Global Courant 2023-04-15 17:36:01
Sudan’s main paramilitary group said it had seized the presidential palace, army chief’s residence and Khartoum International Airport on Saturday in an apparent coup attempt, but the army said it was fighting back.
The clashes erupted amid an escalating power struggle amid talks to join the military as part of a transition plan that would lead to new elections.
The paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which accused the army of attacking first, also said it had seized airports in the northern city of Merowe and in El-Obeid to the west.
The clashes came as tensions between the military and the RSF have escalated in recent months, delaying the signing of an internationally backed deal with political parties to revive the country’s democratic transition. International powers – including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United States and the European Union – have issued statements expressing deep concern.
The Sudanese army said fighting broke out after RSF forces attempted to attack its troops in the southern part of the capital. Later, the military declared the RSF a “rebel force”, describing the paramilitaries’ statements as “lies”.
The Sudanese Air Force is conducting operations against the RSF, the military said. Footage from broadcasters showed a military aircraft in the skies over Khartoum, but Reuters could not independently confirm the material.
Commercial jets are spinning
The United Nations Special Representative to Sudan, Volker Perthes, said on Saturday he strongly condemned the outbreak of fighting in the country.
In a statement, Perthes said he “has approached both sides asking them to immediately cease fighting to ensure the safety of the Sudanese people and save the country from further violence.”
Commercial jets attempting to land at Khartoum International Airport began turning around to return to their original airports.
Smoke rises from a neighborhood in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, on Saturday. (Marwan Ali/The Associated Press)
Saudi Arabia’s flag carrier said one of its Airbus A330s was involved in “an accident” after video showed it on fire on the airport’s tarmac during the fighting.
In a statement on Saturday, Saudi Arabia said all its flights have been suspended following the incident. It did not elaborate on the cause of the ‘accident’, but it appeared the plane became entangled in the crossfire of the Rapid Support Forces and Sudanese soldiers fighting around the airfield.
Another aircraft was also found to have caught fire in the attack. Flight-tracking website FlightRadar24 identified it as a SkyUp Airlines 737. SkyUp is a Kiev-based airline. It did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Egyptair, Egypt’s national airline, has suspended flights to and from Khartoum for 72 hours.
US ambassador lurks in place
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday that the situation in Sudan was “fragile” but stressed there was still a chance to complete the transition to a civilian-led government. Speaking from Hanoi, Blinken said some actors “might go against that progress.”
US Ambassador to Sudan John Godfrey wrote online that he was “currently sheltering in place with the embassy squad, as Sudanese do in Khartoum and elsewhere”.
I arrived in Khartoum late last night and woke up to the very disturbing sounds of gunfire and fighting. I am currently sheltering in place with the embassy team, as Sudanese throughout Khartoum and elsewhere do. (1/2)
Doctors said clashes had occurred in residential areas and at least three civilians had been killed.
Clashes also took place at the headquarters of Sudan’s state television, said a presenter who briefly appeared on screen.
A Reuters journalist saw guns and armored vehicles lined up in the streets and heard the sound of heavy gunfire near both the Army and RSF headquarters.
A protracted confrontation between the RSF and the military could lead to protracted strife in a vast country already experiencing economic collapse and flare-ups of tribal violence.
General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, deputy head of the Sudan’s sovereign council, speaks at a press conference at the Rapid Support Forces headquarters in Khartoum on Feb. 19. Tensions between the military and the RSF have escalated in recent months. (Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters)
Earlier, the RSF, led by former militia leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, said the army had surrounded one of its bases and opened fire with heavy weapons.
The violence followed days of tension between the military and the RSF, a powerful paramilitary group. This had raised concerns about a confrontation that would undermine long-running efforts to bring Sudan back under civilian rule after power struggles and military coups.
Hemedti had put himself at the forefront of a planned transition to democracy, upsetting fellow military rulers and sparking a mobilization of troops in the capital.
Long dormant tensions
The rift between the armed forces surfaced on Thursday, when the military said recent moves, particularly in Merowe, by the RSF had been made without coordination and were illegal.
The RSF said in a statement that actions by the armed forces leadership and “some officers” were an attack on its forces and intended to create instability.
On Saturday, there was a fierce firefight in Merowe, eyewitnesses told Reuters.
After weeks of escalating tensions, clashes erupted in the capital and elsewhere in the African country between the Sudanese army and the country’s paramilitaries. (Marwan Ali/The Associated Press)
A statement from the RSF on Saturday called the military’s actions a “brutal attack” that must be condemned. It said the RSF had kept local and international mediators abreast of developments.
The RSF, which teamed up with the army to overthrow long-ruling autocrat Omar al-Bashir in 2019, began redeploying units in Khartoum and elsewhere last month during talks about its integration into the army under a transition plan that would lead to until new elections.
Hemedti, a former widely feared militia commander in Darfur, has been deputy leader of the ruling Sovereign Council led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan since 2019.
