Death toll climbs and hospitals overwhelmed as fighting continues in Sudan

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Hospitals are filling with hundreds of casualties and the death toll is climbing rapidly across Sudan as its army clashes with a powerful militia in a battle for control of the capital, Khartoum, and other strategic cities and bases.

More than 180 people have been killed and more than 1,800 wounded since the fighting erupted on Saturday, the United Nations said on Monday. Many hospitals were running out of blood and other medical supplies as they struggled to cope with a deluge of injured civilians.

Sudan’s conflict explained: What’s behind the latest fighting?

The Sudanese military is battling against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary force and long-time ally of the military. The two forces had united to seize power in 2019 and again to launch another coup in 2021, but they are now embroiled in a violent power struggle.

Explosions and gunfire were heard in Khartoum and other towns and cities on Monday for the third day. Tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery weapons, heavy machine guns and warplanes have been deployed in the fighting.

The RSF, which grew out of the infamous Janjaweed militia in the Darfur region and expanded across the country in recent years, had captured several military bases and headquarter buildings in the early hours of the fighting on Saturday, including Khartoum’s airport. Since then, however, military assaults have pressed them into retreating from several locations.

The RSF is heavily armed but lacks an air force, and Sudan’s military has exploited its aerial advantage by deploying warplanes and helicopters to fire rockets at RSF targets, forcing the militia to abandon some of its bases and captured sites.

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john sopinski/the globe and mail, source: openstreetmap; unocha

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john sopinski/the globe and mail, source: openstreetmap; unocha

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john sopinski/the globe and mail, source: openstreetmap; unocha

Videos on social media showed anti-aircraft fire bursting in the skies above Khartoum on Monday night as the RSF tried to shoot down the Sudanese warplanes. The militia has reportedly evicted residents from many homes in Khartoum, with its fighters setting up sniper posts on the roofs.

African leaders have offered to mediate in the conflict, but they were unable to reach Khartoum because the airport was still closed. The RSF is believed to control the airport, and the building has been reportedly damaged in the fighting. At least 14 planes have been destroyed there and many others damaged, according to satellite imagery released by space technology company Maxar Technologies on Monday night.

Many residents of Khartoum were trapped in their homes as the fighting raged around them. Food and water supplies were running low, electricity was intermittent, and many hospitals were being evacuated or shut down.

“The use of heavy weaponry including artillery, tanks and jet aircraft in densely populated areas in Khartoum has caused numerous civilian deaths and massive destruction of property,” Amnesty International regional director Tigere Chagutah said in a statement on Monday.

“Civilians are caught in the middle of this conflict and are suffering. The parties to this conflict must immediately stop using explosive weapons with wide area effects in the vicinity of concentrations of civilians.”

In another sign of the chaos in Khartoum, the European Union said its ambassador Aidan O’Hara had been assaulted by unidentified assailants in his residence on Monday. “This constitutes a gross violation of the Vienna Convention,” EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell said in a tweet.

Relief agencies gave details of fighting and looting across the country. The humanitarian group Médecins sans frontières (Doctors Without Borders) said it had received 136 wounded patients at a hospital that it supports in Al-Fashir, capital of North Darfur, and 11 of them had died from their injuries.

Many of the victims were children, caught in the crossfire. “The situation is dire,” MSF said in a statement.

All other hospitals in North Darfur have been forced to close, because of the fighting or because their staff could not reach them. The sole remaining hospital is rapidly running out of blood, medicine and other supplies, MSF said.

In Khartoum, it said, medical teams have been trapped by the fighting and cannot reach warehouses to deliver vital supplies to hospitals. “Even ambulances are being turned back,” it said. “They are not being permitted to pass in order to retrieve the bodies of the dead from the streets, or to transport those who have been injured to hospital.”

Many relief agencies in Darfur were looted during the fighting. The humanitarian agency Save the Children said looters at its offices in Darfur had stolen medical supplies for children, a refrigerator, laptop computers and cars.

The violence has forced Save the Children, like many other relief agencies, to suspend most of its operations in Sudan. This will make it impossible for food and other life-saving aid to reach thousands of people in a country where 15.8 million people – a third of the population – needs humanitarian aid, it said.

Another organization, Islamic Relief, said food prices have tripled since Saturday in some areas as supplies become scarce.

“We can hear bullets and bombing all around us,” said Elsadig Elnour, country director in Sudan for Islamic Relief, in a statement on Monday. “Life is paralyzed, everything is closed, and food supplies are running out. Many of the poorest people don’t have stocks of food. … Critical levels of hunger in the country are now set to get even worse.”

Many governments, including Canada’s, called for a ceasefire. “We are deeply saddened by the casualties,” Global Affairs Canada said in a tweet. “We stand with the people of Sudan in their demand for a peaceful and democratic future.”