Sudan military factions battle over weapons and fuel depots
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 [June 07, 2023]
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's army has been battling to
defend a military industrial complex believed to contain large stocks of
weapons and ammunition in southern Khartoum, close to fuel and gas
depots that are at risk of exploding, residents said on Wednesday.
The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in the eighth week of a
power struggle with the army, had attacked the area containing the
Yarmouk complex late on Tuesday before retreating after heavy fighting,
witnesses said. Clashes could still be heard on Wednesday morning.
The RSF quickly seized swathes of the capital after war erupted in
Khartoum on April 15. Army air strikes and artillery fire have shown
little sign of dislodging them, but as the fighting drags on the RSF may
face a challenge restocking with ammunition and fuel.
Fighting across the three cities that make up Sudan's greater capital
region - Khartoum, Bahri and Omdurman - has picked up since a 12-day
ceasefire formally expired on June 3 after repeated violations.
"Since yesterday there has been a violent battle with the use of planes
and artillery and clashes on the ground and columns of smoke rising,"
Nader Youssef, a resident living near Yarmouk, told Reuters by phone.
Due to the proximity of fuel and gas depots, "any explosion could
destroy residents and the whole area", he said.
The fighting derailed the launch a transition towards civilian rule four
years after a popular uprising ousted strongman president Omar
al-Bashir. The army and RSF, which together staged a coup in 2021, fell
out over the chain of command and military restructuring plans under the
transition.
WATER SHORTAGES
The conflict has wreaked havoc on the capital, triggered new outbursts
of deadly violence in the long volatile western region of Darfur, and
displaced more than 1.9 million people.
Most health services have collapsed, power and water is often cut, and
looting has been spreading.
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A man walks while smoke rises above
buildings after aerial bombardment, during clashes between the
paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army in Khartoum North,
Sudan, May 1, 2023. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo
In Bahri, north of the Blue Nile from Khartoum, local activists said
that more than 50 days of water cuts had driven many people from
their homes and that they were caught between having nothing to
drink and being trapped in the crossfire as they searched for water.
More than 1,428,000 people have been driven from their homes within
Sudan and a further 476,800 have fled into neighbouring countries,
most of which are already struggling with poverty and internal
conflict, according to estimates published on Tuesday by the
International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Sudan's health ministry has recorded at least 780 civilian deaths as
a direct result of the fighting. Hundreds more have been killed in
the city of El Geneina in West Darfur. Medical officials say many
bodies remain uncollected or unrecorded.
The deal for the ceasefire that ended on Saturday was brokered by
Saudi Arabia and the United States at talks in Jeddah, where a
mediator said negotiations were continuing in an effort to provide
safe passage for humanitarian assistance.
Consultations for a new truce deal, which had been reported by Saudi
TV station Al Arabiya on Tuesday, were at an early stage and
complicated by the continued fighting, the source said.
The United Nations says aid that could reach about 2.2 million
people had been delivered since late May but that some 25 million -
more than half the population - are in need of assistance.
(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz; Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by
Mark Heinrich)
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