DEATH TOLL FROM SUDAN WAR RISES TO 850: MEDICS

Sun 21 May 2023:

The death toll from Sudan’s ongoing clashes between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group has risen to 850 since April 15, according to local medics on Saturday.

In a statement, the Sudan Doctors Syndicate said that 3,394 civilians have also been injured in the violence.

On Thursday, the NGO put the death toll at 832 and 3,329 others injured.

The syndicate said many fatalities and injuries could not be counted due to the difficult security situation in the country.

After their first face-to-face talks in Saudi Arabia, the Sudanese army and the RSF signed a declaration of commitment on May 11 to protect civilians. Despite that agreement, clashes continued between the two sides, particularly in the capital Khartoum.

A disagreement had been fomenting in recent months between the army and the RSF over the paramilitary group’s integration into the armed forces, a key condition of Sudan’s transition agreement with political groups.

Sudan has been without a functioning government since October 2021, when the military dismissed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok’s transitional government and declared a state of emergency in a move decried by political forces as a “coup.”

Sudan’s transitional period, which started in August 2019 after the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir, had been scheduled to end with elections in early 2024.

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