Sudan fighting in its ninth day: Here is a list of key events
Here is the situation on Sunday, April 23, 2023:
Fighting
- Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, speaking from the capital, said that after a brief lull in hostilities overnight, heavy fighting resumed this morning, with plumes of smoke seen rising above the Khartoum skyline.
- Residents in the city of Omdurman, the capital’s northwestern twin, also report heavy shelling and air raids.
Civilians and casualties
- The UN says more than 400 people have been killed and more than 3,500 injured in the fighting.
- Thousands of people are fleeing Khartoum as well as Darfur and seeking refuge in neighbouring Chad.
- Widespread food, water and electricity shortages continue.
- The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors and Sudan’s Doctors Union have estimated that 70 percent, or 39 out of 59 hospitals, in Khartoum and nearby states have closed.
- Reports of the worst violence have come from Darfur. A UN update on Saturday said looters had taken at least 10 World Food Programme vehicles and six other food trucks after overrunning the agency’s offices and warehouses in Nyala, south Darfur.
- Medecins Sans Frontieres appealed for safe passage. “We need ports of entry where we can bring specialist trauma staff and medical supplies,” said Abdalla Hussein, Sudan operations manager for the medical charity.
- More than 150 students from the International University of Africa in Khartoum have arrived in Gadarif in the southeast so that they can be evacuated to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, according to government sources.
- In the city of Darduk, north of Khartoum, people have been rallying to call for an end to hostilities overnight.
- Internet connectivity is nearly entirely down in Sudan, according to the organisation NetBlocks.
Diplomacy
- France has begun to evacuate its citizens and diplomatic staff from Sudan.
- The US military evacuated US embassy staff from Khartoum, President Joe Biden said late Saturday, calling for an end to the “unconscionable” fighting in Sudan’s capital between the army and the RSF.
- The Dutch Foreign Minister, Wopke Hoekstra, has announced that the Netherlands has also joined an international effort to evacuate its citizens from Sudan.
- The UK says it is “integrated” into the operations of international partners to evacuate staff.
- Saudi Arabia has evacuated Gulf citizens from Port Sudan on the Red Sea. Jordan will use the same route to evacuate its nationals.
- South Korea says a military plane is in Djibouti and arrangements will be made to evacuate nationals.