Sudanese army calls again on civilians to register

Khartoum was rocked on Monday by heavy artillery fire from paramilitaries and the army, besieged on several fronts and once again calling for civilian reinforcements in a war with no end in sight, after around three months.
The noise of the fighting “started at around 4 a.m. and hasn’t stopped since”, reports one of the millions of inhabitants still trapped in the Sudanese capital, without water or electricity, and with food and cash reserves virtually dry.
The merciless war for power between the army led by General Abdelfattah al-Burhane and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo has left almost 3,000 people dead and 2.8 million displaced and refugees since April 15.
The humanitarian crisis continues to worsen in a country where, even before the war, one in three people suffered from hunger. It also threatens to destabilize an entire region straddling the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and the Middle East – areas already in the grip of violence themselves.
But the two belligerents have consistently ignored calls for a ceasefire from around the world. Confident that they can prevail militarily, both sides refuse to open negotiations, preferring instead to secure their supplies over the long term.
On Monday, the army said it was ready to “receive and prepare” volunteer fighters. The question of arming civilians, which would plunge the country into civil war, has been the subject of debate for weeks.
The governor of Darfur, a western region already ravaged by war in the 2000s, and then General al-Burhane, have both called for arms to be distributed. Young people and men who are capable of doing so” must enlist, said the army chief in his speech to the nation for the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha.