Dozens of people are dead, as the army and RSF battle in Sudan
The clashes between the Rapid Support Forces and Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Monday capped a military-military transition in Sudan
On Saturday, forces of the paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces started clashing with forces of the Sudanese army chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
As of Monday, at least 97 people have been killed, according to the Preliminary Committee of Sudanese Doctors trade union. Earlier on Sunday, the World Health Organization estimated more than 1,126 were injured.
The clashes capped months of heightened tensions between the military and its partner-turned-rival, the Rapid Support Forces group. Those tensions had delayed a deal with political parties to get the country back to its short-lived transition to democracy, which was derailed by an October 2021 military coup.
Residents in the Kafouri area north of Khartoum began to evacuate women and children early Monday due to street fights in the area, according to a Sudanese journalist. In the Kalakla area, south of the capital, residents reported the walls of their houses shaking from explosions.
She said from her home that the battles did not stop. “They are shooting against each other in the streets. There is an all out war in residential areas.
Abass said her family spent the night on the ground floor of their home. She said that the kids were crying and screaming with every explosion. Sounds of gunfire were heard while she was speaking to The Associated Press.
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The military and the RSF both claimed to be in control of strategic locations in Khartoum and elsewhere in the county. Their claims couldn’t be independently verified.
It is unclear how much control the RSF has wrested from the country’s military. Dagalo claims he now controls the country’s main military sites, a claim repeatedly disputed by Burhan.
The UN secretary-general, the EU foreign policy chief, the head of the Arab League and the head of the African Union Commission all urged the sides to stop fighting. The UN Security Council called for an immediate end to hostilities and a return to dialogue when it disagreed with each other about other crises.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he consulted with the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. He said in a statement that it was necessary for both parties to immediately end hostilities.
Pro-democracy activists have blamed Burhan and Dagalo for abuses against protesters across the county over the past four years, including the deadly break-up of a protest camp outside the military’s headquarters in Khartoum in June 2019 that killed over 120 protesters. Many groups have repeatedly called for holding them accountable. There is mounting evidence of atrocities linked to the conflict in the Sudan.
The sound of bombardment by war planes and artillery woke up residents in the Sudan capital Khartoum on Monday, a day after fighting that left 100 dead and hundreds injured.
Residents in neighborhoods east of the airport told CNN they saw warplanes bombing sites east of the command. “We saw explosions and smoke rising from Obaid Khatim Street, and immediately after that, anti-aircraft artillery fired massively towards the planes,” one eyewitness said.
How war has ruled Sudan, as declared by the United Nations, the humanitarian group Save the Children (Sundafism) has warned against civilian rule
The hospital is short of supplies to treat survivors. There is a lack of medicine and blood. There has also been a power outage in the city since the beginning of the fighting, and fuel supplies for the hospital generator are also running low.”
He said that he believed the army chief and his rival had lost control of the military. When asked if he wanted Sudan to be ruled by a civilian government, he said he had no such intentions.
People have been warned to stay indoors. One local resident tweeted that they were “trapped inside our own homes with little to no protection at all.”
“All we can hear is continuous blast after blast. What exactly is happening and where we don’t know, but it feels like it’s directly over our heads,” they wrote.
Access to information is limited and the government-owned TV channel is off the air. Television employees told CNN that it is in the hands of the RSF.
The conflict has put other countries and organizations on high alert, with the United Nations’ World Food Program temporarily halting all operations in Sudan after three employees were killed in clashes on Saturday.
Save the Children, an aid organization, said on Monday that looters had stolen medical supplies for children, as well as a refrigerator, laptops and cars in a raid on one of its offices in Darfur. The group’s Sudan director, Arshad Malik, called on the combatants to safeguard humanitarian services.
“We have no plans” to evacuate the country’s troops, as the G7 mission calls for a “free return to the military back in Sudan”
Meanwhile, Mexico is working to evacuate its citizens from Sudan, with the country’s foreign minister saying Sunday it is looking to “expedite” their exit.
The United States embassy in Sudan said Sunday there were no plans for a government-coordinated evacuation yet for Americans in the country, citing the closure of the Khartoum airport. It warned US citizens to stay indoors and said it would make an announcement if necessary.
The fresh clashes have prompted widespread calls for peace and negotiations. The head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki, will be in Sudan on Monday in an attempt to stop the fighting.
“People in Sudan want the military back in the barracks, they want democracy, they want a civilian-led government. Sudan needs to return to that path,” Blinken said, speaking on the sidelines of the G7 foreign minister talks in Japan on Monday.
The UN’s political mission in Sudan has said the country’s two warring factions have agreed to a “proposal” although it is not yet clear what that entails.
The leaders of the opposing sides have blamed each other for inciting the fighting that has engulfed the country.
Some patients were left behind after the staff at Al-Moallem hospital were forced to evacuate because of intense shelling.
The RSF attempts to take over the nearby army headquarters, a flash point of Khartoum’s violence, but its unclear whether it has taken control of the hospital.
A 6-year-old child died in the building, one medic said. Two of the children were wounded. Medics and patients were praying in the corridor as the shelling intensified.
At first we were praying for salvation,” the medic said. After the shelling became worse, we started to pray that the painless part of the body would be spared, so that we could die painlessly.
