Sawt Falasteen - Khartoum islanders 'under siege' as Sudan fighting rages

Eight weeks of fighting have pitted army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo -- commonly known as Hemeti -- who commands the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

A number of broken ceasefires have offered brief lulls but no respite for residents of Khartoum, where witnesses again reported "the sound of heavy artillery fire" in the capital's northwest.

Pro-democracy neighbourhood groups known as resistance committees reported "civilians were injured in clashes" in central Khartoum on Tuesday.

Witnesses also said there were "clashes with various types of weapons" in south Khartoum, where "the sound of explosions shook our walls".

In the city's north, "dozens of protesters" gathered in the street, witnesses told AFP, with chants of "Burhan is a murderer! Hemeti is a murderer!" ringing out.

Since the fighting began on April 15, more than 1,800 people have been killed, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

The United Nations says that more than 1.5 million people have been displaced, both within the country and across its borders.

- Besieged island -

In the city centre, at the confluence of the White Nile and Blue Nile rivers, the island of Tuti is "under total siege" by RSF forces, resident Mohammed Youssef told AFP.

For over a week, paramilitaries have blocked the only bridge to the island and prevented residents from going by boat to other parts of the capital, "shooting anyone who approaches the river bank", pro-democracy lawyers said Tuesday.

"We can't move anyone who's sick to hospitals off the island," Youssef said, adding that "if this continues for days, stores will run out of food."

Emptying store shelves and pharmacy stocks "herald a humanitarian catastrophe", according to the lawyers, who called on the RSF "to open safe corridors and respect the principles of humanitarian law".

Both sides have repeatedly committed to abiding by international law, declaring humanitarian truces and accusing the other side of violating them.

Washington slapped sanctions on the two warring generals last week, blaming both for the "appalling bloodshed" after a US- and Saudi-brokered truce had collapsed and the army pulled out of ceasefire talks altogether.

Mediators have called for the resumption of negotiations in Saudi Arabia, where US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was heading Tuesday for a three-day visit.

Burhan said earlier Tuesday he had received a phone call from Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, laying out preconditions for talks.

The army chief "stressed the need for (RSF) rebels to vacate hospitals, service centres and citizens' homes, as well as open humanitarian aid corridors" for negotiations to succeed, according to an army statement.

- Health care 'collapse' -

Daglo said he received a call from the top Saudi diplomat two days earlier, where he reiterated the RSF's "support" for negotiations and "commitment" to ensure civilian protection and humanitarian relief.

But as both sides claim to defend civilians, "human rights officers are currently documenting dozens of incidents, including killings, arrests, possible disappearances, attacks on hospitals, sexual violence, and other forms of grave violations against children, committed by parties to the conflict," the United Nations' mission in Sudan said on Monday.

Some 25 million people -- more than half the population -- are now in need of aid and protection, according to the UN.

Aid agencies have only been able to offer a fraction of relief needed, with no humanitarian corridors secured.

In addition to the capital, the western region of Darfur -- already scarred by a two-decade war -- has seen some of the worst of the fighting, decimating its already fragile infrastructure.

In Nyala, capital of South Darfur state, medics told AFP they lacked access to even basic medication and equipment including painkillers, sanitisers and antibiotics.

"There is a severe shortage, we are really suffering," medic Adam Mohammed told AFP at a makeshift clinic, stressing an urgent need for medical aid in the region.

According to Pierre Kremer of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, "we face a massive humanitarian crisis that is only going to get worse with the collapse of the economy, collapse of the health care system."

The danger will increase with "the flood season fast approaching and the looming hunger crisis and disease outbreaks that now are becoming more inevitable," he told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday.

Sudan's annual rainy season begins in June, and medics have repeatedly warned that it threatens to make parts of the country inaccessible, raising the risks of malaria, cholera and water-borne diseases.

Y.Zaher--SF-PST