The fighting that broke out almost a week ago in Sudan has already caused more than 400 deaths and 3,500 injuries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
A total of “413 people died and 3,551 were injured,” declared Margaret Harris, a spokesperson for the WHO, at a press conference in Geneva reported by AFP, Sputnik and Europa Press.
James Elder, UNICEF spokesmannoted that “at least 9 children died in the fighting and more than 50 were injured.”
“Unfortunately, we know that, As long as the fighting continues, the children will continue to pay the price.“, he added.
He also noted that vital pre-fighting care for some 50,000 severely malnourished children “was interrupted.”
“The lives of these children are threatened,” he stressed.
Due to the fighting, many families have been trapped, with little or no access to electricity, water, food and medicine.
Sudan has one of the highest child malnutrition rates in the world, with more than 600,000 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition before the recent fighting, according to UNICEF.
This Friday the clashes between the regular army and the paramilitaries continued, despite the repeated calls for a ceasefire on the occasion of the end of Ramadan festival.
The Al-Arabiya television channel reported on Thursday, citing the Sudanese Ministry of Health, that the death toll from the hostilities exceeded 600.
On April 13, Arab television channels reported that the Sudanese paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, alias “Hemedti”, deployed its units in the city. from Merowe, in northern Sudan.
In the evening of the same day, the Sudanese Army, commanded by General Abdel Fatah al-Burhan, issued a statement, according to which the deployment of the RSF in Khartoum and several cities “was illegal” and was carried out without any coordination with the Armed Forces.
Shortly after, on April 15, fighting broke out between the Sudanese Army and the RSF.
The paramilitaries accused the Army of having attacked their base in Khartoum and announced the seizure of the Palace of the Republic (seat of the Presidency), the capital’s airport and the Merowe air base.
The Army, for its part, denied these statements and assured that it maintains control over all strategic facilities, including the Presidential Palace.
Al Burhan and Daglo were allies until the present, as the two commanded the coup that in 2019 ended the 30-year rule of Omar al Bashir.
