilities in Khartoum on Sunday, through humanitarian corridors in the city and in a brief three-hour lull in the fighting, a Sudanese Red Crescent official told Efe news agency.
However, hostilities did not cease in areas far from urban centers, such as near the army headquarters, or near Khartoum International Airport, where an explosion occurred at a fuel depot.
Over the weekend, clashes between the two sides intensified amid a power struggle between the two generals who have ruled Sudan since the 2021 coup.
The clashes began on Saturday morning, two days after the army warned the country was in a “dangerous situation” that could lead to armed conflict, following the deployment of RSF units in the Sudanese capital and other cities without authorization or coordination. of the armed forces.
US and UK call for an immediate end to violence in Sudan
However, the US and UK heads of diplomacy, meeting at a G7 meeting in Japan, called for an immediate end to violence in Sudan.
“There is a strong shared concern about the fighting, the violence in Sudan, the threat it poses to civilians, the Sudanese nation and possibly even the region,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said after a meeting with the British minister. of Foreign Affairs. James smart.
“We ask you to prioritize peace, stop fighting and resume negotiations. This is what the Sudanese people want, this is what the Sudanese people deserve,” Blinken added.
“All our partners firmly believe in the need for an immediate ceasefire and resumption of talks,” he said.
The talks “were promising and put Sudan on the path of a full transition to a civilian-led government,” added the US official from Karuizawa, central Japan, where G7 chiefs of diplomacy met.
.
Source: DN
