In Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, an airstrike has killed at least seventeen people, including five children, as fighting between rival generals vying for the nation’s leadership escalates.
According to health officials, 17 civilians were killed by warplanes that attacked residential areas of the capital on Saturday, including five children.
A day after a top army general threatened to intensify attacks against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the airstrike—which was the deadliest in the clashes in urban Khartoum and other parts of Sudan—took place.
read more: Sudanese forces clashes as ceasefire negotiations failed
According to the latest data from last month from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), the Sudanese army and the RSF have been engaged in urban combat for the past two months that has resulted in at least 1,800 deaths.
Now, the fighting has reached the provinces, especially the cities in Darfur’s western region.
The situation in Darfur is particularly bad, according to UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths on Thursday.
He claimed that infants were passing away in hospitals, children and mothers were suffering from severe malnutrition, refugee camps had been destroyed by fire, and sexual assault was on the rise.
He also referred to reports of ethnic killings in West Darfur’s capital, El Geneina, and emphasized how the region was quickly turning into a “humanitarian calamity.”
Mr. Dot Griffiths said in reference to the ethnic tensions that sparked a deadly conflict there 20 years ago: “The world cannot allow this to happen, “not again.”
A growing number of injured people are escaping the Darfur region, according to medical professionals.
Over 600 patients, the majority of whom had gunshot wounds, arrived at the facility in Chad over the course of three days, according to a statement released by the charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Friday.
Doctor and MSF project coordinator Seybou Diarra stated, “We urgently need more beds and more staff.”
“Wounded people are coming in waves” to the hospital in Adre, just across the border and about 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of El Geneina, said Diarra.
Claire Nicolet, director of emergency programs at MSF, added that there have been “reports of escalating and widespread attacks this week.”
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that at least 149,000 people have fled from Darfur into Chad.
They are among the approximately 22 million people who have been displaced nationwide by the fighting, which has compelled more than 528,000 people to seek refuge in neighboring nations, according to IOM.
