Actress Asia Abdelmajid killed in Sudan cross-fire
The death of a well-known actress, killed in crossfire in the north of Khartoum, has shocked residents of Sudan’s capital as they hear of more and more friends and relatives caught up in the fighting.
Asia Abdelmajid, who turned 80 last year, was famous for her theatre performances – first coming to prominence in the 1965 production of the play Pamseeka.
It was put on at the national theatre in Omdurman to mark the anniversary of Sudan’s first revolution against a coup leader.
Her family says she was buried within hours of her shooting on Wednesday morning in the grounds of a kindergarten where she had been most recently working. It was too dangerous to take her to a cemetery.
It is not clear who fired the shot that killed her in the clashes in the northern suburb of Bahri. But paramilitary fighters of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who are ensconced in their bases in residential areas across the city, continue to battle the army, which tends to attack from the air.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has called on the warring factions to stop the fighting immediately, before the conflict escalates into an all-out war.
In a suburb called Khartoum 2, to the west of the military headquarters, estate agent Omer Belal has decided to stay and guard his home.
The 46-year-old has sent his family to a safer district while he and a few other men in the neighbourhood seek to protect their properties from the looting and armed robbery that is occurring across the city.
People’s houses, banks, factories, supermarkets and clothing shops are all being ransacked.
Basil Omer, a medic and volunteer, described fleeing his flat when it was shelled in al- Manshiya, east of the army headquarters.
“We spent three days only sleeping on the ground. In the end it was impossible to stay there, I sent my children and their mother to el-Gezira state with my in-laws and I went to stay with my parents in Khartoum North,” he said.
The Sudanese factions have agreed to a new seven-day truce starting yesterday, but given that they are currently meant to be observing a humanitarian ceasefire and previous ones have broken down – none of us are holding our breath.—BBC
