Eyewitnesses reported that Sudanese police used force to remove hundreds of displaced civilians taking shelter at a school in the eastern state of Gedaref on Wednesday, while the army and RSF clashed in Khartoum.
A resident named Amal Hussein recounted witnessing “police cars surround” the school and hearing people in distress.
“Police came and ordered us to leave the school, based on a decision from the governor, and fired tear gas at us,” Hussein Gomaa, who had been displaced from the capital, told media.
“We are 770 people who had fled the war in Khartoum and were sheltering in this school,” Gomaa said after fleeing the makeshift displacement camp, where he said hundreds of people “had been receiving aid”.
“We don’t understand why we were driven out,” he said. “Now we’re out in the open with women and children, and we don’t know where to go.”
Gedaref is currently providing shelter for 273,000 individuals displaced by the conflict between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
According to the United Nations, thousands of people are residing in makeshift camps, like schools, where there is a scarcity of essential provisions such as food, clean water, and healthcare.
Suleiman Mohammed, who had sought refuge at the school, revealed that barely two hours after being removed, they were once more “evacuated from the dormitories” at Gedaref University’s medical school.
“Police said the decision was issued by the governor,” he added.
In Khartoum, a volunteer committee reported “escalated confrontations” occurring in a densely populated northern neighborhood.
Since April, troops aligned with army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who effectively serves as Sudan’s head of state, have been in conflict with the RSF, under the leadership of Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
A conservative estimate from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project indicates that over 10,000 individuals have lost their lives.
The conflicting parties were unable to reach an agreement on a ceasefire during a recent series of negotiations brokered by Saudi Arabia and the United States in Jeddah this week.
In the extensive western region of Darfur, where some of the most intense clashes have occurred, the RSF has declared its dominance over all major cities except one.
Out of the 4.6 million internally displaced people in Sudan, over three million individuals have sought refuge from the violence in Khartoum, as per United Nations statistics.
The UN refugee agency declared on Tuesday that Sudan is confronting an “unimaginable humanitarian crisis” with the majority of hospitals closed and millions in desperate need of assistance while the violence persists without interruption.
