CAIRO, April 26. /TASS/. The death toll of clashes in Sudan, which started on April 15, has exceeded 500, the Sudanese Health Ministry reported Wednesday.
"Since the beginning of the clashes in Sudan, 512 people have been killed and 4,193 got injured," the Ministry said, according to Al Arabiya.
According to a Ministry representative, "the healthcare system is currently relatively stable, and some hospitals have reopened following several days of the fiercest fighting between the conflicting sides." He added that the Health Ministry "contacted the leaders of the Army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and demanded to stay away from clinics and hospitals."
Earlier, a WHO representative expressed serious concerns over health of Sudanese people, explaining that "assessing the health situation in Sudan is currently very complicated, including due to absence of communication and Internet connection." According to the representative, 61% of medical facilities in the capital city of Khartoum are shut down, with only 16% of hospitals operational across the country overall.
The situation in Sudan escalated amid disagreements between the army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who also heads the ruling Sovereignty Council, and the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemedti), who is al-Burhan’s deputy on the council.
The main points of contention between the two military organizations pertain to the timeline and methods for unifying the armed forces of Sudan, as well as who should be appointed as commander-in-chief of the army: a career military officer, which is al-Burhan’s preferred option, or an elected civilian president, as Dagalo insists.
On April 15, armed clashes between the rival military factions erupted near a military base in Merowe and in the capital city of Khartoum.