Sudanese civilians demand weapons

More than 700,000 people have been displaced by the war in Sudan, the United Nations announced Tuesday, and no solution to the conflict is emerging in Saudi Arabia, where negotiations between belligerents have stalled since Sunday.
As looting and fighting continued for the 25th consecutive day in Khartoum, hundreds of Beja tribesmen demonstrated in Port Sudan, 850 km east of the capital. They demanded arms from the army of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane to fight alongside the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo.
“The Beja are ready to be armed,” said Mahmoud al-Bichari, one of the organizers of the demonstration as the crowd chanted “no to negotiations.”
“With the war continuing and insecurity taking hold, there is a growing risk that people will start arming themselves locally or that the army will try to form a militia to counter the RSF,” Sudanese analyst Magdi Gizouli of the Rift Valley Institute told media. Since April 15, the war has left more than 750 people dead, 5,000 wounded and nearly 150,000 refugees.
Above all, the number of displaced persons within Sudan itself has jumped: there are now about 700,000, according to the UN. This is “more than double” the number a week earlier. Many have fled Khartoum, where five million people are living for the fourth consecutive week, barricaded in their homes, for fear of stray bullets. On Tuesday, fighting took place in different parts of the capital, according to witnesses.