17 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
At least 97 people have died in Sudan since fighting broke out this week between the Sudanese army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in the capital, Khartoum, and other parts of the country, according to the Sudanese Medical Committee.
This body has estimated the dead and 942 injured at 97, registering the majority of them in the Sudanese capital, according to a statement shared on its Facebook social network profile.
Thus, the country’s Committee of Doctors has once again appealed to “stop this war immediately” and allow “safe passages to be opened to evacuate” people who are trapped and injured.
The organization has also warned that hospitals and health facilities are not military safe havens. “Its violation is a crime against humanity, values and morals, and all treaties and pacts prohibit its violation,” reads the letter.
The Committee has published this statement hours after the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated the death toll at 83 and more than 1,100 wounded since the start of the clashes last Thursday. The WHO, which has reminded all parties to the conflict of their obligations under International Humanitarian Law, has indicated that it is monitoring needs in affected cities to ensure that resources go where they are most needed.
The main civil organizations and political parties in Sudan have demanded in unison over the weekend not only the end of the fighting between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), but also the end of the “militarization” that It has dominated the country’s “public space” for decades and, in particular, since the overthrow four years ago of dictator Omar al Bashir after a revolution in which civilians were instrumental.
Before the outbreak of the fighting, the African country was governed by a junta led by General Abdelfatá al Burhan, whose “number two” was the military leader of the RSF, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, alias “Hemedti”. The discrepancies between the two regarding the paramilitary integration in a future unified army ended up degenerating into this conflict.
