By Athena Papakosta

The armed conflict in Sudan has now entered its second week. The World Health Organization puts the death toll at 420 but the tragic toll is believed to be dramatically higher. The more hospitals have ceased operations while, water and electricity reserves are limited giving rise to fears of a humanitarian crisis. At the same time, communication is difficult since the Internet is also down in many areas. Thousands of citizens and diplomatic personnel of third countries have been evacuated in the last 24 hours from the country with the complex evacuation operations still ongoing.

In the dramatic rescue operations, convoys of diplomatic staff, teachers, professors, pupils, students and families from dozens of other countries crossed the front lines of the fighting to get to the points from which they would escape the nightmare. A wave of military aircraft from Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia flew in on Sunday and Monday to carry out the evacuation mission. At the same time, these operations for Sudanese citizens mean one thing, that the international community believes that the situation will get worse and worse.

Those who have remained behind are in constant search of a safer refuge at a time when the battlegrounds are constantly changing and in addition to explosions and shootings, there is also looting of shops and houses. When it comes to basic supplies like food and fuel, those who manage to get out of their homes and look for them will find their prices have skyrocketed.

However, transporting civilians outside the capital has also become a luxury. According to what is being broadcast by foreign news agencies, citing Sudanese, bus ticket prices have quadrupled and now the price of renting a bus for 50 people bound for the border with Egypt reaches 14,000 dollars.

So those who can afford it travel up to 15 hours to get from Khartoum either to the north and the border with Egypt or to the east and Port Sudan. But those who do not have the necessary money manage to reach only the Nile provinces north and south of Khartoum.

In Sudan before the fighting broke out, 1/3 of the population was already in need of humanitarian aid and today, as they report, it is impossible for humanitarian organizations to reach people in order to help and effectively carry out their mission. In fact, they emphasize that when the evacuation operations of third countries are completed, then the warring parties will not obey even for a minute the calls of the international community for a truce.

Right now in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, the country’s military appears to have the upper hand but has not been able to wrest control of many of its districts from the paramilitary organization, the Rapid Support Forces, RSF. The picture is similar in the neighboring town of Omdurman.

We remind you that the fighting in Sudan concerns a conflict for the absolute control of power between the two strong military leaders in the country. On the one hand is the general of the Sudanese army, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and on the other, general Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, head of the powerful paramilitary organization “Rapid Support Forces”, RSF.

The fighting began on April 15 and there is a struggle for the occupation and absolute control of important facilities which, however, are located in populated areas with civilians paying the heaviest price. Neither side is expected to back down as both vow to fight to the end.

The United States and the United Kingdom removed only diplomatic staff and their families as early as Sunday, while the European Union, with France at the “helm” in a coordinated effort, removed hundreds of civilians in addition to diplomatic staff, even helping citizens of other countries , out of block.

In total, from Khartoum International Airport, at least 500 civilians of different nationalities from 36 countries were flown to neighboring Djibouti where military aircraft from the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Jordan and Greece were scheduled to pick them up.

As for citizens from South Korea, Lebanon, Palestine, Kenya, Saudi Arabia and other countries fleeing by road from Khartoum to the eastern port city of Port Sudan on the Red Sea where the airport still remains operational .

The evacuation of American citizens remains ongoing with the White House in its briefing to reporters and media on Monday evening announcing that the evacuation is taking place by land and that the first American citizens have begun to arrive in Port Sudan. On Britain’s side, 4,000 of its citizens remain in the country with London saying it is considering every possibility to remove them safely, also by land.

Sudan has been plagued by conflict for decades. Two civil wars have claimed the lives of at least 1.5 million people, while the ongoing conflict in Darfur in the west of the country has displaced at least 2 million people and killed at least 200,000.