Destroy Shambat Bridge.. Dangerous development in the course of the April War

Abdulrahman Al-Aajib
On the morning of November 11, Sudanese woke up with the news of the destruction of Shambat Bridge, amid surprise and astonishment at some of the move. The parties to the conflict quickly exchanged accusations about the destruction of the bridge between the cities of Bahri and Omdurman. In the context, the Sudanese army accused the RSF of destroying the Shambat bridge. A circular issued by the army spokesman said that (as part of its destructive project of the countrys capabilities and salute structure, as a result of the progress that our forces had begun to make on the ground, especially in the Omdurman axis, the rebel militia destroyed the Shambat coup between the towns of Amdurman and Bahri) and indicated that the destruction of the bridge was a new offence added to the RSF.

In the other bank, the RSF spokesman accused the army of targeting the bridge in the context of the continuation of the plan to destroy critical infrastructure. In a statement, he said that one of the regimes defunct extremist horns had consistently demanded that the bridge be destroyed and that it met their demands today rather than arrest their leaders who had been released from prison. A number of activists questioned the armys account, asserting that rapid support had no interest in destroying the bridge, and that it was probably the army that destroyed the bridge to cut off supplies from rapid support.

Since the outbreak of the war between the army and rapid support on 15 April, a number of activists supporting the Sudanese army have consistently called for the neutralization and decommissioning of the Shambat bridge, as the only crossing used by the Rapid Support Forces to transport arms and ammunition and soldiers to attack army positions in Khartoum, Bahri and Amdurman.

According to information, former President General Ibrahim Abboud laid the foundation stone of the bridge in the presence of Giuseppe Ricci, director of the Italian company RECCHI, which built the bridge. It took four years to work on Shambat Bridge (1962-1965) and reached a magnitude length of 1050 metres and width of 23.60 metres. Consisting of four lanes and two armed concrete pavements, the magnitude is based on eight substrates in the river floor made of reinforced concrete and steel. In 1966, Al-Kabri was officially inaugurated by Abdullah Abdulrahman Najdullah, then Minister of the Interior.

For some, the entity that destroyed Shambat Bridge committed a war crime in accordance with international humanitarian law. According to Additional Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions 1949 which is one of the mainstays of international humanitarian law, and which was incorporated in the Rome Charter, under which the International Criminal Court was formed, and according to the Orange Court, the destruction of the bridge is a clear violation of international humanitarian law.

Article 15 of the protocol refers to the protection of engineering works and installations containing dangerous forces and states: "Engineering works or installations containing dangerous forces, namely dams, bridges and nuclear power plants, shall not be the object of attack, even if they are military targets, if such an attack would cause dangerous forces to emit heavy casualties among the civilian population."

Resources and infrastructure are among the recognized elements necessary for the survival of the civilian population under international law, which all parties to the conflict must protect. International law views them as civilian infrastructure. Under the Geneva Convention, targeting civilians and their civilian structure is a war crime.

While emphasizing the protection of civilian infrastructure under the Geneva Conventions, ICRC stated that in times of war armed groups must protect civilian objects under international law and meet the civilian populations basic needs.

For the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the destruction of civilian infrastructure in armed conflict is not detrimental to effective humanitarian response efforts, exacerbating only the situation of civilians stuck in combat sites, but has catastrophic and long-term consequences for the environment and post-war reconstruction, and international humanitarian law obliges armed groups in wartime to protect civilian objects, including bridges under the law.

It seems clear that the destruction of Shambat Bridge is a dangerous turn in the course of the April War, and the coming days may see the destruction of other strategic and service facilities, and by the destruction of the bridge over the age of 57, the Sudanese people may lose memory of some strategic and service places and facilities due to the devastation caused by the devastating April War.