Sudan conflict: Death toll rises to 865 amid ceasefire violations, medical union says

The Sudanese Doctors Syndicate confirmed on Thursday that the death toll from the latest fighting in Sudan has risen to 865, amid ongoing clashes between rival military factions in the conflict-hit country.

The death toll increase came despite a US and Saudi-brokered ceasefire which had already witnessed several violations including airstrikes, heavy artillery and gunfire in the streets of the capital Khartoum and neighbouring Omdurman.

The medical union put the blame for the rising number of casualties on the ongoing fighting between the Sudanese army, headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), headed by his rival General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, also known as 'Hemedti'.

The number of those injured has reached 3,634 as of Thursday.

The syndicate further stressed that a significant number of deaths and injuries are not included in the latest report, as many of those seeking treatment are unable to reach hospitals and access healthcare services due to the current volatile situation.

Sporadic clashes continued on Thursday between forces loyal to al-Burhan and Daglo, threatening the ceasefire put in place on Monday.

Violence broke out also on Wednesday in spite of the truce, residents said, with the warring parties blaming each other for breaking the ceasefire.

The truce, which is slated to last a week, is the seventh of its kind since conflict broke out in the  country on 15 April as a result of a power struggle between al-Burhan and Daglo.

Many residents of both Khartoum and Omdurman have said that the ceasefire has failed to "protect them from violence, looting and hunger."

Medical sites across the country have been subjected to raids and medicine and indispensable equipment have been stolen, activists have said.

Volker Perthes, the UN Secretary-General for Sudan's Special Representative, warned of the collapse of the country's healthcare sector during a briefing before the UN Security Council on Monday.

Perthes referred to "the closure of more than two-thirds of hospitals, the killing of many healthcare workers, and the depletion of medical supplies", stressing that "repeated reports of the use of health facilities as military sites" is unacceptable.

The conflict in Sudan has plunged the country into a humanitarian crisis which has forced at least 1.3 million people to flee their homes both internally and across the border into Chad, Egypt and Ethiopia.