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Clashes in Sudan

Sudan to keep its airspace closed for all flights except humanitarian ones

Exceptions will be made only for planes that are delivering humanitarian cargo for the Sudanese population

CAIRO, May 14. /TASS/. Sudan will keep its airspace closed for all flights except humanitarian deliveries at least until the end of May, the Al Arabiya television has reported.

According to the report, the country’s aviation authorities "extended the ban on flights to the country until the end of this may." Exceptions will be made only for planes that are delivering humanitarian cargo for the Sudanese population.

Earler, Sudan’s cabinet of ministers designated routes for international deliveries of humanitarian aid. Humanitarian cargo will arrive via the seaport and the airport of Port Sudan on the Red Sea, the international airport of Sudan’s capital Khartoum and Wadi Seidna Air Base north of Khartoum. Also, the Sudanese government decided to turn the city of Wad Madani around 200 km southeast of Khartoum into "the main hub accepting international humanitarian aid." Over the past weeks, internally displaced persons from conflict-hit areas of Sudan have been flocking to Wad Madani.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said on May 11 that over 154,000 people fled Sudan and around 700,000 became internally displaced persons as a result of the armed conflict in Sudan.

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, Khartoum. More than 600 people have been killed in the country since the fighting began, according to the Health Ministry.

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