Asia Abdelmajid, a well-known actress, has been killed in Khartoum’s north crossfire, shocking the city’s inhabitants as they learn of friends and family members getting involved in the conflict.
Abdelmajid, who turned 80 this year, first gained notoriety for her theatrical performances in the 1965 staging of the drama Pamseeka. To commemorate the anniversary of Sudan’s first revolt against a coup leader, it was shown at Omdurman’s national theatre.
She was regarded as a theatre pioneer and the nation’s first professional stage actress before resigning and going into education.
According to the family, she was buried on the grounds of the kindergarten where she had most recently worked just hours after being shot on Wednesday morning. Taking her to a graveyard was too risky.
The BBC reports that 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.
The RSF says the military tried to deploy members of the police’s special force unit on Wednesday, but the group alleges it rebuffed their ground offensive.
UN chief Antonio Guterres has called on the warring factions to stop the fighting immediately before the conflict escalates into an all-out war.
“The Sudanese factions have agreed to a new seven-day truce starting on Thursday, 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.”
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