By Aweye Teddy Onam
The acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Deng Dau Deng has urged South Sudanese citizens in Khartoum to take measures by keeping indoors in order to mitigate exposure to gun fire.
Minister Deng told No.1 Citizen Daily Newspaper yesterday, that the situation in Sudan is still difficult with no in and out flights as the Sudanese airspace is closed due to the armed conflicts taking toll in Khartoum including other cities.
“First and foremost, the situation now is so complex and so quiet. If you look at it, you know there is no flight that can go to Sudan in and out because the airport is closed,” he elaborated.
“So I advise our citizens through our embassy that all South Sudanese like the rest of the nationals in Khartoum should stay indoors and stop moving so that they cannot get into crossfire,” Deng added.
Sudan was engulfed in a deadly battle last Saturday morning within the Khartoum city between the Sudan Arm Forces (SAF) headed by Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) being led by Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who is also called Hemedti.
The two generals appeared to be struggling to capture power from each other, with both sides accusing one another of starting the fight. And Gen Hemedti, is the deputy leader of the sovereignty council, of which Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan is the president.
According to a UN report, about 185 people have been killed while 1,800 have sustained injuries since the onset of the conflicts over the weekend.
The differences between the two wings of the Sudanese security pillar RSF and SAF have flared up as in the era after the ouster of Sudan’s longtime ruler, the former Omar al-Bashir, who was overthrown from power in April 2019.
Besides, both Hemeti and Burhan ousted Sudanese prime minister Adallah Hamdok in 2021 by seizing power from the civilian authority.
But because South Sudan relies heavily on oil exported through Sudan to international markets, the government said it had not received information about the oil’s impact on the ongoing war in Sudan.
“So far we have not received any report from the Ministry of petroleum nor from the team that are in Port Sudan on the message of oil which means oil has not been affected and that is good news for us,” Dau stated
On another note, South Sudanese citizens who went to khartoum for treatment were left unattended, and one patient died in Le-auram hospital when doctors there failed to show up.
However, the acting Minister of Foreign Affairs said they had instructed the embassy to do its best to follow up on the welfare of South Sudanese in Sudan including the one who passed on.
“We have heard about this report and we have directed our embassy to be able to do their utmost functions to help in the critical situation because not only the dead but also the ones waiting to be operated on. But then the doctors were nowhere to be seen so we are waiting and requesting the embassy to put their utmost [effort] to see the wellbeing and welfare of South Sudanese including the one that died on Sunday”.
The IGAD is set to send three heads of state to Sudan to try to find a solution after it had held its crisis meeting virtually on Sunday. The meeting resolved to tap President Salva Kiir, William Ruto of Kenya, and Omar Guelleh of Djibouti as a delegation to meet with the Sudan’s warring generals.