Nearly 100 civilians have already been killed in Sudan, where fires and explosions continuously rock Khartoum on Easter Monday, while 15 Orthodox remain locked in the Metropolitan Church of the Annunciation, including several Greeks. The death toll among rival military factions is unknown, but is estimated to be in the dozens.

This is the third day of clashes between the Sudanese army under the command of General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the powerful paramilitaries of General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, known as Hamedi.

A conflict has smoldered for weeks between the two men who together ousted the civilian government from power in an October 2021 coup, but pointed guns at each other on Saturday morning.

Since then, heavy weapons fighting has not stopped and airstrikes have continued – even inside Khartoum – against the headquarters and bases of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Former combatants in the bloody conflict in Darfur, now regular militias, are fighting for control of the country’s military and non-military infrastructure.

Amid the crossfire, civilians are paying a heavy price: at least 97 of them have been killed, the medical association says: 56 on Saturday and 41 on Sunday, about half in Khartoum.

According to a Reuters correspondent, shelling and airstrikes were heard in Khartoum for two hours since Monday morning, after which heavy raids ceased, but artillery fire continued.

According to doctors, the dead fighters were numbered in “dozens”, but none of the camps reported casualties.

The Army said on Sunday evening that the situation was “extremely stable” and that the fighting was “limited”, while the DTY said they were “undoubtedly” moving towards victory.

Chaotic situation

In fact, it is impossible to know which force controls what. The FSR announced they had taken over the airport on Saturday, which the military denied. The paramilitaries also claim to have infiltrated the presidential palace, but the military also denies this, saying they still control their general headquarters, one of the key buildings of power in Khartoum.

As for state television, both sides say it is under their control. But residents in neighboring areas say that the fighting continues, and only patriotic songs are broadcast on television, like when the coup took place.

The state-run satellite channel aired the domestic song program until Easter Sunday, but it no longer airs on Monday, at least in Europe.

At the same time, 15 Orthodox Christians, who are Greeks, Sudanese, Ethiopians and Russians, remain in the capital’s Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Khartoum, Metropolitan Sava of Nubian and Sudan, who is also inside the temple, said in a statement.

Two wounded Greeks, who suffered on Holy Saturday from fragments of explosives, were hospitalized out of danger. The rest of the Greeks are said to be safe.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Athens has deployed a special crisis management unit to ensure the safety of Greek citizens in Sudan.

Warning sign from doctors

While no immediate ceasefire or solution is in sight, doctors and aid organizations are sounding the alarm that even under normal circumstances, households in Sudan only get electricity for a few hours a day. Electricity and water supplies have been cut off in some areas of Khartoum since Holy Saturday. And the few grocers that do open warn they will only last a few days unless trucks full of goods arrive in the capital.

On the Internet, doctors are reporting power outages in operating rooms, and the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that “several of Khartoum’s nine hospitals taking in wounded civilians are short of blood, blood transfusion equipment, intravenous serum and other vital materials”.

Patients, including children, and their families “have nothing to eat or drink,” warns a network of pro-democracy doctors who say they cannot let patients leave safely, leading to overcrowding.

The “humanitarian corridors” opened for three hours on Sunday at noon by the warring parties did not change the facts – moreover, even during this period, explosions and shooting did not stop in Khartoum.

The townspeople, however, hurried to buy the necessary products in the stores that they … dared to open, and then fled with purchases in their hands to cover themselves.

International concern

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said there was a “common sense of deep concern” among allies about the conflict in Sudan and a common view that the fighting should stop immediately and the parties involved should return to the negotiating table.

Mr. Blinken, who spoke on Easter Monday on the sidelines of the Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers’ meeting in Japan, said there had been close consultations on conflicts, including with partners in the Arab world and Africa, as well as with humanitarian organizations.

“There is a general sense of deep concern about the conflict, the violence that continues in Sudan. This is a threat to the civilian population, the Sudanese people and perhaps even the entire region,” he said.

“As well as the strong opinion of all our partners on the need for an immediate ceasefire and the resumption of negotiations — negotiations that have been very promising and put Sudan on the path to a full transition to a civilian government,” he said.

These positions are also echoed by statements by British Foreign Secretary James Cleverley: “Ultimately, the immediate future is in the hands of the generals involved in this conflict, and we urge them to put peace first, cease hostilities and return to negotiations,” he said. He. Mr Cleverly.

Source: APE-MPE, Reuters, ERT, SKAI.