The weapons continue to speak in Sudan for the control of power. For the fourth day in a row, fierce fighting pitted the army against paramilitaries in Khartoum on Wednesday trying to dislodge soldiers from a strategic base.
The Rapid Support Forces (FSR, paramilitary) of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo launched an assault Sunday in several directions on this vast base grouping armored units of the army in the south of the capital. On the first day of the clashes, both sides suffered “significant losses”, reported residents from different areas of the al-Chajara neighborhood, where the base is located. The fighting had only ceased for an hour all day.
Both sides say they hold strongholds in Khartoum
The army has since claimed to have repelled the paramilitary attacks. The FSR claimed to have “taken control of almost the entire base, with only small pockets still held” by the army. It is currently not possible to independently verify what each side controls.
Since the start of the war on April 15 between the army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane and the FSR, the two camps have claimed to hold strongholds in Khartoum while they are still vying for control, as per example the army headquarters or the presidential palace.
Above all, the war killed nearly 5,000 people, according to the NGO ACLED. But the real toll would be higher, with many areas of the country, mainly Darfur (west), being completely cut off from the world without telephones or the Internet, and bodies still littering the streets being inaccessible. Both sides refuse to communicate on their losses.
A critical humanitarian situation
In four months, more than 4.6 million people have also been forced from their homes, according to the UN. Its coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, again pleaded on Tuesday for “the parties to stop fighting in order to let the aid pass”. “Roads are blocked and food stocks are dwindling,” he said, as more than one confident Sudanese needed humanitarian aid to survive. The main leaders of humanitarian organizations working in Sudan have meanwhile warned that “more than 6 million people in Sudan are on the brink of famine”.