Gunfire and explosions could be heard last night in Omdurman, a twin city of Sudan’s capital Khartoum, on the Nile, where a Reuters reporter found that the military used drones to hit Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary positions, while airstrikes from drones were also reported in the city of Bahri, where the regular army tried to prevent the DTY from occupying a refinery.

A missile hit a hospital in Omdurman earlier yesterday, injuring 13 people, according to a health facility official.

Fighting in Sudan continued yesterday despite a 72-hour ceasefire agreed by the parties, brokered by the US and Saudi Arabia, starting at midnight on Monday.

The conflict between the forces of the general Abdel Fatah al Burhanthe country’s de facto leader since the October 2021 military coup, and former second-in-command in the military junta, Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagloor “Khameti,” head of the dreaded paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), broke out on April 15, derailing the effort to restart the country’s transition to democracy.

Densely populated areas, especially in the capital Khartoum, turned into battlefields. Airstrikes, artillery fire and street fighting have killed at least 459 people and injured more than 4,000, according to figures from the World Health Organization that are believed to be vastly underestimated. Hospitals were damaged or destroyed and the distribution of food and other items was virtually suspended in the country of 46 million people, a third of whom need food aid to survive.

With bodies lying in the streets, aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) stressed yesterday that it is unable to send supplies or personnel to Sudan amid ongoing hostilities and as foreign governments continue to scramble to evacuate thousands of nationals. their.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) of the United Nations spoke of “extremely acute” shortages of food, drinking water, medicine and fuel in the country, a rapid increase in prices – in any commercial stores that operate -, while also pointing out that the UN agencies they were forced to drastically reduce their activity.

UNHCR expects hundreds of thousands of Sudanese civilians to flee to neighboring countries.

“Sudan will lose”

“There is currently no clear indication that either side is ready to truly negotiate, which suggests that both believe that military dominance over the other side remains possible.” Volker Pertes, the special envoy and head of the United Nations mission in Sudan, emphasized last night when he was appointed to the Security Council.

This is a “miscalculation,” added the German diplomat, who will take over as special envoy in 2021. Whichever of the two sides prevails in the event of continued hostilities, “Sudan will lose,” he insisted. Already, the war is “causing a humanitarian disaster” and it is the citizens who are “paying the price”, he added.

He denounced that the warring sides “disdain the law of war” by operating in populated areas without regard for the fate of civilians. “They fight in defiance of the law and the rules of war, attacking densely populated areas, showing little concern for civilians, for hospitals, or even for the vehicles carrying the wounded and sick,” Volker Pertes said.

For his part, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, describing ten “heartbreaking” days of “violence and chaos”, warned against the spread of war. “The seven countries neighboring Sudan have all been involved during the last decade in conflicts or widespread political unrest,” he recalled. “The conflict over power in Sudan does not only threaten the future of the country. It lights a spark that can explode beyond its borders, causing enormous suffering for years and setting back development by decades,” Mr. Guterres added.