Thousands of people are fleeing their homes in Wad Madani, Sudan’s second city, where the majority of the capital city Khartoum’s displaced people took refuge at the beginning of the conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces last April.
The fighting reached Wad Madani, the capital city of el-Gezira state, home to Africa’s biggest agricultural scheme, in central Sudan on Friday. People have been seen on buses, while some are walking towards the south.
There are reports of looting and damaging banks and the main markets in Madani by armed groups and citizens. The price of transportation has gone up alongside that of fuel.
Mohamed Babikir, a physician in Madani, said people were hiding inside their houses because of the intense street fighting. “So many people have run away,” he said. “We who remained are trapped inside our houses.” There have been reports of heavy artillery and fighter jets over the city.
The army has closed down a bridge connecting the cities of Al Hasahesa and Rufaa to the north of Madani.
In Djibouti last weekend the two warring sides committed to pursuing a ceasefire under the Intergovernmental Authority on Development’s facilitation, an east African political body, but the army on Thursday bombed the city of Neyala, the capital of South Darfur state, killing many people, among them several civilians. Neyala is now being controlled by the RSF after intense fighting that lasted for months. Three other major states have fallen under the RSF, leaving only North Darfur under the army control.
Several aid organisations have suspended their work in Madani, which had become a hub for humanitarian work after war broke out in Khartoum, following the latest developments.
“We have paused our work in Wad Madani while conflict has erupted there, we will resume as soon as possible,” said William Carter, the country director of the Norwegian Refugee Council.
“The numbers of people displaced are already in their thousands, and likely to grow as the fighting continues. We’ve dispatched emergency response teams to areas that people are fleeing to, such as Sennar and Gedaref states.
“This is a terrible turn of events. Hundreds of thousands of people who fled from urban warfare and airstrikes in Khartoum are now facing this all again in a place they thought was safe.”
Clashes between the two warring sides have resumed in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state – the last city still under army control. As the fighting reached the Abo-Shook camp for internally displaced people (IDP), six people including children were injured on Saturday.
A resident of Fasher told the Guardian that they have not experienced such violence since the start of the war in April. “Most of the fighting was near IDP camps in Abuja, and Nevsha with heavy artillery, which is the most violent,” they said.
The RSF has recruited many fighters from the eastern Nile region in central Sudan, not far from the city of Wad Madani since the start of the war headed by commander Abu Agla Mohamed Ahmed Kaikel, who was formerly an ally of the army. It is understood that his troops within the RSF have attacked Wad Madani city this time.
By Zeinab Mohammed Salih in Khartoum/ www.theguardian.com
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