Sudan

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Paramilitary group attacks an open market in Sudan, killing 54 people and wounding scores

CAIRO (AP) — An attack on an open market in the Sudanese city of Omdurman by a paramilitary group killed 54 people and wounded at least 158, health authorities said Saturday.

https://apnews.com/article/sudan-rsf-omdurman-sabrein-market-1ae73e6e00c2a390f44cd955fed26673?

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Army surrounds South Sudan vice president’s home as his allies are arrested

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — South Sudanese soldiers surrounded Vice President Riek Machar’s home in the capital on Wednesday and several of his allies were arrested after an armed group allied to him overran an army base in the country’s north.

https://apnews.com/article/south-sudan-tension-violence-fighting-upper-nile-c0083aec9f62e325bbf53eef94638e8c?

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Sudan’s military says it has retaken Khartoum’s Republican Palace, seat of country’s government

CAIRO (AP) — Sudan ’s military on Friday retook the Republican Palace in Khartoum, the last heavily guarded bastion of rival paramilitary forces in the capital, after nearly two years of fighting.

https://apnews.com/article/sudan-khartoum-republican-palace-rsf-war-3790a105d19b8da9ec484d6c48b46a89?

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Famine and atrocities mount as Sudan’s civil war enters its third year As Sudan marks two years of civil war on Tuesday, atrocities and famine are mounting in what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Read more.

Why this matters: Last month, the Sudanese military secured a major victory by recapturing the capital of Khartoum from its rival, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. But that has only moved the war into a new phase that could end up with a de facto partition of the country.   Half the population of 50 million faces hunger. The World Food Program has confirmed famine in 10 locations and says it could spread, putting millions in danger of starvation. Sudan has also been hit by multiple outbreaks of cholera, malaria and dengue in the past two years.   The war erupted on April 15, 2023, after months of tension between the head of the military, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the RSF’s commander, Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo. The two were once allies in suppressing Sudan’s movement for democracy and civilian rule but turned on each other in a struggle for power.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Sudanese paramilitary group says its forming a rival government   Home to centuries of heritage, Sudan’s biggest museum is looted and wrecked by a 2-year war   UAE rejects Sudan’s claim at UN court that it is breaching genocide convention by funding rebels

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Sudan’s paramilitary unleashes drones on key targets in Port Sudan, officials say

CAIRO (AP) — Sudan’s paramilitary unleashed drones on the Red Sea city of Port Sudan early Tuesday, hitting key targets there, including the airport, the port and a hotel, military officials said. The barrage was the second such attack this week on a city that had been a hub for people fleeing Sudan’s two-year war.

https://apnews.com/article/sudan-war-rsf-military-396f67d3fada66707094858086b2ee53?

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Sudan appeals for aid after landslide kills more than 1,000 people in single village in Darfur

CAIRO (AP) — Sudan appealed for international aid on Tuesday after a landslide wiped out an entire village in western region of Darfur, killing an estimated 1,000 people in one of the deadliest natural disasters in the African country’s recent history.

https://apnews.com/article/sudan-darfur-landslide-rain-village-0ff996583d79ecb97c912d0dc44ec018?

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Paramilitary drone attack on a mosque in Sudan kills at least 70 people, army says

CAIRO (AP) — A drone attack blamed on Sudan’s paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces struck a mosque during prayers Friday, killing at least 70 worshippers in the North Darfur region, aid workers and the Sudanese army said.

https://apnews.com/article/sudan-elfasher-famine-displacement-war-mosque-b5d5a02d4e850fd4c9687717648fc092?

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Drone strike on a market in Sudan kills 15, aid worker and local group say

CAIRO (AP) — An aid worker and a local group in Sudan said a drone strike by the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces killed 15 people at a bustling market in the besieged city of el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.

https://apnews.com/article/sudan-rapid-support-forces-darfur-market-war-96a0496aa54900a67f5aeb28a4ab1807?

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Sudan’s paramilitary forces killed hundreds at a hospital in Darfur, residents and aid workers say

CAIRO (AP) — Sudan’s paramilitary forces killed hundreds of people at a hospital, including patients, after they seized the provincial capital of North Darfur over the weekend, according to the U.N., displaced residents and aid workers, who described harrowing details of the atrocities.

https://apnews.com/article/sudan-hospital-rsf-darfur-fasher-who-3ac305299da5ee388429f3352ca5c6fa?

