The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has reiterated its call for humanitarian organisations to be granted access to areas affected by the ongoing violence in Sudan.
Development Diaries reports that the fear of civilian casualties has grown following reports of increased violence and destruction in densely populated areas.
Hospitals in the capital, Khartoum, are running dangerously low on medical supplies, while water and energy infrastructure damages have left medical facilities without power and clean water.
The ICRC said it has received many distressed calls from people and organisations seeking evacuation and from people trapped in their homes or public places without food and water.
‘It is highly distressing hearing reports of civilian casualties and bodies left lying in the streets of Khartoum’, ICRC’s Africa Regional Director, Patrick Youssef, said in a statement.
‘They need to be collected and treated with dignity. We are calling for unimpeded humanitarian access immediately.
‘Our urgent priority is to get medical assistance to hospitals and try to make repairs to their water and power lines so they can treat the wounded.
‘But without the necessary security guarantees required to move around safely, we are still unable to deliver aid and to fully assess the humanitarian needs’.
Parts of Darfur have also seen a breakdown in law and order in recent days, with an ICRC office in Nyala looted where a vehicle was taken.
Source: ICRC
Photo source: International Crisis Group
