Third of Sudan's hospitals down amid escalation
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The Sudanese health sector has been brought to a grinding halt due to the ongoing fighting in the country as officials are still exchanging blame.
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In this image taken from video released on Friday, April 21, 2023, by the Sudanese Armed Forces, General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, Commander of the Armed Forces, delivers a message at an undisclosed location (Sudanese Armed Forces via AP)
About 1,600 civilians have been killed and injured since the outbreak of clashes last Saturday, and the Sudanese Ministry of Health said a third of Khartoum hospitals are out of service.
The Sudanese Armed Forces spokesperson Brigadier General Nabil Abdallah said the military has started "gradually cleaning out the hotspots of the Rapid Support Forces in the vicinity of the capital, Khartoum.
"The exceptional conditions that our people encountered will be resolved with the solidarity between the army and the people," Abdallah added.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, stressed his country's ability to get out of this crisis "more powerfully and unified," after which it will "complete the steps of transition to civil rule."
This comes after the Financial Times reported earlier in the day that Sudan's battling generals branded each other "criminals" for civilian deaths.
Sudan's vice president and commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), accused his opponent of leading a "radical Islamist gang" seeking to establish a military dictatorship while accusing the country's armed forces of targeting hospitals and non-military targets.
"We're ready for him to hit us, but not the civilians," Dagalo, told the Financial Times from Khartoum. "We ask God that we gain control and arrest him to hand him over to justice."
Separately, his opponent Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, the head of the Sudanese Armed Forces and the country’s de facto president, accused RSF forces of indiscriminate violence. "A large part of [Hemedti’s] forces is out of control," he said, adding that they were responsible for widespread looting in Khartoum and the western Darfur region.
Check out: What is happening in Sudan?
Burhan and Hemedti were once allies who banded together in 2019 to depose Omar al-Bashir, who had ruled Sudan for 30 years. Since then, and particularly after the 2021 putsch that resulted in the removal of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, they have formed an uneasy alliance, with both parties participating in on-again, off-again talks with civilian leaders ostensibly aimed at steering the country towards democracy.
Al-Burhan also held the Rapid Support Forces responsible for large-scale looting in Khartoum and the Darfur region, indicating that a large part of these forces got out of control, as he put it.
He added that the RSF killed employees of the World Food Program and attacked a convoy of the US embassy.
Al-Burhan claimed that the Sudanese people supported the army in the face of the Rapid Support Forces and that once Hemedti was defeated, the democratic transition process in the country could be resumed.
On the other hand, Hemedti told FT that his forces were ready to put an end to the fighting, but Al-Burhan was not ready to do so, saying the battle will outline everything it needs to.
Abdallah revealed Thursday that neither party has full control over any particular area.
"The armed forces control all headquarters. A number of RSF fighters, who were unable to escape, are inside cities and neighborhoods, using citizens as human shields," the spokesperson said.
"Their fighters are engaged in looting and terrorizing citizens, but they do not have absolute control over any of the sites," he added
Moreover, Abdallah said the armed forces of Sudan were interested in transferring power under civilian control as soon as possible. "We are again focusing on this in accordance with the will of the people."
Hemedti also commented on the balance of power with the Sudanese Armed Forces, explaining that while Al-Burhans forces had air superiority and heavy artillery, "we are equal on the battlefield."
Violent clashes between the Sudanese regular army and the RSF broke out on Saturday, with the epicenter located in Khartoum.
While promises were made and concessions extracted, the troops of both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) surrounded each other ready for combat, and any chance for dialogue was squandered as the two parties fell into fierce fighting on Saturday.
Read next: NYT: How Sudan devolved into war
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the sides to commit to a ceasefire, expressing his disappointment that the UN-brokered ceasefire aimed at providing safe humanitarian corridors was only "partially" honored on Sunday.
The US joined the UN calling for an immediate ceasefire without preconditions between the two armed groups, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby stated on Monday.
The official urged Americans currently present in Sudan to treat the situation with utmost concern, adding that there are no current plans for the evacuation of US citizens from the country at this time.
