Sudan updates: UN warns crisis could reignite Darfur clashes
All the updates from April 28 as they happened.
This live blog is closed, thank you for joining us. These were the updates on the Sudan conflict on Friday, April 28.
This live blog is closed, thank you for joining us. These were the updates on the Sudan conflict on Friday, April 28.
- The UN is “concerned at the serious risk of violence escalating in West Darfur”, warning that the hostilities between the military and RSF “have triggered intercommunal violence”.
- Sudan’s army has accused its rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of opening fire on a Turkish evacuation plane as it landed at Wadi Seyidna airport outside Khartoum.
- Turkey’s foreign ministry confirms the aircraft sustained small-arms fire but said no injuries were reported and the C-130 plane required repairs.
- Heavy explosions and gunfire are reported across Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman despite the announcement of a new 72-hour ceasefire.
- More than 500 people have been killed and close to 4,200 wounded since the fighting began on April 15.
Video posted on social media documents destruction in Sudan’s Darfur
Situation in el-Geneina, capital of West Darfur, is dire
In el-Geneina, capital of West Darfur, a major hospital supported by medical charity MSF was looted during a violent intrusion over the past two days, the group said.
“Many people are trapped in the midst of this deadly violence. They fear risking their safety and lives trying to reach the rare health facilities that are still functional and open,” said Sylvain Perron, MSF’s deputy operations manager for Sudan.
Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, reporting from Khartoum, said the situation in el-Geneina was dire.
“We spoke to residents in West Darfur, where there has been not only intense fighting between the RSF and the army, but also between Arab militias and ethnic Darfuri tribes,” she said.
Darfur is a region coming out of 20 years of civil war that saw the Arab tribes being pitted against Darfuri tribes and that is still creating a lot of tension there. Morgan reported.
“Residents say that the city is mostly calm today but they heard sporadic gunfire. Thousands who were able to flee have crossed the border into neighbouring Chad. But those who remain behind are still trapped.”
Many Sudanese cannot leave Khartoum: AJ correspondent
In the northern parts of the capital, there has been intense confrontations between the RSF and the Sudanese army, including air strikes and artillery hits, said Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, reporting from Khartoum.
“It’s now the second week. People have been without electricity or running water in many residential areas. But many say they’re finding it hard to leave partly because they don’t have the cash to do so and others say it’s because Khartoum is their home,” Morgan said.
“Many people say they don’t know how to leave because they have their belongings behind, their properties behind, so they’re hoping that this ceasefire will hold.”
UK says it will cease evacuations on Saturday
The United Kingdom has said it would cease its evacuations of nationals and other eligible people from Sudan on Saturday as demand for spaces on its aircraft declined.
So far, the UK has taken 1,573 people out of Sudan since Tuesday, the ministry said.
Several hundred Americans have already left Sudan: US State Department
Several hundred American citizens have already departed Sudan by either land, sea or air, Department of State deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel has said.
Fewer than 5,000 people have requested additional information from the Department of State, he told reporters, and only a fraction of those are Americans who have actively sought Washington’s assistance to leave the country.
Sudan health system teetering on complete collapse: Expert
Aseel Geries, a global health expert spoke to Al Jazeera from Sudan, warning that the fighting is having a dangerously dire effect on the health system.
Speaking on #AJESpaces, Geries said life-saving medications are hard to find, blood banks are running out of blood, and there’s even a lack of body bags.
She described how bodies of dead people littered streets. Not only were they not given respectful burials, but if these decomposing bodies are thrown into rivers, this could lead to a contamination of water resources, Geries warned.
Listen to Geries, other experts and people on the ground in Sudan here.
Turkey evacuates 1,834 people from Sudan
Turkey evacuated a total of 1,834 people from conflict-torn Sudan on board five military transport planes, the Turkish foreign minister has said.
Of those evacuated, 249 are citizens of 19 different countries, Mevlut Cavusoglu told TRT Haber.
Burhan rules out negotiations with RSF’s Dagalo
General Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, who leads the military in Sudan, has ruled out negotiations with the RSF’s Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, accusing him of orchestrating a rebellion against the state, a day after the military expressed openness to the talks under the initiative.
Dagalo “wants to rule Sudan, seize its resources and magnify his wealth,” al-Burhan said in an interview with US-funded Alhurra TV, denying that he wants power for himself.
Chad evacuates 200 people from Sudan
Chad conducted its first evacuation flights from Sudan carrying more than 200 people, including dozens of children, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has said.
The UN agency, which is assisting Chadian authorities with the arrivals, said in a statement that 226 people were on board two charter flights, including 39 children. The flights arrived in the capital N’Djamena late on Thursday.
IOM spokeswoman Safa Msehli said that two more flights were arriving on Friday. She said the flights that landed in Chad on Thursday had students, elderly people, individuals with medical conditions and “extremely vulnerable families” on board.
