CAIRO — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated Sudan was on the point of a “full-scale civil war” as fierce clashes between rival generals continued unabated Sunday within the capital, Khartoum.
He warned on Saturday night that the warfare between the Sudanese army and a strong paramilitary power is prone to destabilize the complete area, based on Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the secretary-general.
Sudan descended into chaos after months of stress between army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and his rival Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, exploded into open preventing in mid-April.
Health Minister Haitham Mohammed Ibrahim stated in televised feedback final month that the clashes have killed over 3,000 individuals and wounded over 6,000 others. The dying tally, nevertheless, is extremely prone to be a lot increased. More than 2.9 million individuals have fled their houses to safer areas inside Sudan or crossed into neighboring international locations, based on U.N. figures.
The preventing got here 18 months after the 2 generals led a army coup in October 2021 that toppled a Western-backed civilian transitional authorities. The battle dashed Sudanese hopes of a peaceable transition to democracy after a well-liked rebellion pressured the army elimination of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in April 2019.
The warfare has turned the capital Khartoum and different city areas throughout the nation into battlefields.
Residents in Khartoum stated fierce preventing was underway early Sunday south of the capital. The warring factions had been utilizing heavy weapons within the battles within the Kalaka neighborhood and the army’s plane had been seen hovering over the realm, stated resident Abdalla al-Fatih.
In his assertion, Guterres additionally condemned an airstrike Saturday that well being authorities stated killed a minimum of 22 individuals in Omdurman, a metropolis simply throughout the Nile from the capital, Khartoum. The assault was one of many deadliest within the battle.
The RSF blamed the army for the assault in Omdurman. The army, in flip, denied the accusation saying in an announcement Sunday that its air power didn’t perform any airstrikes within the metropolis that day.
The secretary-general additionally decried the large-scale violence and casualties within the western area of Darfur, which has skilled among the worst preventing within the ongoing battle, Haq stated in an announcement.
“There is an utter disregard for humanitarian and human rights law that is dangerous and disturbing,” Guterres stated.
U.N. officers have stated the violence within the area has lately taken an ethnic dimension, with the RSF and Arab militias reportedly concentrating on non-Arab tribes in Darfur, a sprawling area consisting of 5 provinces. Last month, the governor of Darfur, Mini Arko Minawi, stated the area was sliding again to its previous genocide, referring to the battle that engulfed the area within the early 2000s.
Entire cities and villages in West Darfur province had been overrun by the RSF and their allied militias, forcing tens of hundreds of residents to flee to neighboring Chad. Activists have reported many residents killed, girls and women raped, and properties looted and burned to the bottom.
There had been clashes between the army and the RSF elsewhere in Sudan on Sunday together with the province of North Kordofan, South Kordofan and Blue Nile.
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