Civilians and medical workers in Sudan are calling for humanitarian corridors to be opened so they can escape bombardment, carry out evacuations and move around staff and supplies.
According to the World Health Organisation, at least 413 people have been killed and more than 3,500 injured since fighting between forces loyal to two rival generals in the African country began last Saturday. Attempts to call for a ceasefire between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have so far failed.
“Everyone who can is evacuating,” said one resident in capital city Khartoum. “The situation is extremely bad, fighting everywhere, many innocent people killed.”
She said that people were dying inside their homes after being hit by stray bullets.
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One man seeking to leave Khartoum said he hopes refugees will be included in any humanitarian corridors out of the city. Like others, he said that electricity is sparse, and many people have also had problems getting data to connect their phones to the internet. “It is the worst,” he said. “We are under fire… We are waiting for a call from any humanitarian organisation.”
People with relatives in other parts of the city when the conflict started said they have been struggling to contact each other.
Some Sudanese citizens are looking at whether they could travel by land to Egypt or Ethiopia. “I think it’s getting worse and not ending soon,” a Khartoum resident said.
“When battles rage in residential areas, it is civilians who pay the highest price,” Mirjana Spoljaric, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said in a statement emailed to The Irish Times. “The world has watched in horror at the appalling scenes of violence and bloodshed in Sudan.”
“Residents are calling my colleagues in Sudan every day to plead for help to escape the violence. Families have been torn apart and people are running out of food and water after being trapped indoors with no respite. The warring parties must do everything possible to keep civilians out of harm’s way,” she said.
“Over the next few days, families across the world will gather to celebrate Eid al-Fitr. It should be a time of joy and celebration. No one wants to see the bloodshed continue or for the violence to turn into a far greater protracted crisis. What people need right now is a meaningful pause in hostilities to allow humanitarian aid to be brought in and for people to get to safer areas.”
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Sudan country representative Ghazali Babiker said that ambulances in Khartoum “are not being permitted to pass in order to retrieve the bodies of the dead from the streets – or to transport those who have been injured to hospital.”
“Following the military coup in 2021, most international support to Sudan was frozen and the ensuing economic crisis has caused the cost of living to increase for the population, resulting in increased food insecurity,” said Dr Babiker.
“The hospitals were already struggling to function due to lack of medical supplies and the brain drain of medical personnel. Sudan´s health system has been on the verge of collapse for decades; the economic crisis and political crisis pushed it to breaking point and this latest development is going to further exacerbate the deteriorating humanitarian needs in the country, which were already at their highest in a decade.”
Meanwhile, a humanitarian worker was killed on Friday after his vehicle was hit by crossfire, the International Organization for Migration said in a statement. The man was travelling with his family near El Obeid, a town southwest Khartoum, when he was shot. “I am deeply saddened by the death of our humanitarian colleague, and join his wife and newborn child, and our team in Sudan in mourning,” said IOM director-general Antonio Vitorino.
The Sudanese man was the fourth UN employee to be killed since fighting broke out six days ago between the army and a paramilitary force.