“Can you believe that we left the hospital and left behind children in incubators and patients in intensive care without any medical personnel,” another medic said. “The smell of death was everywhere.”
Food in the fridge and freezers have gone bad, a Sudanese-British doctor told CNN. “We don’t have any supplies at the moment, that’s why we’re trying to go somewhere where the shops are open.”
After midday prayers, we typically have a little bit of a siesta and wake up again for the afternoon prayers, but it is different during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. It was not possible to sleep. The house was rattling and the windows were shaking.”
CNN’s Larry Madowo tells how Sudan’s Janjaweed Army fought back against the Paramilitary General Dagalo
In an interview with CNN on Monday, Burhan accused Dagalo of attempting to “capture and kill” him during an attempt by the paramilitary leader to seize the presidential palace.
“Yesterday and today a humanitarian ceasefire proposal was put forward and agreed upon,” said Burhan from army headquarters, as gunshots rang out in the background.
“Sadly, he did not abide by (the ceasefire),” he added. They can hear attempts to storm the Army headquarters. He is using the humanitarian pause to continue the fight.
According to a telephone interview with CNN’s Larry Madowo, which was held on Sunday, we’re under attack from all directions. “We stopped fighting and the other side did not, which put us in a predicament and we had to keep fighting to defend ourselves,” he claimed.
During Sudan’s Darfur conflict, starting in the early 2000s, he was the leader of Sudan’s notorious Janjaweed forces, implicated in human rights violations and atrocities.
International powers have expressed alarm at the current violence in Sudan. Apart from concerns over civilians there are likely other motivations at play, the country is resource-rich and strategically located. CNN has previously reported on how Russia has colluded with its military leaders to smuggle gold out of Sudan.
NAIROBI, Kenya — As two rival generals, each with his own army, grappled for power in Sudan on Monday, even hospitals trying to tend to the swelling numbers of wounded were no longer havens.
The doctor in the emergency room at the police hospital said the hospital turned into a battlefield.
The Sudanese army is fighting back: the urgency to ensure humanitarian access in a war-bombing zone, warned the U.N. secretary of state
The leaders from around the world had called for a cease-fire in Sudan but who was in control wasn’t clear.
Warplanes and military ships circled ominously in Khartoum where many have lost power and water. Those who dared leave their homes found the streets barren and dangerous.
“Everyone is afraid,” said Ahmed Abuhurira, a 28-year-old mechanical engineer who went out to try to charge his cellphone. “You can see it in their eyes. People are worried.
Only the army has aircraft, and on Monday, General Hamdan accused his rival of “bombing civilians from the air.” The Sudan Army said it was following the rules of conflict and international humanitarian law.
António Guterres, the U.N. secretary general, said he had spoken with both warring generals and expressed deep concern. The humanitarian situation in Sudan is now a catastrophe, he said.
The American secretary of state said General al-Burhan must ensure the protection of civilians and noncombatants, as well as people from third countries, in order for the cease-fire to last.
Mr. Perthes said that both the military groups had made it clear that they were not going to stop fighting. He said they are receptive to the idea of pausing to allow humanitarian access.
“For the past three days,” he said in a statement, “people across Sudan have been gripped by fear, not knowing if it is safe to leave their homes, and now having to make the choice between facing that fear and starving to death.”
The Western officials said that the European Union ambassador to Sudan had been attacked at his home after armed men broke in and stole money.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/04/17/world/sudan-fighting-news/who-are-the-rapid-support-forces-the-paramilitary-group-fighting-the-sudanese-army
Embracing Sudan: The Rapid Support Forces are the paramilitary-group-fighting-the-sudanese-army
Several officials said the Rapid Support Forces were responsible for the attack while speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
The U.N. spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric. said that gunmen were forcing staff members out of their apartments in Khartoum and then operating out of them.
Observers were paying close attention to Egypt, which has entwined itself into its neighbor’s affairs, with concerns that the conflict may entangle other nations.
Since 2019, when pro-democracy protesters forced Sudan’s autocratic president to step down, Egypt has been eager to keep a civilian-led democracy from taking root on its southern doorstep, analysts have said. Ruled by a military-backed government that came to power after its own antigovernment uprising in 2011, Egypt has sought to replicate similar leadership in Sudan.
Egyptian officials see a strongman as the best way of keeping its neighbor stable — and off a democratic path that could inspire Egyptians — and they have embraced General al-Burhan as an ally, especially after one Rapid Support Forces faction captured Egyptian soldiers and seven Egyptian warplanes over the weekend.
The fighting has made transit in and out of the country difficult. Planes were hit again on Monday at the main airport in Sudan as the warring military gangs fought for control over critical infrastructure.
The New York Times used satellite imagery to identify 20 damaged or destroyed planes at the airport.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/04/17/world/sudan-fighting-news/who-are-the-rapid-support-forces-the-paramilitary-group-fighting-the-sudanese-army
On the lack of water and electricity in the city Omdurman, northwest of the capital, according to Abuhurira, an electrical engineer
Many people left their homes and traffic began to build in some shopping areas on Monday in the city of Omdurman, northwest of the capital. Many households, however, still lacked water or electricity.
In the capital, many residents found it safest to stay home. Mr. Abuhurira, the electrical engineer who went out to charge his phone, said that in the half-hour he spent on the street, he encountered almost no one.
