AFRICA/SUDAN – Khartoum coup: The situation in the country continues to deteriorate, amid armed attacks for three days
Monday 17 April 2023
Khartoum (Agenzia Fides) – After days of escalating tensions between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Intervention Forces (RSF) paramilitaries, the Sudanese capital is under siege between bombardments. Fighting broke out on Saturday April 15 and it seems that there is no ceasefire in the rest of the country either.
Missionary sources contacted by Agenzia Fides confirm that the situation is dramatic and very delicate. The civilian death toll continues to rise and hospitals in Khartoum have reached their maximum capacity. To date, there have been hundreds of deaths and thousands injured. According to the information available, the doctors’ union has called for the hospitals to remain neutral after the university hospital, located in the south of the capital, was badly damaged. A doctor who had intervened to help at the airport was also killed. A state of emergency was declared in all hospitals in the capital and doctors and medical staff were asked to go to their centers. In Khartoum in particular, there is fierce fighting over the presidential palace and control of the bridges over the Nile, the main connecting arteries between the various parts of the capital. Among the numerous messages and images that arrive, not all can be verified. State television stopped broadcasting and employees were evacuated after the clashes began on Saturday morning. There is a lack of electricity and drinking water and the population is locked in their homes. The two coup generals Buhan and Hamidati, who joined forces to prevent the transfer of power to a civilian government, are now at war with each other and blocking the democratic process. There have been many calls for a ceasefire, including from the political forces of the Coalition for Change, who are calling for a return to the negotiating table “because the war will have no winners, only losers”. An African Union delegation is attempting to reach Khartoum to meet directly with the two generals. The diplomatic chiefs of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates have contacted the two generals by telephone. The FAO has announced the cessation of all its humanitarian activities in Sudan following the killing of the three officials from the international organization.
Pope Francis also said after the recitation of Regina Coeli on Sunday 16th “I follow with concern the events in Sudan. Close to the already tried Sudanese people, I invite you to pray that arms will be laid down and dialogue will advance so that together we can resume the path of peace and harmony.
Although the population took to the streets on April 11 to celebrate the fall of the dictatorship in 2019, the situation came to a head on the eve of the signing of an agreement between the ruling authorities, the military and civil society forces for an interim government for the 2024 elections.
The situation has also escalated in other major cities in the country, especially in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, which has been plagued for months by militias known as “horse demons”, who were responsible for the 2003 genocide.
(AP) (April 17, 2023 Fides Service)
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