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Fears grow for thousands trapped in Sudan’s el-Fasher as few reach safety Only a few thousand Sudanese have reached the nearest camp for displaced people in the days since Sudan’s paramilitary forces seized el-Fasher city, raising fears over tens of thousands who might still be trapped, an aid group said Sunday. Read more.

What to know: The Rapid Support Forces took control of the western Darfur region last week, after ousting the rival Sudanese army from the city that was besieged for 18 months. Since then, reports and videos have circulated of RSF atrocities against civilians including beatings, killings and sexual assaults, according to testimonies by civilians and aid workers.The dead included at least 460 killed in the hospital, according to the World Health Organization.   The fall of el-Fasher marked a new turning point in the war between the RSF and Sudan’s armed forces, which erupted in April 2023. More than 40,000 people have been killed, according to U.N. figures, but aid groups say the true number could be many times higher. The war has also displaced more than 14 million people and unleashed outbreaks of diseases, killing thousands.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ Top diplomats from Germany, Jordan and the UK call for an immediate ceasefire in Sudan war   Militia attack on hospital in Darfur came in waves, WHO says

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Sudanese paramilitary group agrees to humanitarian truce proposed by US-led mediators

CAIRO (AP) — The Rapid Support Force, a paramilitary group that has been at war with the Sudanese military for over two years, said Thursday it has agreed to a humanitarian truce that was proposed by U.S.-led mediator group, also known as the Quad.

https://apnews.com/article/sudan-talks-paramilitaries-agrees-truce-c264940722f044e334879f29f527fccc?

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Hundreds of children separated from families while fleeing violence in Sudan’s west Darfur Hundreds of children have arrived in a refugee camp without their families as thousands of people fled violence in the Sudanese city of el-Fasher in the past month, with more children disconnected from their families arriving every day, officials said. Read more.

What to know: The U.N. said more than 100,000 people fled el-Fasher in western Darfur beginning in late October when the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces took back el-Fasher from the Sudanese army. Sheldon Yett, UNICEF’s representative in Sudan, described the children arriving in the camp as “bewildered, malnourished and dehydrated.”   The latest mass displacement began when the RSF left hundreds dead in el-Fasher, which was the Sudanese army’s last stronghold. The war between the RSF and the military began in 2023, when tensions erupted between the two former allies that were meant to oversee a democratic transition after a 2019 uprising.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤ An archaeologist is racing to preserve Sudan’s heritage as war threatens to erase its cultural past

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In South Sudan, a prophet’s sacred stick helps fuel a violent struggle for political power

In a tribal battle fought over a century ago, according to oral history, a prophet in South Sudan raised his stick and summoned a thunderbolt that killed a crowd of fighters from a rival tribe. The prophet's dang, as the sacred stick is known, was never again wielded so magically. Yet the memory of it as a dangerous weapon now plays a role in the latest cycle of violence in the world’s youngest nation. The dang has emerged as a contentious relic in the quarrel between South Sudan President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar, who took ownership of the stick years ago. Read more.

RELATED COVERAGE ➤

Gunmen kill more than 70 in South Sudan after a dispute at a gold mine Africa is hurting again from a global crisis it had no part in starting

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Sudanese Strikes Spill Over

Drones struck an outdoor market in the disputed region between Sudan and South Sudan Monday, killing at least 153 people, local officials say. See footage of the aftermath (via YouTube, warning—sensitive). Local officials have blamed the Sudanese army and are raising concerns of spillover from Sudan’s more than three-year-long civil war. Drones reportedly hit a fuel depot in the market that was used by the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary in its conflict with the Sudanese army. The market is located in Abyei, an oil-rich region jointly administered by Sudan and South Sudan since 2011 (what is it like there?).  Sudan's civil war stems from fallout between two generals. The conflict has killed an estimated 150,000 people and displaced more than 13 million others—over one-fifth of the country’s population. See the countries reportedly backing each general here. … and curious about the world’s most neglected displacement crises? See one organization’s annual ranking (w/map).