Fighting between paramilitaries and the regular army in Sudan has already killed 56 people this weekend, including three United Nations employees. About 600 injured people have been taken to hospital. Dozens of them are in mortal danger.
On Saturday, violence broke out between paramilitaries and the regular army of the African country. This happened after weeks of rising tensions between the army chief and president Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and his number two, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. Dagalo, better known in Sudan as Hemedti, is the head of the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Burhan and Hemedti argue over the integration of the RSF into the regular army. This merger is an important condition for the transition to civilian government. Now the army is still in power in Sudan.
Wat zijn paramilitairen?
Paramilitairen zijn bewapende eenheden die los staan van het officiële leger maar wel dezelfde soort tactieken, training en wapens gebruiken. Het gaat in Soedan om de groepering Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Die claimt net als het echte leger de controle te hebben over belangrijke plekken in de hoofdstad, zoals het vliegveld, een militaire basis en een paleis.
Three UN employees killed
As a result of the fighting, three UN World Food Program employees were killed in a firefight at an airfield in Kabkabiya, in the west of the country. This reports the British TV channel BBC. Two other staff members were seriously injured. UN agency vehicles were also looted.
At the airport of Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, a Saudia plane was about to take off on Saturday morning when it was fired upon. Saudia is the flag carrier of Saudi Arabia. Passengers and crew members were on board. It is not clear how many people were on the plane. The plane was destined for Riyadh. The passengers and crew have been transferred to the Saudi embassy in Khartoum.
KLM has adjusted its flight schedule in response to the violence. KLM itself does not fly to the capital Khartoum, but normally flies over the country to countries such as Kenya and Tanzania. But due to the situation, flights are now being flown around the country, a spokesman said.
0:44Flight of Dutch ambassador cancelled
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports that the Dutch ambassador to Sudan, Irma van Dueren, would fly to Khartoum on Saturday morning. This is now canceled because the airport there is closed due to “heavy fighting”.
The Dutch embassy is in contact with fifty Dutch people who are in Sudan. It mainly concerns Sudanese Dutch people, people with double passports. “They come in and out of the country,” says Van Dueren in the Radio 1 program With an eye to tomorrow.
This makes it difficult to form an active picture of the number of Dutch people in the country. Van Dueren calls on people to register with the embassy “to get the best possible picture of how many there are and to help them.”
