Category: Rest of Africa

When conflict flared in Khartoum almost a month ago, pitting Sudan's armed forces and their heavy weaponry against a paramilitary force born out of an agile but lightly-armed desert militia, it looked like it might prove a one-sided fight.

More than 1 million polio vaccines intended for children have been destroyed as a result of looting in Sudan during the upsurge in violence since April, the UN children's agency Unicef told Reuters on Friday.

Sudanese people are pinning their hopes on talks in Saudi Arabia between envoys of warring factions to end bloodshed that has killed hundreds and triggered a mass exodus, but there is no sign lasting relief will come anytime soon.

Air strikes again shook Sudan's capital Monday while the latest truce talks in Jeddah yielded no progress and a Saudi diplomat said both sides consider themselves "capable of winning the battle".

As Sudan's war plunges the impoverished country even deeper into humanitarian turmoil, aid workers face deadly risks in their efforts to provide desperately needed support.

Nigeria’s Director of Defence Media Operations Maj Gen Musa Danmadami on Thursday said that the military embarked on operations in the last two weeks to clear militias in the embattled northeast. 

In the first UK case of its kind, judge Jeremy Johnson handed Ike Ekweremadu, 60, the prison sentence for his part in a "despicable trade" that took advantage of the "poverty, misery and desperation" of vulnerable people.  

Heavy gunfire echoed around Khartoum on Friday as civilians trapped in the Sudanese capital said the army and rival paramilitary were fighting without regard to their plight.

WFP Country Director for Sudan Eddie Rowe, speaking to Reuters from Port Sudan via video link, described pillaging in the country as rampant and that some reports of the UN’s food programme supplies being stolen were still being verified.

Despite multiple ceasefire declarations, the two sides appeared to be battling for control of territory in the capital Khartoum ahead of proposed talks, though the leaders of both factions have shown little public willingness to negotiate after more than two weeks of fighting.