180 dead from Sudan fighting buried unidentified: Red Crescent
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Volunteers have buried 102 unidentified remains in the capital's Al-Shegilab cemetery and 78 more in Darfur cemeteries.
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Bullet holes riddle the wall of a building at the Souk Sitta (Market Six) in the south of Khartoum on June 1, 2023 (AFP)
According to the Sudanese Red Crescent, volunteers were compelled to bury 180 bodies that had been collected from battle zones without identifying them because of the ongoing fighting in Sudan's two flashpoints, Khartoum and Darfur.
Red Crescent said in a statement on Friday that since combat between Sudan's warring generals broke out on April 15, volunteers had buried 102 unidentified remains in the capital's Al-Shegilab cemetery and 78 more in Darfur cemeteries.
Read: Sudan: A borderless conflict
Army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and his former deputy Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo who is now his adversary have both made several commitments to safeguarding people and securing humanitarian passageways.
Volunteers for the Red Crescent, who are sponsored by the International Committee of the Red Cross, have reported difficulty moving through the streets to collect the dead "due to security constraints," according to the Red Crescent.
The warring parties agreed to "enable responsible humanitarian actors, such as the Sudanese Red Crescent and/or the International Committee of the Red Cross to collect, register and bury the deceased in coordination with competent authorities" during truce negotiations last month in Saudi Arabia.
The truce deal was mediated by the US and Saudi Arabia, but it fell apart due to frequent and blatant violations by both sides.
All districts in the capital no longer have running water, while electricity is only available for a few hours a week and three-quarters of hospitals in combat zones are not operating.
Read: Sudanese Doctors' Union says 17 killed in shelling south of Khartoum
The situation is dire in the western region of Darfur, which is home to almost a quarter of Sudan’s people and has never fully recovered from a horrific two-decade war that left hundreds of thousands dead and more than two million displaced.
Tens of thousands of people have fled to the neighboring country of Chad as a result of the killing of hundreds of civilians, torching of villages and markets, and looting of assistance facilities.
According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, more than 1,800 individuals have died in the conflict.
Medical professionals and aid organizations have stated time and time again that the actual death toll is likely to be significantly higher due to the large number of bodies left in remote, unreachable places.
