Violent fighting shook Khartoum on Sunday, testifying to the bitter struggle for power between the army and paramilitaries in Sudan, where the spread of disease and malnutrition among displaced children is worrying humanitarian workers.
Residents of the Sudanese capital woke up once again to the sound of “violent fighting with all types of weapons”, one of them told AFP, and of “fighter planes flying overhead”, added another.
The clashes are particularly intense in Khartoum, but also in Darfur, a vast region the size of France bordering Chad, where in addition to the conflict between the military and paramilitaries, tribal fighters, local militias and armed civilians have become involved in the fighting. According to the UN, the fighting has taken on an “ethnic dimension” that could make it a “crime against humanity”.
Since it broke out on 15 April, the conflict has claimed nearly 3,000 lives and displaced 2.8 million people and refugees. The government body responsible for combating violence against women says it has recorded around a hundred sexual assaults, a figure that is no doubt just as underestimated as the number of casualties, given the inability of victims and carers to move around under the bombs.
Source : AN