In Sudan, Khartoum is emptying of its inhabitants

A gear has started in Sudan that nothing seems to be able to stop. Not even the commanders of the two opposing armies. Since Saturday, April 15 and the start of clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (FAS), led by General Abdel Fattah Al-Bourhane, and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, known as “Hemetti” , the three ceasefires that have been announced have been shattered.

Five days since Saturday, the inhabitants of the capital, Khartoum, where most of the fighting with Darfur is concentrated, have had no respite. The regular army multiplies the air strikes on the positions of the FSR, now considered as rebels by the staff. The paramilitaries respond with their anti-aircraft guns and volleys of heavy weapon fire.

Both sides proceed to fire artillery in the middle of the houses. Embassies have been hit. Shells fall haphazardly, ripping open houses, blowing roofs. Nearly 300 people have already been killed in the clashes and more than 3,000 injured, according to the World Health Organization. Thirty-nine hospitals out of the 59 in the capital are no longer operational, deprived of electricity, staff and equipment. Nine of them were bombed. Some civilians injured by stray bullets drag themselves to the emergency room only to find themselves facing closed doors and having to turn back.

Delicate evacuations

Pulling themselves out of the hell of the fighting, leaving the corpses of soldiers lying in the dust and charred carcasses of armored vehicles, thousands of people fled the city. For decades, Khartoum has been home to hundreds of thousands of Sudanese displaced by armed conflicts across the country. It is emptying, for the first time in its history, of its inhabitants.

The FSR, who control much of the center of the city, announced the creation of an emergency number to evacuate civilians in distress. At the same time, their soldiers continued to enter houses, looting, arbitrarily arresting residents and using certain houses as centers of operation. Aid workers have been attacked and several sexual assaults recorded, including a case of rape involving a Japanese expatriate. The Japanese government is the first to have declared on Wednesday April 19 that it was preparing to evacuate its nationals.

This type of operation promises to be extremely delicate, while the shooting and the bombardments are constant and the Khartoum airport remains unusable. Above all, diplomatic circles are skeptical about the credibility of the ceasefires announced at regular intervals by the two parties. Generals Al-Bourhane and Hemetti have repeatedly proven, since their coup of October 25, 2021, that they excel in the art of doublespeak and struggle to control their own troops.

“Since the reign of Omar Al-Bashir, the country has experienced growing militia. Chains of command are not perfectly vertical”, analyzes Hafiz Ibrahim, human rights defender for the organization Justice Africa. Although the RSF, born out of the Janjawid militias that raged in Darfur in the early 2000s, try to present themselves as a modern and disciplined army, they have in their ranks battalions of soldiers experienced in exactions. On the opposite side, “the regular army is plagued by the Islamist current, which maintains close ties with many officers and controls militias that follow their own agenda and do not respond directly to orders” of General Al-Bourhane, he continues.

conflict to death

On Wednesday evening, a new one-day ceasefire was agreed to by both sides. The fighting decreased in intensity, but still continued sporadically in the capital. The two armies take advantage of the lull to move their men and repatriate reinforcements to the capital.

The FAS, which seem to control the big cities in the east and south of the country, from the Red Sea to the mountains of Kordofan, dispatched to Khartoum regiments stationed until then in the region of Gedaref, on the Ethiopian border. Clashes took place around El-Obeid, in the center, while columns of the regular army moving towards the capital were intercepted by the RSF, which seem to be well established in Darfur.

Western Sudan is also plunged into darkness and flames. The inhabitants find themselves under the bombardments of the rival forces, which dispute the strategic sites of this region. “Al-Fasher is a heap of ashes”, summarizes Huzeifa El-Fil, a resident of the city, while the FSR have redoubled their offensive on the headquarters of the FAS on the outskirts of the city. In southern Darfur, the town of Nyala is the scene of “looting and attacks by militiamen from the north of the city, in particular from Oum Al-Qura, known to be the stronghold of the Hemetti family”which are engulfed in the wake of the RSF, according to a journalist working for the NGO Darfur Monitors.

Five days after the start of hostilities, neither side seems to have the advantage. The two rival generals, who remain deaf to calls for de-escalation from the international community, are embroiled in a conflict to the death. An uncontrollable spiral, fueled by some neighboring countries, according to information from the Wall Street Journal. While a plane loaded with ammunition, chartered by Libyan General Khalifa Haftar, would have reached the FSR, the FAS would benefit from Egyptian air support to carry out their operations.