CAIRO (AP) – Exhausted Sudanese and foreigners joined a growing crowd at the country’s main port on Tuesday after more than two weeks of fighting turned the capital Khartoum into a ghost town.
Others loaded onto buses and trucks bound for the Egyptian border in northern Sudan.
Since fighting erupted on April 15, violent clashes have erupted between residential areas of Khartoum and the neighboring city of Omdurman across the River Nile. Gunshots and explosions were heard again on Tuesday.
“Most of the capital is empty,” said Khartoum resident Abdallah Al-Fatih. He said everyone in the street had left.
The struggle for control of Sudan has escalated for months between an army led by General Abdel Fattah Burhan and a rival paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Force, commanded by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. It erupted later.
Al-Fatih’s family managed to escape from Khartoum over the weekend after being trapped in their home in Khartoum’s Kafori district, a major trouble spot for the past two weeks. They arrived in Port Sudan on the Red Sea late Monday after a tiring journey of 20 hours, he said. There they found thousands of people camping outside the harbor, including many women and children. Many people have been there for over a week without food or other services, he said. CAIRO (AP) – After more than two weeks of fighting after the Sudan capital Khartoum has increasingly turned into a ghost town, he said. Exhausted Sudanese and foreigners joined a growing crowd at the main Sudanese port on Tuesday.
Others loaded onto buses and trucks bound for the Egyptian border in northern Sudan.
Since fighting erupted on April 15, violent clashes have erupted between residential areas of Khartoum and the neighboring city of Omdurman across the Nile. Gunshots and explosions were heard again on Tuesday.
“Most of the capital is empty,” said Khartoum resident Abdallah Al-Fatih. He said everyone in the street had left.
The struggle for control of Sudan comes after months of heightened tensions between the army led by General Abdel Fattah Burhan and a rival militia called the Rapid Relief Force commanded by General Abdel Fattah Burhan. erupted. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
Al-Fatih’s family managed to escape from Khartoum over the weekend after being trapped in their home in Khartoum’s Kafori district, a major trouble spot for the past two weeks.
They arrived in Port Sudan on the Red Sea late Monday after a tiring journey of 20 hours, he said. There they found thousands of people camping outside the harbor, including many women and children. Many people have been there for over a week without food or other services, he said.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, has warned that the number of people fleeing to neighboring countries could exceed 800,000. “I hope that doesn’t happen, but if the violence doesn’t stop, more people will be forced to flee Sudan in search of safety,” he wrote on Twitter on Monday. Explosions and gunshots echoed through many parts of the capital early Tuesday morning, with violent clashes around the military headquarters, the international airport and the Republic Palace in Khartoum, local residents reported. They said they saw fighter planes overhead.
Fighting continued despite both sides saying on Sunday that he promised to extend the humanitarian ceasefire by three days to allow safe passage for health workers and aid agencies working in the capital.
