Sudanese Army Says Its Forces Have Withdrawn from Wad Madani

Displaced people fleeing from Wad Madani in Sudan's Jazira state arrive in Gedaref in the country's east on December 19, 2023. (AFP)

17:23-19 December 2023 AD ـ 08 Jumada Al-Alkhirah 1445 AH

Displaced people fleeing from Wad Madani in Sudan's Jazira state arrive in Gedaref in the country's east on December 19, 2023. (AFP)

The Sudanese army said in a statement on Tuesday that its forces have withdrawn from positions in Wad Madani city, adding that it will investigate the reasons for the withdrawal.

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took over Wad Madani, a city packed with displaced people and an aid hub, earlier this week.

The war between the army and the RSF has displaced nearly 7 million people, left the capital in ruins, caused a major humanitarian crisis and triggered waves of ethnically driven killings in Darfur.

The two forces had shared power with civilians after the 2019 overthrow of former leader Omar al-Bashir before staging a coup together in 2021 then coming to blows over an internationally backed political transition plan.

The International Organization for Migration says that clashes between the RSF and the army around Wad Madani have led to widespread displacement in recent days.

Nearly 1.5 million have fled Sudan and more than 5.4 million have been forced from their homes internally, according to the IOM, making Sudan the country with the highest number of displaced people in the world.

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Workers break rocks at a gold mine near Abu Delelq in Gadarif State, Sudan. (Reuters)

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Shafts of the Awny mining area near Sudan's border with Egypt collapsed on Saturday.

By Sunday morning "10 bodies had been recovered and 21 injured miners pulled out", said one of the survivors who was working at the mine when it collapsed, requesting anonymity for security reasons.

Another survivor, also requesting anonymity, told AFP the rescue operation was "being carried out by the miners themselves" with little equipment available.

More miners were feared dead under the rubble and survivors said the search for the missing was ongoing.

Many young Sudanese have joined a dangerous gold rush, working in unregulated mines with their hands and rudimentary tools for meagre daily wages.

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Sudanese Army Says Its Forces Have Withdrawn from Wad Madani

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