Three World Food Program (WFP) aid workers have been killed in the fighting in Sudan, the UN envoy announced on Sunday April 16 in this North-East African country, which has been in the crossfire for more than 20 years. four hours from the army and its paramilitary rivals.
They were killed “Saturday while carrying out their work in North Darfur”, in the west near Chad, which closed its border on Saturday because of the violence, Volker Perthes said in a statement. He adds that “humanitarian buildings have been hit and others looted in Darfur”, a historic stronghold of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, known as “Hemedti”, won by fighting between the army and paramilitaries.
WFP has said it is temporarily suspending all operations in Sudan, a country in the grip of a serious economic crisis, until calm returns.
At least 56 civilians dead
Fighting between the troops of the two rival generals, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhane on one side, Hemedti on the other, continued on Sunday. At least fifty-six civilians have been killed in 24 hours and “dozens” of fighters have been mowed down by bullets, rockets and other projectiles fired from tanks or planes since Saturday morning, reports a network of pro-democracy doctors, which lists more than 600 injured. Street fights and armored vehicles across the roads prevent any movement in the capital Khartoum where armed men in fatigues walk around crossing rare civilians, carrying a few things, in search of shelter. Everywhere, columns of smoke have risen since Saturday from the city center where the main state institutions are located.
The conflict had been simmering for weeks, preventing any political settlement in a country which has been trying, since the popular revolt which overthrew Omar Al-Bashir in 2019, to organize its first free elections after thirty years of dictatorship.
During the putsch that ended the democratic transition in October 2021, army chief Al-Burhane and FSR boss Hemedti appeared together, forming a common front to oust civilians from power. But the rivalry between the two generals, latent for weeks, exploded on Saturday in Khartoum which awoke to the sound of explosions and fighting.