Asmaa Al-Husseini (Khartoum)
The crisis in Sudan entered its third month yesterday, amid violent clashes and a major humanitarian crisis in Khartoum and other cities.
Witnesses in the city of El-Obeid, south of Khartoum, said yesterday that violent raids and battles took place in the vicinity of the city, the capital of Kordofan state, located 350 km south of Khartoum.
An eyewitness said, “We have become without food, drink, or medicine. Bullets are everywhere,” adding, “Any area in Sudan now is afflicted.”
The crisis has killed more than 1,800 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), but the actual number of victims may be much higher, according to aid agencies and international organizations. According to United Nations figures, the conflict has caused the displacement of about two million people, including more than 900,000 who fled the capital due to violence and more than 475,000 who sought refuge in neighboring countries.
Sudanese experts warned of the seriousness and consequences of the escalating battles in Khartoum, Darfur and Kordofan.
The Sudanese legal expert, Dr. Kamal Muhammad Al-Amin, who specializes in dispute resolution, told Al-Ittihad that the danger of escalating conflict and violence in the regions of Sudan, and that it may turn into a comprehensive civil war, and that things will slip into something worse, stressing that there is no solution except through dialogue and settlement. Political, and that there is a responsibility for the countries of the region to move to end the crisis.
For her part, Sudanese journalist Nada Abu Sin told Al-Ittihad that the current crisis threatens the unity of Sudan and makes it vulnerable to rupture, noting that the fighting in Darfur and South Kordofan will not stop unless the crisis in Khartoum ends.
In the context, Sudanese journalist Amer Ali Jaber told Al-Ittihad that “battles in Darfur are now raging on racial, ethnic and tribal grounds, and the danger of this is that they could spread to other states, while the war in El-Obeid is an extension of the battles in Khartoum.” All these conflicts are the result of the long crisis in Sudan since independence. The Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces concluded more than one cease-fire agreement, none of which held, but the two sides were largely committed to a 24-hour truce mediated by the US-Saudi Arabia that ended on Sunday, after which the people of Khartoum woke up to renewed fighting.
#Khartoum #battles #continue #warnings #humanitarian #catastrophe