Sudan.. Hunger threatens the besieged residents of Khartoum suburbs

A resistance committee in Central Bahri, a suburb north of the Sudanese capital, has opened the door for donations in order to meet the food needs of those trapped in their homes who have not been able to escape since the start of the war. Battles that entered its fourth month between the army and the Rapid Support Forces.

The Danakla Committee, one of the neighborhoods of Central Bahri, stated in a statement posted on its Facebook page on Saturday-Sunday, entitled “Food Need,” that the residents of the neighborhood “are living in a very complicated situation due to war conditions, power and water cuts, and the absence of shops.”

She pointed out, “The work stopped for more than three months, the lack of salaries, and the depletion of the remaining strategic stocks for each family or individual.”

The committee decided, according to what it reported, “to open the door for donations so that we can support each other by providing food supplies or contributing financially to purchasing food supplies from the nearest place and distributing them to those in the neighborhood.”

The resistance committees are popular groups that were organizing protests to demand civilian rule after the overthrow of Omar al-Bashir’s regime in 2019, and have been active in providing support since the start of the conflict three months ago.

Residents’ complaints about the lack of food extend to other neighborhoods and suburbs. In the Al-Mazad neighborhood in the middle of Bahri, Abbas Muhammad Babiker, a resident, confirmed to “Fras Press” that he did not leave his house because of his mother’s advanced age and illness.

He said, “We have been eating one meal a day for two months to preserve our stock of materials. Today, we only have enough for two days, and we do not know what will happen after that.”

And last week, the well-known Sudanese violinist Khaled Sanhouri died after his friends reported on social media platforms that he “died of hunger and was buried in front of his house in the Al-Molazemin neighborhood in the center of Omdurman,” the western suburb of Greater Khartoum.

The battles that broke out in mid-April between the army and the Rapid Support Forces are concentrated in The capital, Khartoum, and its environs And in the Darfur region in the west of the country.

The war has so far resulted in the killing of at least 3,900 people, according to the non-governmental organization ACLIAD, and the displacement of more than three million people, whether inside or outside the country.

Sudan is one of the poorest countries in the world, with more than half of the population needing assistance to survive, at a time when the famine warning has reached its maximum, and while more than two-thirds of hospitals are out of service.

On the other hand, humanitarian workers continue to Demand access to combat zones They say the authorities are preventing aid from reaching customs and not issuing visas for aid workers.