Sudan raises the death toll from the clashes between the Army and the RSF paramilitaries to more than 600

The Minister of Health warns of the danger of epidemics due to the “large number” of corpses in the streets

21 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –

The Sudanese authorities have raised this Friday to more than 600 the number of deaths due to the fighting that broke out on April 15 between the Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and has detailed that the areas for the clashes are the capital, Khartoum, and the states of North Kordofan and Darfur.

The Sudanese Minister of Health, Ibrahim Haizam, has added in statements given to the Al Arabiya and Al Hadath television channels that there are “a large number” of corpses lying on the streets because they could not be removed due to the intensity of the fighting, before warning that this poses a threat of epidemics.

Likewise, he stressed that close to a third of Khartoum hospitals are not operational and added that in some cases it is due to water cuts, hours after the director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stated that “these reprehensible acts of violence not only endanger the lives of health workers, but deprive vulnerable people of essential medical care.”

The coordinator of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Sudan, Cyrus Ray, explained on Thursday that the hospital that supports the non-governmental organization in the city of El Fasher has received 279 wounded since the start of the fighting, 44 of whom Have they died. “The situation is catastrophic. Most of the injured are civilians hit by stray bullets and many of them are children,” he said.

“They have fractures caused by bullets, or they have gunshot or shrapnel wounds in their legs, abdomen or chest. Many need blood transfusions. There are so many patients, they are being treated on the floor of the corridors, because they simply there are not enough beds to accommodate the large number of injured,” Ray warned, according to a statement from the organization.

In this sense, he pointed out that “all the other hospitals in the city have had to close due to their proximity to the fighting or the impossibility of the personnel to reach them due to the intensity of the conflict.” “Surgeons from those hospitals have now come to our hospital and have been able to perform a series of surgeries. However, they are rapidly running out of supplies,” he lamented.

“We were able to get to the hospital for resupply on Tuesday when there was a lull in the fighting, but if we can’t get more supplies to Darfur, and if we continue to receive such a high number of wounded, the existing medical supplies will only last us another three weeks.” he said, before insisting that “within Sudan, nothing can move.” “All the airports in the country have been closed since the violence began, and there is fighting in the streets, so we cannot get more supplies to North Darfur or into the interior. Chad has closed its border. If the situation does not change and it is not guarantees humanitarian access, there will be an even greater loss of life,” he said.

“It is critical that we can gain access to health facilities across the country. Right now, this is what will save people’s lives. Health facilities are running out of supplies and staff are unable to go to work. Health workers, first responders and rescuers have been immobilized by the fighting and people are dying as a result. Access is what will change this. That, and a guarantee from the warring parties that they will respect life of civilians”, he stressed.

The hostilities broke out in the context of an increase in tensions around the integration of the RSF -led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, alias ‘Hemedti’, who is also vice president of the Sovereign Transition Council– within the Forces Armed Forces, a key part of an agreement signed in December to form a new civilian government and reactivate the transition.

The talks process began with international mediation after the head of the Army and president of the Sovereign Transition Council, Abdelfatá al Burhan, led a coup in October 2021 that overthrew the then prime minister of unity, Abdalá Hamdok, appointed to the position as a result of contacts between civilians and the military after the April 2019 riot, which ended 30 years of the regime of Omar Hasan al Bashir.