Humanitarian Situation In Sudan Has Reached ‘Breaking Point’ - UN Warns As Death Toll Surpasses 500

The United Nations has warned that the crisis in Sudan has brought the humanitarian situation in the country near its “breaking point” as gun battles and explosions again rocked the country’s capital Monday despite the latest truce formally agreed between the warring parties. The chaos and bloodshed which has now entered third week, have sparked a mass exodus of tens of thousands of Sudanese to neighbouring countries including Egypt, Chad and Central African Republic, while other countries across the world have continued to evacuate their nationals.

Since the war which is between Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces started on April 15, more than 500 people have been reportedly killed. Millions of Sudanese around the capital and beyond have sheltered in their homes with dwindling food and water and frequent power cuts, as fighter jets thundering through the sky on bombing raids have drawn heavy anti-aircraft fire.

The UN said that while foreign nations have evacuated thousands of their citizens by air, road and sea, some 50,000 Sudanese have fled overland to neighbouring countries. BStephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres said that; The scale and speed of what is unfolding is unprecedented in Sudan, adding that, We are extremely concerned by the immediate as well as long-term impact on all people in Sudan, and the broader region.

Dujarric said that top UN humanitarian official, Martin Griffiths, was heading to the region to help bring relief to the millions whose lives have turned upside down overnight. The humanitarian situation is reaching breaking point. According to Sudan’s health ministry, at least 528 people have been killed and almost 4,600 wounded in the violence, but the real death toll is feared to be far higher.

The war has spread across Sudan, including to the long-troubled Darfur region. The UN said at least 96 people were reported killed in El Geneina, West Darfur, where supplies were seen strewn across the floors of badly damaged hospitals. Daglo’s RSF emerged from the notorious Janjaweed that were unleashed in a scorched-earth campaign in Darfur from 2003 by former strongman Omar al-Bashir, who faces charges of war crimes and genocide.

The RSF include fighters who have seen battle in Yemen where they were sent to back a Saudi-led campaign supporting the government against Huthi rebels. Further complicating Sudan’s battlefield situation, Central Reserve Police were being deployed on the side of the army across Khartoum to “protect citizens’ properties” from looting. The US Treasury Department last year sanctioned the Central Reserve for “serious human rights abuses” related to “excessive force” against pro-democracy protests after the 2021 coup that brought Burhan and Daglo to power.