Three humanitarian workers from the World Food Program (WFP) have been killed in the fighting in Sudan, the UN envoy announced on Sunday April 16 in this North-East African country, which has been in the crossfire for more than twenty years. four hours from the army and its paramilitary rivals.
They were killed “Saturday doing their work in North Darfur”in the west of the country, near Chad, which closed its border on Saturday because of the violence, specifies Volker Perthes in a press release. He adds that “humanitarian buildings have been hit, and others looted, in Darfur”, historic bastion of the Rapid Support Force (RSF) of General Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, known as “Hemetti”, won by fighting between the army and paramilitaries. WFP said it was temporarily suspending all its operations in Sudan, a country in the grip of a serious economic crisis, until calm returns.
The army and the RSF have announced that they will open at 4 p.m. (Paris time) and for three hours “humanitarian corridors” to evacuate the wounded, keeping on both sides a “Right to Respond in the Event of a Violation” of the agreement.
At least 56 civilians dead
Fighting between the troops of the two rival generals, Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Al-Bourhane on one side, Hemetti on the other, continued on Sunday. At least 56 civilians were killed in 24 hours, and “tens” fighters have been mowed down by bullets, rockets and other projectiles fired from tanks or planes since Saturday morning, reports a network of pro-democracy doctors, which lists more than 600 wounded.
Street battles and armored vehicles across the roads prevent any movement in the capital, Khartoum: armed men wander there in fatigues, who come across rare civilians, who are carrying a few belongings, in search of shelter. Columns of smoke have risen since Saturday from the city center, where the main state institutions are located.
The conflict had been simmering for weeks, preventing any political settlement. The country has been trying, since the popular revolt that overthrew Omar Al-Bashir in 2019, to organize its first free elections after thirty years of dictatorship.
During the putsch that ended the democratic transition in October 2021, army chief Al-Bourhane and RSF boss Hemetti appeared together, forming a common front to oust civilians from power. The rivalry between the two generals, latent for weeks, exploded on Saturday in Khartoum, which awoke to the sound of explosions and fighting.