Asmaa Al-Husseini (Khartoum)
International calls for a peaceful solution to the crisis in Sudan have increased as it approaches its third month, while Sudanese employees are suffering catastrophic conditions with their salaries suspended for the third month in a row.
Since its outbreak on April 15, battles have continued between the armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces, with no prospect of calm.
The US ambassador to Khartoum, John Godfrey, warned that “a military victory for either side of the crisis would cause an unacceptable human cost and damage to the country.”
The diplomat, who left the Sudanese capital with the start of the crisis, indicated in a statement the need to reach a negotiated way out of the crisis.
And he stressed that “this cannot mean a return to the status quo that existed before April 15.”
Godfrey’s remarks came ahead of meetings expected to be held by US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly in Addis Ababa, with Sudanese and regional officials.
These meetings come the day after a meeting held by the Quartet, consisting of Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia and South Sudan, to which the two parties to the conflict called.
The IGAD committee called on the two parties to an unconditional halt to the fighting, stressing that it would ask the African Union to discuss the possibility of deploying the East African Standby Force (ISAF) in order to protect civilians and ensure the arrival of aid.
In turn, Kenyan President William Ruto called for the establishment of a “humanitarian zone with a diameter of 30 kilometers around Khartoum to facilitate the arrival of humanitarian aid needed by more than half of the country’s population.”
In the context, Sudanese forces welcomed the summit of Sudan’s neighboring countries, which is scheduled to be held tomorrow in Egypt, and expressed hope that it would contribute to reaching solutions to the crisis.
Dr. Othman Al-Mahdi, a leader in the National Umma Party, told Al-Ittihad that the crisis in Sudan is entering its fourth month, and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe has resulted in it, warning that the continuation of the crisis will lead to the emergence of hotbeds of ethnic and tribal conflict, which poses a threat to the unity of the country.
In turn, Kamal Karrar, a leader of the Sudanese Communist Party, told Al-Ittihad that one of the most important files that the Sudan Neighborhood Summit should focus on is the need for a ceasefire to end the suffering of civilians and facilitate humanitarian aid, stressing that the repercussions of the crisis are dire, and that it can That it turns into a civil war, and that the summit should focus on developing effective mechanisms to settle the crisis peacefully.
Humanly, Sudanese employees are suffering from catastrophic conditions, with their salaries suspended for the third month in a row. Banks closed their doors in the capital since the beginning of the crisis, which resulted in the inability to communicate between their branches in the states and their central headquarters in Khartoum, especially with the outages of electricity and communications and the continued bombing and clashes in the city.
According to unofficial statistics, the number of employees who have not received their salaries is about one million.
Among them, more than 300,000 male and female teachers in the public education sector were already receiving low salaries, according to the head of the teachers’ committee, Ammar Youssef.
He said, “Teachers in Sudan, in the public and private sectors, live in catastrophic conditions in light of the crisis, in addition to suffering from the violations they are exposed to on a daily basis.”
He continued, “They are already suffering from low salaries, and some of them were forced to stay in the combat zones,” referring to the inability to afford travel costs, whether internally or outside the country, in light of the 20-fold increase in fuel prices since the start of the crisis.
As a result of the delayed payment of salaries, a union front comprising doctors, engineers, teachers, university professors and journalists threatened to take escalatory steps against the government’s reluctance to fulfill the financial rights of employees.
Fierce fights
Yesterday, the Sudanese Armed Forces announced the killing of dozens and the receipt of equipment and weapons from affiliates of the “People’s Movement / North” led by Abdel Aziz Al-Hilu, in the Blue Nile state, southeast of the country.
And the armed forces stated, in a statement, that they “defeat the rebels of the Popular Movement, inflicting heavy losses on them in the Blue Nile military area in the locality of Kurmuk, and receiving equipment and weapons from them, killing dozens,” without further details.
Last June, the armed forces accused the SPLM of attacking its forces in the city of Kadugli in South Kordofan state. Yesterday, the cities of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, witnessed a new day of violent clashes between the armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces, which affected the vicinity of the Shambat and Halfaya bridges.
Eyewitnesses reported that violent clashes erupted in neighborhoods south of the capital, Khartoum, with heavy and light weapons. In the city of Omdurman, west of the capital, witnesses pointed to renewed armed clashes throughout the city, which led to the rise of flames and smoke.
In the city of Bahri, north of the capital, violent clashes took place between the two parties using heavy and light weapons, according to eyewitnesses.
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