Join #AJESpaces: How is social media used to crowdsource safety in Sudan?
Al Jazeera is organising a Twitter Space about Sudan at 16:00 GMT.
Please join us by clicking on this link as we speak to many Sudanese citizens, including two currently on the ground.
How is social media used to crowdsource safety in Sudan?
🎙️Join #AJESpaces today as Al Jazeera’s @MaryamNemazee speaks to @BSonblast, @yassmin_a, @MandourJr & @matnashed – as well as @aseelgeries & @gasim_amin who are currently on the ground 👇 https://t.co/rPrHB4l55f
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) April 28, 2023
In Khartoum, residents fear a crushing food crisis
In Khartoum, there’s a growing shortage of basic necessities as aid groups struggle to reach those who need help. Bakeries are running out of flour, and residents worry what little they have will not last long.
“People are not thinking except for worrying about themselves and their families,” Tarek Ahmed, a Khartoum resident, told Al Jazeera. “The situation now is that food supplies are diminishing and the citizens are worried they could face famine or at least a crushing food crisis.”
Sudan residents face cash shortage as sources dry up
Residents of Khartoum are facing a cash shortage as nearly two weeks of fighting has frozen cash sources and pushed an already faltering financial system to the brink.
Banks have been closed since battles broke out on April 15 between forces loyal to two rival generals, and Khartoum’s 5 million residents, running low on food and basic supplies, are now almost out of cash as well.
Because of intermittent internet service and communications, even banking apps are no longer accessible, and shuttered airports mean liquidity that had previously arrived from abroad has been cut off.
That liquidity is crucial, not only to survive wartime conditions but also to escape. Transport costs have skyrocketed since mid-April.
Even overseas remittances have no way of arriving as foreign exchange transfer firm Western Union told AFP it had “closed until further notice”.
UN accuses RSF of removing people from their homes
Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, accused the RSF of removing people from their homes amid fighting in densely populated areas in the capital.
He said residents continue to face “looting, extortion, acute shortages of food, water, electricity, fuel, and limited access to healthcare and cash,” according to a statement by Turk’s spokesperson, Ravina Shamdasani.
Not enough momentum for Sudan warring sides to commit to ceasefire: Analyst
There isn’t enough momentum for the warring sides to get to the negotiations table, said Solomon Dersso, founder and director of Amani Africa, a policy research organisation based in Addis Ababa.
“There is a need for scaling up pressure on and the diplomatic effort not only in terms of engaging and also trying to get the two sides to commit to a ceasefire but also importantly … the two sides need to be pressed by the international community to spare civilians,” he told Al Jazeera.
“It’s important to enlist [Sudan’s] neighbours, as well as Gulf countries and European states and the US, towards keeping sustained pressure [on the parties involved], including by keeping eyes on Sudan, by talking to these people directly and by creating all the space possible for humanitarian access,” he added, speaking from New York.
Observers: Sudan conflict could allow militias to settle old scores
Analysts have warned that conflict between the army and RSF could trigger multiple other militias to exploit the chaos and settle old scores.
The Darfur Bar Association, a civil society group, said fighters were “launching rockets at houses” in the state capital of West Darfur, el-Geneina, some 1,100 kilometres (684 miles) west of Khartoum, as well as reporting firing from “rifles, machine guns and anti-aircraft weapons”.
The doctors’ union said at least 74 people were killed on Monday and Tuesday in el-Geneina, with more recent tolls unavailable amid continued fighting.
Fighting has spread “nearly all over the city” and fighters have looted and torched “markets, public buildings, aid warehouses and banks”, the Bar Association added.
The UN has said it has reports of the “distribution of weapons among local communities”.
UN warns Sudan fighting could reignite ethnic clashes in western Darfur
The UN has warned that the conflict was reigniting ethnic clashes in the western Darfur region, which had left nearly 100 dead in a matter of days.
UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva that the UN was “concerned at the serious risk of violence escalating in West Darfur”, warning that the hostilities between the military and RSF “have triggered intercommunal violence”.
“In el-Geneina, West Darfur, deadly ethnic clashes have been reported, with an estimated 96 people killed since April 24,” she said.
Sudan fighting prompts ‘chaotic’ wave of displacement
The fighting in Sudan has prompted a wave of people to seek sanctuary in neighbouring countries.
The picture is “very chaotic”, said UNHCR refugee agency spokesman Matt Saltmarsh.
“There are huge numbers of people moving inside the country but also moving towards the borders,” he added, noting the numbers “will be in the hundreds of thousands.”
Here is an overview of the situation:
Axel Bisschop, the UNHCR’s representative in Sudan, said Friday that up to 30,000 people, mainly South Sudanese refugees, had moved south from Khartoum to White Nile State, closer to their own border.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Tuesday that “at least 75,000 people have been internally displaced in Sudan by the crisis”.
