Global Courant 2023-05-10 11:15:51
By Khalid Abdelaziz
DUBAI (Reuters) – When the conflict in Khartoum escalated almost a month ago, pitting Sudan’s armed forces and their heavy weapons against a paramilitary force spawned from a nimble but lightly armed desert militia, it looked like it was going to be a one-sided fight .
But the head of the army, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, soon found air power and artillery alone could not stop his rival’s men, who, in the first hours of the conflict that erupted in Burhan’s residence deep inside the army headquarters stormed in. A total of ten sources from both sides of the conflict reported this to Reuters on April 15.
Burhan, the de facto head of state, grabbed an AK-47 rifle himself and opened fire before his security got him to safety, one of his bodyguards told Reuters, in previously unreported details about how close he was to being overthrown or killed. to be killed in those early days.
More than 30 of his guards died in the ensuing battle, before Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters withdrew from the residence in the capital, said the bodyguard, who asked not to be named.
Reuters was unable to reach military and RSF representatives for comment on events at the presidential residence, or on the strategy of the two sides.
The account highlights the preferred tactic of Burhan’s opponent, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, which is to fight at close quarters and play to the strengths of his RSF.
Nearly a month after the fighting began, and despite almost daily airstrikes, the army has failed to drive the RSF out of the capital, where its men have taken up positions in residential areas and several key institutions.
Over the past decade, the RSF has grown from a patchwork of desert warriors to a virtually parallel army with bases in the capital – quickly abandoned when the fighting started – and with enough supplies to force Burhan into talks with no hope of a quick victory. .
The conflict has left ordinary Sudanese, many of whom have left the capital, with friends and relatives in more rural areas and others across borders into neighboring states. year.
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“Why did the army let Hemedti become a parallel army and threaten the normal people. Where were the army leaders?’ said Hussein Ahmed, in a long line at a bakery.
For troops in the RSF, which evolved from the Janjaweed, a feared mounted Arab militia that helped the government suppress an earlier insurgency in Sudan’s western Darfur region and was rewarded by being formalized as a paramilitary force, the goal is to engage the military in urban warfare where their lightly armed vehicles stand a better chance against tanks and fighter jets.
“We need Burhan and his troops to fight us face to face, not with airstrikes and drones. They have to be brave,” said an RSF soldier at a checkpoint in Khartoum.
TO SPREAD
RSF fighters have spread out from their bases in the capital, which are exposed to airstrikes, and have instead taken refuge in homes, evicting residents. They park their vehicles close to homes to discourage air raids, residents say.
While Hemedti has tens of thousands of troops in Khartoum, Burhan’s larger forces are scattered all over the country and are rarely seen in the capital, giving their enemies room to dig in.
Hemedti’s men have occupied state buildings such as the Ministry of the Interior, police buildings and have captured large stocks of fuel from the oil refinery and banks. The RSF has deployed snipers on rooftops.
Other RSF members took over houses in an upscale area of Khartoum. Like Hemedti, many of his warriors are from Rizeigat, the largest Arab tribe in Darfur, and are loyal to him.
To tighten their control, they have set up checkpoints throughout Khartoum, where they review IDs and search cars and luggage. RSF fighters open cell phones to contact the military, residents say.
Residents of the capital have accused them of looting, which the RSF has denied.
FORMER allies
The conflict followed the collapse of an internationally backed plan for a transition to democracy.
In the four years since the overthrow of former President Omar al-Bashir in a popular uprising, the military and the RSF have shared power uneasily.
Burhan heads a ruling council installed following the ouster of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in 2019 and a military coup in 2021. Hemedti, who made a name for himself in the Darfur conflict and was accused of atrocities, was his been a substitute.
Prior to the fighting, Hemedti, a former camel trader with little formal education, had taken steps to get closer to a civilian coalition that indicated he had political plans after the stalled transition to democracy. Burhan has blamed the fighting on his rival’s “ambitions”.
Hemedti, who got rich from the gold trade, is playing a long game, a war of attrition designed to give him a chance to become a political leader through negotiation, sources close to Hemedti said.
The fighting since mid-April has killed at least 500 people and injured thousands, disrupted relief supplies, displaced 100,000 refugees abroad and turned residential areas of Khartoum into war zones.
Hemedti has vowed to capture or kill Burhan, and numerous truces have been violated by both sides.
Reuters was unable to determine where Hemedti is currently operating, or whether Burhan was still using army headquarters as a base of operations. Neither side has disclosed how many of their fighters have been killed.
(Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)
