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Information that adds to the context of disorder and confusion that hits Sudan. Former senior officials of Omar al-Bashir’s dictatorship announced on Tuesday that they had escaped from Kober prison north of Khartoum. Meanwhile, chaos reigns in the Sudanese capital, the epicenter of the clashes between the head of the regular army, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and his former number two, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, better known as “Hemetti” and head of the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces.
The escapee himself announced his escape. In a Sudan at war, Ahmed Haroun, a former official in the autocratic regime of former President Omar al-Bashir (1989-2019), announced that he had escaped from prison, along with other former collaborators.
He made it official in a speech recorded and broadcast on Sudanese television on Tuesday night. “We have been detained in Kober for nine days (…) and now we are in charge of our protection,” she said.
Haroun was being held in Kober prison, north of the capital, Khartoum, along with other former representatives of the regime of Omar al-Bashir, the autocratic leader who held power for 30 years before being overthrown by a popular revolt. in 2019. Al Bashir is in custody and is subject to an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “crimes against humanity” and “genocide” committed in the Darfur region.
To add to the chaos, former S. Kordofan governor and ICC-wanted Ahmed Haroun has released an audio confirming he and others from the dissolved former ruling National Congress Party are out of Kober Prison. The prison was broken into on Sunday.#Sudan#أحداث_السودان
— Hiba Morgan (@hiba_morgan) April 25, 2023
The conflict in Darfur, a region in the west of the country, bordering Chad, broke out in 2003 and pitted the central government in Khartoum against members of non-Arab ethnic minorities. The war, which lasted until 2020, left some 300,000 dead and 2.5 million displaced, according to the UN. Commander Hemetti’s Rapid Support Forces (FAR) are precisely one branch of the thousands of former Arab militiamen recruited by al-Bashir to commit abuses in Darfur and carry out a scorched-earth policy.
An extremely precarious ceasefire
The news of the flight of these former senior officials from the al-Bashir regime has raised fears of a new conflagration at a time when the ceasefire, concluded under the auspices of the United States, remains extremely fragile. The 72-hour ceasefire went into effect on Tuesday and has so far been only partially respected.
According to the head of the UN mission in Sudan, Volker Perthes, fighting over strategic locations in the Sudanese capital has “continued to a large extent and has sometimes even intensified.”
Since the fighting began on April 15, more than 459 people have been killed and more than 4,000 injured, according to the latest UN data. “Fighting has resumed near the border with Chad and there are increasing worrying reports of tribes arming themselves and joining the fighting,” Perthes said, adding that “inter-communal clashes” had also broken out in the Chadian region. Blue Nile, on the southeastern border with Ethiopia.
Khartoum, a city plunged into desolation
Meanwhile, Khartoum, a city of more than five million inhabitants, is gradually emptying out and evacuations of foreigners continue as best they can. This Wednesday morning, a ship with 1,687 civilians from more than 50 countries arrived in Saudi Arabia, while 245 French and foreigners evacuated by plane by the French authorities landed near Paris.
But while most foreigners are repatriated, what about the Sudanese? Those who can afford to flee the shooting and shelling are heading to neighboring countries such as Egypt and South Sudan, and those who cannot leave Khartoum and other shell-ravaged cities are now being held hostage. Their survival becomes increasingly difficult in a city where water, electricity and telephone services are cut off and food is scarce.
The UN says that up to 270,000 people could continue to flee to neighboring Chad and South Sudan. “The most difficult thing is the noise from the shelling and the warplanes flying over our house. It has terrified the children,” said Safa Abu Taher, who landed with her family in Jordan on Tuesday night.
The health situation is also catastrophic. According to the United Nations, “24,000 (women) are due to give birth in the coming weeks” and face “extreme difficulties” in accessing health care, while almost three-quarters of hospitals are out of service, according to the doctors union.
For its part, the World Health Organization is concerned about the “enormous” biohazard after “one of the warring parties” seized a “public health laboratory” in Khartoum, which contains pathogens of measles, cholera and polio.
The intense fighting is taking place in a country located in an already volatile region between the Red Sea, the Horn of Africa and the Sahel. The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, warned for his part that the conflict could “extend to the region and beyond.”
With AFP and local media
