Khartoum Bahri: 10 or more die daily from hunger and shelling
Soup kitchens, in Arabic known as takaya, are one of the social solidarity systems in Sudan (File photo: RD)
Sudan Media Forum Joint Editorial Room – September 13, 2024
Compiled by Sudan Tribune
Daily aerial and artillery bombardment by both sides of the conflict kills the city of Bahri (Khartoum North), including those dying of starvation and disease. Looting is also widespread in the city by Rapid Support Forces (RSF) soldiers and drug supply centres supervised by activists are collecting medicines from different areas.
The UN World Food Programme (WFP) describes Sudan as suffering from the world’s largest hunger crisis, noting that 25.6 million people are “suffering from acute hunger”, and WFP spokeswoman in Sudan Lenny Kenzli confirmed last month that this means 54 percent of the population.
The two sides of the fighting exchange artillery shelling on a daily basis, as the RSF shell Omdurman, while the army responds from there by firing missiles on the neighbourhoods of Shambat, El Shaabiya, El Mazad and others, leaving dead and injured on an almost daily basis.
Hunger and disease are besieging the remaining residents of the old Bahri neighbourhoods, especially Shambat, El Shaabiya, El Mazad and El Sababi, which contain the largest percentage of residents who have not left the city since the outbreak of battles between the Sudanese army and the RSF in mid-April 2023.
A horrific statistic of death
A member of Bahri’s emergency room painted a bleak picture of the current situation in Bahri, saying: “The situation is very difficult in terms of security, killing, food, looting and looting of takayas. Things are very difficult and the situation is very critical. There is systematic looting of citizens’ property, and the residents of Old Bahri are being bombed by the army from Omdurman.”
The member stressed that death has become wholesale, and in Old Bahri and its various neighborhoods, there are between 11 to 15 deaths per day due to starvation, disease or as a result of artillery and air bombardment from both sides.
He said that those who want to leave now after the lack of food and the cessation of the work of takaya and health centres face arrest, looting and false accusations of cooperating with the RSF in the pillars of the army and the mobilised that torture and imprison many on charges of working or staying in Bahri after the war, and “this has become a clear feature and continuous work of the army that left people to face their fate.”
Talk of RSF soldiers looting food from takaya and stored medicine has also begun to provoke reprisals in a number of areas, he said, as soldiers come and attack people inside the neighbourhood and accuse them of tarnishing the image of the RSF or cooperating with the army and spreading lies about the RSF.
At the end of last August, the army escalated the bombing of the city of Bahri, where more than 150 shells and Dana fired from launchers fell, as confirmed by two Bahri emergency rooms, leaving 19 dead and more than 52 wounded in several neighbourhoods in Bahri.
At the same time, the health situation in Bahri is suffering from a bitter deterioration, especially with the autumn season, while all health facilities in Bahri areas have stopped working amid an acute shortage of medicines and medical supplies.
On August 14, a Bahri emergency room revealed an increase in the incidence of watery diarrhoea, malaria, typhoid and dysentery in many areas of the city.
On August 12, the Chamber also revealed an increase in watery diarrhea rates, with 116 cases in Bahri region.
A member of the Bahri emergency room told “Sudan Tribune” that the number of cases of watery diarrhea reached 200 cases, at a rate of 10 cases per day, while malaria reached 300 cases, at a rate of 15 cases per day.
He reported that the symptoms of watery diarrhea include the patient suffering from severe diarrhea that appears suddenly accompanied by mild fever, severe depression and dehydration of the body. He added that typhoid cases reached 240 cases at a rate of 12 cases per day, while cases of dysentery reached 200 cases at a rate of 10 cases per day. He pointed out that the cases are concentrated in the areas of Shaabia, El Mazad, Hillat Khojaly, El Danagla, El Sababi, Shambat and El Diom.
The Shambat Committees Alliance revealed in a statement on August 15 that the RSF launched systematic armed looting campaigns on the Shambat area in Bahri, stole and looted food supplies intended for the work of collective kitchens (takaya) in the Shambat area, and assaulted volunteers in the kitchens with beatings, direct live bullets and stealing private phones.
These takaya provide daily meals to the people of the area. The continuous looting threatens the work of the hosaya and its continuation of services to1,400 families in the coming days, depriving citizens of food, and some of them have even stopped, according to the coalition.
