Clashes between Sudan’s military and the country’s main paramilitary group left at least 26 people dead and 183 people wounded in a power struggle for control of the large African nation.
Summary
Clashes between Sudan’s military and the country’s main paramilitary group left at least 26 people dead and 183 people wounded in a power struggle for control of the large African nation.
- The fighting erupted on Saturday after the paramilitary redeployed its forces in a way the army saw as a threat.
- According to the Associated Press, “the sound of heavy firing could be heard throughout the day across the neighborhoods in and near the capital, where the military and the RSF had massed tens of thousands of troops since the coup.”
- The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group claimed to have seized control of the presidential palace, the residence of the army chief, the state television station, and airports in Khartoum, the capital, and several other cities.
- Among the dead were three UN workers were shot during a clash at a military base. Three World Food Programme employees were killed and two more were serverely wounded. The clashes began amid negotiations between the army and the paramilitary forces over a proposed return to civilian rule.
- Sudan has been ruled by a committee of generals since a military coup in October 2021. General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan is the head of the armed forces and in effect the President of Sudan and the country’s most powerful man.
- The RSF are led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti. The wealthy Hemedti is considered the second most powerful man in Sudan and took the role of deputy head of state after the 2019 coup that ousted President Omar al-Bashir.
- A Saudi airliner came under fire during the battle at Khartoum airport. The government-owned company said the passengers and crew had been evacuated to the Saudi embassy and all flights to or from Sudan were suspended after combatants shot at their plane.
- The RSF claimed to control more than 90% of “strategic sites” in Khartoum by the end of Saturday, CNN reported. Hemedti, the RSF leader, denounced General Burhan as a “criminal” and blamed the army for starting the fighting. The army placed the blame on the RSF.
- NBC News reported gunfire and explosions could be heard in different parts of Khartoum late into the night on Saturday. Flashpoints included Khartoum International Airport and around the military’s headquarters.
- Sudan is Africa’s third-largest country by area. The strategically-located northeast African nation has a population of 45 million people, the New York Times observed. Gerry Mullany added, “The mayhem was a major blow to American, United Nations, African Union, Arab League and other foreign officials who had been scrambling this past week to head off the possibility of just such clashes.“
- Fox News published video of smoke rising in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, as the armed forces battled paramilitary fighters.
- The Wall Street Journal contextualized, “Residents reported gunfire and frequent explosions in the capital Khartoum and Omdurman, its twin city across the Nile River, and in other parts of Sudan. The vast country of around 45 million is perched between Egypt and Ethiopia along the Red Sea.”
- United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate ceasefire, the New York Post reported. “I condemn the outbreak of fighting between the Rapid Support Forces & the Sudanese Armed Forces in Sudan,” Guterres tweeted. He added, the UN would “support the people of Sudan in their efforts to restore a democratic transition.”
Return to Freespoke 
© Dominic Moore, 2023