It said that in the South Darfur region, up to 37,000 people are thought to have been displaced across Nyala town.
Saltmarsh, from UNHCR, said at least 20,000 people had crossed into Chad, of whom about 5,000 have been formally registered so far.
More than 14,000 Sudanese refugees have crossed the border, the Egyptian foreign ministry said, plus a further 2,000 nationals of 50 other countries.
Saltmarsh said Friday that 10,000 people had crossed the border into South Sudan.
More than 3,500 people arrived in Ethiopia between April 21 and 25, said Eric Mazango, the IOM’s spokesman in the country.
The International Medical Corps said the number of people who had crossed into Central African Republic had reached 700.
‘No solidarity’ in Aswan
Sudanese people fleeing the country to Egypt have largely made Aswan their first port of call.
But some are not finding it so welcoming. Al Jazeera met one Sudanese woman in her 60s at the city’s train station, but when asked whether she felt any solidarity from Egyptians there, her answer was: “No”.
She said she had paid $600 for her bus ticket from Khartoum, six times the normal price.
Dire conditions, uncertain future for Sudanese refugees in Chad
Men, women and children congregate on the ground as others form queues behind two lines of rope separating them from aid distribution points.
Many say they have not eaten in 24 hours.
People of all ages have crossed from Sudan to Koufroun, a small border village in Chad, to flee the fighting that erupted two weeks ago between the Sudanese army and a paramilitary force called the Rapid Support Forces.
Read more here.
International diplomacy to stop fighting must continue: Analyst
Kwesi Aning, director of research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Centre, says while the latest ceasefire gives some cause for optimism, efforts by international actors to secure peace must continue.
“International efforts must continue not only in [the form of] talking to the leadership in Khartoum, but their subsidiary supporters in other parts of Sudan,” he said from Accra, Ghana.
Aning said the international community had a number of “instruments” it could use to bring peace in the war-torn country.
“One of them certainly is [deciding] what would happen to the individuals who are calling the shots when peace eventually comes,” he added.
Fighting in West Darfur takes on ‘ethnic undertones’: AJ correspondent
Fighting between the RSF and the Sudanese army in West Darfur has taken on “ethnic undertones”, Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan says.
“Arab militias are siding with the RSF and launching attacks against ethnic Darfurians who live in the capital [of West Darfur] el-Geneina,” she said from Khartoum.
“Armed groups that signed a peace agreement with the Sudanese government in 2020 said they will be sending forces and deploying troops around areas where there is risk of violence.”
According to residents, electricity has not been available for a few days and phone service is also down, Morgan reported.
“Those who we spoke to today say they can still hear gunfire in various parts of the capital. They want to make it across the border into Chad, but it is impossible to do so as the fighting continues,” she said.
‘Could not even get bread’, says Khartoum resident who fled to Egypt
A telecommunications engineer who fled from Khartoum to southern Egypt with his wife and five children says the journey through Sudan was “very difficult” and access to food was limited.
“Some 20,000 people were there [in the border town of Wadi Halfa],” said the man, who identified himself only as Mustafa. “You struggled to find food. … The markets were full.”
“We could not even get bread,” he told Al Jazeera. “Eating is very difficult because pretty much everyone [refugees] came at the same time, … maybe in like two days.”
More than 70 dead in two days in West Darfur capital: Medics
Dozens have been killed in two days of fighting that broke out this week in the capital of Sudan’s West Darfur state, the country’s doctors’ union has said.
The union gave a toll of “74 deaths” in the city of el-Geneina for Monday and Tuesday, adding it was unable to confirm the number of people killed during the rest of the week amid the ongoing clashes.
No ceasefire in many Khartoum neighbourhoods: Resident
Khartoum resident Nisreen Elsaim says that despite the latest ceasefire, bombing has continued close to her home, with many people unable to leave their residences.
“Many areas that saw very active fighting at the beginning have become quieter than before. Yet, I cannot say there is a total ceasefire in those places,” Elsaim told Al Jazeera.
“I don’t think anyone has gone to school in the last 14 days. I don’t think anyone has been to a hospital.”
Situation ‘very difficult’ in North Darfur: MSF
Humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) says medics are struggling to cope with the influx of wounded people in the city of el-Fasher, the state capital of North Darfur.
“The situation is very, very difficult here,” said MSF project coordinator Mohamed Gibreel, adding that hospitals there had received 410 wounded patients.
Since the violence in #Sudan begain on April 15 , @MSF has received 410 wounded patients at the hospital it supports in El Fasher. There is no water, no electricity & lack of fuel has impacted all life-saving services.
An update from Mohamed Gibreel, our project coordinator : pic.twitter.com/7AJIPkXEQz
— MSF East Africa (@MSF_EastAfrica) April 28, 2023