Shambat added: “There are no forces that protect civilians and make takaya as rumoured, and there have been no forces for this purpose since the outbreak of the war, and everything that is rumored is not true. The kitchens are the last thing left for the besieged citizens of Shambat, and the encroachment on them exacerbates the humanitarian situation in the area. And other systematic attacks on citizens in the area, including unjustified searches and beatings, after the looting that has become part of our daily lives has been overcome, it is a war directed with all its equipment against citizens.”
The Shambat Committees coalition called on the RSF to abide by international humanitarian law, stop their hands and remove their armed members from the food of Shambat citizens and leave them alone.
The Communist Party of Shambat said a few days ago in a press statement that the RSF recently escalated attacks on people in Shambat Hilla, which led to the loss of Aziz lives as a result of armed raids on citizens’ homes, which killed dozens of young people in the area.
According to the party, the flour allocated to the oven (Sheikh Ahmed Mosque) was looted as an incident preceded by similar incidents, followed by another armed attack, where an armed force of 23 individuals attacked the western Shambat hospice for the third time, and looted food supplies, gas pipes, and work aids, in a scandalous course aimed at liquidating the work of takaya to expel the remaining families through the hunger industry, in addition to repeated attacks on volunteers in public work, looting and threatening members of the takaya work teams, and a room Emergency, and the assassination of an activist from the Electricity Working Group.
The party strongly condemned the continued fall of the armed forces coming from Omdurman on the heads and homes of citizens, and did not spare even cemeteries and minarets, which in turn took many innocent lives, including the finest young men, and women.
Lawyer Moez Hadra, a resident of Shambat, said that since the first day of the war, the area has been under the control of the RSF and the water station has been destroyed, while there are a very large number of families in Shambat who did not go out and insisted on staying and refused to leave as it is the land of their parents and grandparents.
Hazrat pointed out that the people in Shambat have coexisted with the situation and have become dependent on the 22 hospice takaya distributed throughout Shambat, and depend on donations and support from the people of the region at home and abroad to provide them with materials.
He confirmed that 4-5 people died every day in Shambat as a result of the tragic situation where there is no food and hunger and disease are widespread in the area, despite efforts by groups to bring water and maintain electricity, which the army repeatedly strikes.
Hazrat pointed out that the RSF in Shambat recently attacked takaya and stole all food supplies, and continued: “So there is hunger in Shambat, and after the rains epidemics of typhoid, malaria and eye diseases spread for which there is no cure, and volunteer pharmacy groups that used to go to East Nile or other areas to get medicine are now unable to leave, and the security situation is very bad.”
The RSF began threatening families day and night, stealing everything, demanding financial transfers and openly looting during the day, he said, adding: “Unfortunately, the RSF pillars and leaders play no role in preventing these violations and protecting civilians, despite the RSF commander’s talk about it.”
Hazrat warned that the citizens of Shambat are being bombed by the army from Omdurman, because when the RSF bombard Omdurman from Bahri, the shells fired by the army fall in Shambat, and financially capable groups have begun to go out to the River Nile State, but arrests are made in the army pillars and accused of cooperating with the RSF, and they ask them: “Why are they present with the RSF?
He said that people are now accused of cooperating with the RSF because they were present throughout this period and did not leave, stressing that those who did not leave the RSF areas because of the war did not commit a crime, and are looted in the military pillars of the army and the mobilised and are investigated and charged.
Hazrat said that there are some people currently detained in Shendi and Atbara on charges of collaborating with the RSF and the crisis has become concentrated there and there.
Reports on the humanitarian situation, supported by testimonies from 19 volunteer volunteers and ordinary residents in 11 states, confirmed the spread of famine in those areas, specifically in the 97 areas where they are present or nearby.
Bahri volunteers reportedly said 49 people had recently died of starvation in various areas of the city, which have been under the near-absolute control of the RSF since the war began in mid-April 2023.
Cereal production in Sudan fell by an average of 40 percent between 2022 and 2023, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.
According to the International Monetary Fund, half of Sudan’s population is now unemployed. The banking system has collapsed, and money cannot be withdrawn from bank branches. It is difficult to send or receive remittances.
According to several reports, the prices of basic items such as lentils and rice have risen by 400 or 600 percent across the country.
This report is published simultaneously on the platforms of media and press institutions and organisations that are members of the Sudan Media Forum. #ساندوا_السودان #StandWithSudan
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