2023-04-16 16:42:04
At least 56 civilians have been killed in clashes that began in Khartoum on Saturday between Sudan’s regular army and a powerful paramilitary group. These fights continue Sunday for the second consecutive day in a power struggle between the two generals in control of the country since their putsch in 2021.
Throughout the capital, men in fatigues, weapons in hand, wandered in streets empty of all civilians, while columns of smoke have been rising since Saturday from the city center where the main institutions are located.
According to witnesses, fighting with heavy weapons opposes soldiers and paramilitaries in the northern suburbs of Khartoum, as well as in the south of the city.
The international community, which watched helplessly as the coup d’etat of October 2021 and has since failed to convince the generals to sign a plan to end the crisis, is increasing calls for a ceasefire. The latest came from Beijing.
The Arab League meets urgently at 10:00 GMT in Cairo, at the call of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, two influential players in Sudan, one of the poorest countries in the world, torn by war during decades.
“The night was very hard. We didn’t sleep because of the sounds of explosions and gunshots,” Ahmed Seif, who lives with his wife and three children in eastern Khartoum, told AFP. He fears that his building has been hit, but says he is “afraid to go out to check”, for fear of stray bullets and men in fatigues who criss-cross the streets.
For weeks they had been at odds politically. But on Saturday morning, the divisions between General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, the army chief, and General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, known as “Hemedti”, at the head of the Rapid Support Forces (FSR), thousands of ex-militiamen from the Darfur war who have become official auxiliaries to the regular troops, have degenerated into violence.
Rifles, artillery and combat aircraft were used in the capital and several cities in the country of 45 million inhabitants.
Sunday, again, the bombardments resounded in the deserted streets of Khartoum invaded by a strong smell of gunpowder. On social networks, doctors never stop calling for help, safe corridors for ambulances and a ceasefire to treat the victims.
The soldiers had warned on Facebook: “The Air Force will carry out operations to finish off the rebel militias of Rapid Support, civilians must stay at home”.
Artillery fire
Witnesses also reported artillery fire in Kassala, in the east of the country.
According to pro-democracy doctors, 56 civilians were killed, more than half in Khartoum and its suburbs, while “dozens” of soldiers and paramilitaries died without any precise toll being available. About 600 people were injured.
The conflict had been simmering for weeks, preventing any political solution in a country which has been trying since 2019 to organize its first free elections after 30 years of Islamic-military dictatorship.
Impossible in the state to know which force holds what. The FSR announced that they had taken the airport in a few hours on Saturday, but the army denied it. The FSR also said to hold the presidential palace. The army has denied and above all claims to hold the HQ of its staff, one of the main power complexes in Khartoum.
As for state television, the two parties also claim to have taken it. In the surroundings, residents report continuous fighting while on the air – as during the putsch – only patriotic songs are broadcast without any commentary.
Because the open war between the generals is also media: Saturday, Hemedti chained the interviews to the television channels of the Gulf, of which several States are his allies, multiplying the insults against his rival, General Burhane, who, him, is not not so far appeared.
Hemedti has continued to demand the departure of “Burhane the criminal”, while the army, she published on Facebook a “wanted notice” against Hemedti, “criminal on the run”.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on the two men to demand “an immediate end to the violence”. He also urged the Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, a big influential neighbor, to act when since Saturday Cairo has been worried about a video showing several of its soldiers apparently in the hands of RSF men.
AFP
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