Foreigners evacuated but millions of Sudanese unable to flee after 10 days of fighting

AFP | Khartoum                                                

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com    

Foreign nations pushed yesterday with evacuations of their citizens from chaos-torn Sudan which, the UN chief warned, is on “the edge of the abyss” after 10 days of brutal fighting between rival forces.

But millions of Sudanese are unable to flee battles between the army and paramilitary troops clashing again in Khartoum and across the country. They are trying to survive acute shortages of water, food, medicines and fuel as well as power and internet blackouts.

The US and multiple European, Middle Eastern, African and Asian nations have launched emergency missions to bring to safety their embassy staff and Sudan-based citizens by road, air and sea.

At least 427 people have been killed and more than 3,700 wounded, according to UN agencies, which reported Sudanese civilians “fleeing areas affected by fighting, including to Chad, Egypt and South Sudan”.

“Morgues are full. Corpses litter the streets,” said Attiya Abdallah, head of the doctors’ union, which yesterday reported scores more casualties after sites in south Khartoum were “heavily shelled”. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that the violence in Sudan - already one of the world’s poorest countries, with a history of military coups - “could engulf the whole region and beyond”.

“We must all do everything within our power to pull Sudan back from the edge of the abyss,” Guterres said, calling again for a ceasefire. Britain has requested an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Sudan, which is expected to take place today, according to a diplomat.

A UN convoy carrying 700 people completed an arduous 850 kilometre (530 mile) road trip to Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast from the capital, where they left behind gunfire and explosions. The UN head of mission Volker Perthes said the convoy arrived safely.

“Thirty-five hours in a not-so-comfortable convoy are certainly better than three hours’ bombing and sitting under the shells,” he said. A UN statement separately said he and other key staff will “remain in Sudan and will continue to work towards a resolution to the current crisis”.