evil War between two Sudanese military commanders Control of the country continued for a fifth day on Wednesday despite a planned 24-hour ceasefire. Clashes between the general in charge of the country’s armed forces and a large paramilitary force have killed at least 270 people by Wednesday, according to the UN’s World Health Organization, and a Sudanese medical group said most were civilians.
The Sudan Doctors Syndicate, a domestic organization that monitors casualties, said on Tuesday that at least 174 civilians had been killed and hundreds more wounded, but the actual toll from the fighting could be significantly higher as bodies still littered the streets in key areas. Cities where intense fighting continues.
The 24-hour humanitarian ceasefire agreed to by both sides of the conflict never really caught on. Heavy gunfire erupted in the capital city of Khartoum almost immediately after it took effect on Tuesday evening.
Omer Erdem/Anadolu Agency/Getty
The city, home to more than 600,000 people, has become a battleground in the past five days in a power struggle between rival generals. Their bitter personal feud erupted into all-out war.
Half of Khartoum’s hospitals were closed on Wednesday as the number of dead and wounded rose rapidly.
Caught in the middle are millions of civilians, including Dalia Mohammed, who said she and other residents of the capital had spent the past few days “staying at home to keep our sanity intact” as the sounds of war echoed outside.
The United States requested asylum in place for Americans in Khartoum, and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Tuesday that a clearly marked U.S. diplomatic convoy had been fired upon earlier in the week amid chaos.
No one was injured in the incident and it is unclear which party was responsible, but phone calls were made to both the head of the Sudanese armed forces, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). General Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo, Blinken called the move reckless and irresponsible.
“I have made it very clear that any attack, threat, threat to our diplomats is completely unacceptable,” he later said.
The State Department has established a Sudan Military Conflict Task Force to oversee management and logistics related to events in Sudan, and it said contingency plans are underway for US personnel in the East African country.
Germany’s government, meanwhile, has canceled plans to evacuate about 150 German citizens from Sudan because of the ongoing war, a source with knowledge of the plan told CBS News.