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Khartoum, Sep 26 (IANS) The Karari locality of Omdurman city, north of the Sudanese capital Khartoum, has regained some vibrancy after a fierce battle in March that expelled the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) from the old neighbourhoods, expanding the control of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) to the south.

Overcrowded markets and therapeutic activities such as masquerade parties and puppet theaters – the routines of life – have started to reemerge in the locality, which hosts more than 160 shelter centres packed with displaced Sudanese.

However, the returnees have never felt rest assured amid the hustle-bustle, as they are still subjected to random artillery shelling from time to time.

On Monday, at least 15 people were killed and 61 others injured in an artillery attack by the RSF on the crowded Sabreen civilian market in Karari. The death toll could be higher as the local rescue team was unable to reach some victims.

“This is the reality now. We are trying to live with the situation, but we are afraid to give up and flee again,” said Mahmoud Satti, a teacher who returned to Omdurman after a year-long displacement journey in central Sudan.

“What happened in Sabreen market was very tragic. People here are dying because of random shelling,” Satti told Xinhua news agency.

He urged government authorities to protect the returnees, address the security gap, and provide necessary services to Omdurman’s residents.

“There are no food shops amid a great shortage of goods, while prices for what is available are very high,” said Saadan Omer, a citizen from Omdurman.

Most people live on aid from their relatives abroad, and Takias — sanctuaries for the impoverished and needy set up by Sudanese activists and volunteers — remain as the primary source of food supply for Omdurman’s residents, he said.

“There is a significant spread of diseases amid a great shortage in medicines, while there are no nearby hospitals, and even those operational have been bombed and looted,” said Saeed Al-Zubair, a 49-year-old man from Omdurman.

Since the fighting between the SAF and RSF began in April last year, epidemic diseases have plagued the country, including Omdurman, leading to hundreds of deaths. The conflict has resulted in at least 20,000 deaths and displaced millions of people, according to a press release published Tuesday on the website of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said last week that an estimated 3.4 million children under five are at high risk of the deadly epidemic diseases in the country.

According to UNICEF, more than 70 percent of hospitals in conflict-affected areas are non-operational.

On Wednesday, the OCHA warned that Sudan is now facing the world’s most severe hunger crisis, with over half of its population, nearly 26 million people, suffering high levels of acute hunger.

Famine has been confirmed in North Darfur State’s Zamzam camp, with many other areas at risk, it said, adding that nearly 5 million children and pregnant and breastfeeding women have been acutely malnourished.

Meanwhile, Doctors Without Borders, an aid group, said Tuesday that 30,000 children under two were screened for malnutrition in South Darfur State in August, and 32.5 per cent of them were acutely malnourished.

In response to the dire humanitarian situation, Omdurman’s government authorities pledged to provide food for local residents and support community initiatives.

“Both official and popular efforts are ongoing to restore electricity and water services, remove war remnants, reopen roads, clean neighborhoods, and launch initiatives to bring life back to markets and shops,” Acting Minister of Social Development of Khartoum State Siddiq Hassan Freini told Xinhua.