Sudan: Shootout between army and paramilitary group causes fear and suffering among the population

ZainabA Sudanese mother with four children has been up for more than 30 hours because of the sounds of explosions and gunshots that echoed in her area since Saturday morning, when clashes broke out between the army and the paramilitary group Fuerzas de Apoyo Fast. (FAR).

His life and the lives of his children are his highest priority, and this prevents him from lying down to rest. She can be overwhelmed by the fear of a shell that fell “on the head” of one of her children.

“I haven’t been able to sleep since the fighting began,” Zeinab told EFE, visibly exhausted and “fed up” that her country’s military won’t give respite to a population that has been fighting for decades due to conflicts and unrest that periodically, without rest , torment Sudan.

UNDER THE CROSSFIRE

This housewife lives alone with her four children in the Al-Azhari district in the south of Khartoum. His home is perilously close to the Soba military base, where the first fighting took place between Armed forces And FARand that it was bombed by aircraft.

Until she and her children get hurt. But not all the inhabitants of Al-Azhari suffered the same fate.

Neighbor Zeynab lost her daughter, a high school student, when a shell hit her bedroom wall during Saturday’s fighting. His father ran as fast as he could to get to the hospital as quickly as possible, but it was too late.

Added to the fear and insomnia is the shutdown of all basic services in homes in the suburbs, which, as a result of the bombing, were left without electricity and drinking water. Its inhabitants cannot even communicate with their relatives within the same city, because the battery of their phones has run out, and it is too risky to go out.

Similarly, high temperatures in Khartoum, reaching 39 degrees Celsius this Sunday, turned the capital into hell.

WAR WITH THE POST

An outbreak of hostilities also occurred in the last days of the holy month Ramadanwhen Muslims are forbidden to eat and drink during daylight hours. And going for water or a drink when the sun goes down is becoming less and less of an option.

But eldest son Zeinab, 22, ventured to a remote location to fetch water to break his fast as the hydraulic motors stopped working due to power outages, a journey he endured fearing he would not be able to return home.

“People are fed up with suffering and deprivation, terrible living conditions. The prices are very high, there is no security and no government cares about the people,” Zeinab weeps desperately.

DEATH AND DESTRUCTION

From the Karari district, to the neighboring city of the capital, Omdurman, Abd al Azim He tells EFE that he witnessed “horrors” as his house is also very close to one of the FAR bases.

He claims that he did not have access to food on Saturday until Armed forces shelled the Karari base FAR and residents of the area this morning were able to go out in search of food.

He and his family had little time to think about what to do, but they eventually decided to leave their third-floor apartment and move to a building at street level, where a projectile was less likely to fall and easier to hide from. bullets, he says.

From his window he had seen a theater of horrors in the last few hours. Rivers of blood, screams and “dozens of deaths” from the army and paramilitaries, scenes he describes as “disturbing”.

But he also saw the death of two of his neighbors. One of them was a college student. Another victim, a girl of only ten years old, was hit by a stray bullet.

Like other Sudanese, Abd al-Azim calls the warring parties “irresponsible” who “endanger the lives of citizens” by unleashing an “absurd war.”

To date, clashes have killed more than 50 civilians and injured about 600 across the country, but medical personnel on the ground believe the death toll could be much higher due to ambulance crews being unable to access certain areas. .

(EFE)