Nyala, South Darfur capital and the second largest city in Sudan, has plunged into the worst ever humanitarian situation the country has witnessed since the outbreak of fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
KHARTOUM: Altaghyeer
Dozens of civilians have been killed as a result of stray bullets and explosives unleashed by the SAF positioned in the downtown and RSF around and inside the town.
The two warring parties used heavy mortars since the start leading to the death and injury of countless civilians a matter that forced thousands of people to flee their homes for safety, mostly in Al Deaein, East Darfur, and Al Fashir, North Darfur. Non-official reports estimated the number of those who fled Nyala at 35,000.
Electricity and communication outage cut the area from the outside world making it an isolated island.
Fighting inside living quarters
The RSF resorted to the fighting tactic they use in Khartoum after they sustained hundreds of death and injury in a direct clash with the SAF. The RSF sneaked into the living quarters in Nyala and tried to besiege the SAF Division 16 headquarters in the city center, thus immersing the living quarters into the scourge of the fighting.
Eyewitnesses told Altaghyeer shells are falling down on most of Nyala’s quarters causing many deaths and injuries, particularly among women and children, and leaving some quarters without inhabitants totally.
The sight of drones and Mig war planes and anti-airplanes thundering have become a daily death threatening routine for the people living there.
Looting and abduction
As soon as they entered Nyala, the RSF indulged in looting the public and private buildings including homes of the citizens and the gangsters followed suit leaving the town in a state of total chaos.
The rights activist Ahmed Al Lord and his colleague Adam Omer were recently abducted and the perpetrators demanded 3 million Sudanese pound in a ransom money. But before their families contact the abductors, the dead bodies of the two victims were found thrown in the street. This is only the tip of the iceberg, there are tens of missing people.
Negative role of the native administration
Native administration in South Darfur are partially responsible for the ongoing fighting in Nyala, according to expatriates hailing from Nyala.
They said popular efforts in collaboration with the armed movements signatories to the peace agreement were about to defuse the crisis and stop the fighting. However, the efforts were frustrated as leaders of the native administration issued statements supporting the RSF a matter that encouraged continuation of the war.
Humanitarian call
The Nyala Emergency Committee has launched an urgent humanitarian call to the UN, international and local organizations, local and international media outlets to support Nyala people living in an utterly unimaginable disastrous situation.
The Committee, as well as Darfur’s Citizens Forum, urged the warring parties to immediately cease killing and displacing Nyala citizens and to stop fighting inside the Sudanese towns as a whole.
