KHARTOUM, June 16, (Xinhua/gna) – Sudan’s Civil Aviation Authority on Thursday, extended the closure of the country’s airspace until June 30, as armed clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) goes on.
“The Civil Aviation Authority has extended the closure of Sudanese airspace for all aviation traffic until June 30, excluding humanitarian aid flights,” the authority said in a notice to airmen.
Sudan’s airspace has been closed since the outbreak of the clashes in mid-April, as air navigation systems at Khartoum International Airport were affected by the conflict between the two warring sides near the airport, according to the authority.
Sudan has been witnessing deadly armed clashes between the Sudanese army and the RSF in the capital Khartoum and other areas since April 15, which has left 958 people dead and 4,746 others injured, according to the latest update by the Sudanese Doctors’ Union on Wednesday.
More than 1.9 million people have been displaced since the conflict began, fleeing to safer areas both inside and outside of Sudan, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its latest update on Tuesday.
As of June 6, 1.4 million people were internally displaced within Sudan, and some 460,000 people, including refugees, asylum seekers and returnees, have crossed into neighbouring countries, it added, citing the UN Refugee Agency.
The countries the Sudanese have crossed into include the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan, according to OCHA.
GNA