The death toll in the war in Sudan may be much higher than reported.

(CLO) According to a new report by researchers in the UK and Sudan, in the first 14 months of war in Sudan, it is estimated that more than 61,000 people were killed in Khartoum state, significantly higher than previously recorded figures.

This estimate includes some 26,000 people killed in violence, higher than the United Nations' calculation.

Preliminary research by the Sudan Research Group at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, published on November 13, found that hunger and disease are becoming the leading causes of reported death across Sudan.

The researchers said that the estimated number of deaths from all causes in Khartoum state was 50% higher than the national average before the conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces broke out in April 2023.

The conflict has displaced 11 million people and sparked the world's largest hunger crisis, according to the United Nations. Nearly 25 million people - half of Sudan's population - need aid as famine has struck at least one refugee camp.

But counting the dead is a challenge. Even in peacetime, many deaths go unreported. As fighting escalates, many people are cut off from places where deaths are recorded, including hospitals, morgues and cemeteries. Repeated disruptions to the internet and telecommunications leave millions without contact with the outside world.

Lead author Maysoon Dahab, an infectious disease epidemiologist and co-director of the Sudan Research Group, said the team used death data from three independent lists, then reviewed individuals whose names appeared on at least two lists. The less overlap between lists, the more likely it was that a death would go unrecorded. “Our findings suggest that the vast majority of deaths go undetected,” the researchers wrote.

Graves in a residential area in Omdurman, Sudan. Photo: Reuters

Among the many victims of the fighting was Khalid Sanhouri, a musician who died in the Mulazmeen neighborhood of Omdurman. Neighbor Mohammed Omar said friends and relatives were unable to take Sanhouri for medical treatment at the time.

“There was no hospital or pharmacy where we could buy medicine, not even a market to buy food. So we buried him here,” Omar said, pointing to a grave just beyond the bullet-riddled wall of the musician’s home. They couldn’t even get to the nearest cemetery.

Residents say hundreds of graves have appeared next to homes across Khartoum since last year. With the military returning to some neighborhoods, they have begun moving bodies to Omdurman's main cemetery.

Funeral director Abdin Khidir said there were up to 50 burials a day there. The cemetery has expanded into an adjacent soccer field. But the bodies keep turning up.

The warring sides blame each other for the mounting casualties. In September, a UN fact-finding mission said both sides had committed acts that could “constitute war crimes,” including attacks on civilians.

The fighting erupted during a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule. The RSF quickly seized much of the capital and have now spread across at least half the country, but the military has regained control of some neighbourhoods in Omdurman and Bahri in recent months.

Hoai Phuong (according to Reuters)

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/so-nguoi-chet-trong-chien-su-o-sudan-co-the-cao-hon-nhieu-so-lieu-ban-dau-post321477.html