Sudan’s army and rival force clash, wider conflict feared

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) — Sudan’s military and a powerful paramilitary force engaged in fierce fighting Saturday in the capital and elsewhere in country, dealing a new blow to hopes for a transition to democracy and raising fears of a wider conflict. A doctors’ group said at least three people were killed and dozens injured.

Decades of escalating tensions between the military forces and the Rapid Support Forces team came to an end with the conflicts. A contract with social gatherings to return the nation to its fleeting transition to democracy had been postponed due to these tensions, but it was derailed by a military coup in October 2021.

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After a day of intense combat, the army decided not to negotiate with the RSF and therefore demanded the dismantling of what it referred to as” rebel militia.” The harsh words suggested that the former supporters, who worked together to plan the coup in 2021, would probably continue to fight.

Battle broke out early on Saturday. The capital, Khartoum, and its sister town of Omdurman, where the army and the RSF have gathered tens of thousands of soldiers since the revolution, were both filled with the tone of heavy fire throughout the day.

According to witnesses, combatants from both sides fired from product guns mounted on pick-up vehicles and armored vehicles in heavily populated areas. In Khartoum, some vehicles could be seen. At RSF situations in and around the capital, the army claimed to have launched attacks from aircraft and drones.

Homeowners claimed that as night fell, they continued to hear gunfire and explosions in various locations throughout Khartoum, including the military’s’s offices and other bases.

Homeowners described tumultuous events. Amal Mohamed, a physician in an Omdurman common doctor, said,” Fire and explosions are anywhere.” ” Everyone is running and looking for house.”

” We haven’t seen for fights in Khartoum after,” said Abdel-Hamid Mustafa, a citizen of the city.

Khartoum International Airport was one of the outposts. Major carriers canceled their airlines, but there was no official statement that the aircraft was opened. Flying tracking data revealed that this included flights from Egypt and Saudi Arabia headed for Sudan that turned around after almost touching down at the airport.

The national airline of Saudi Arabia claimed that one of its planes was involved in what it referred to as” an accident.” On the tarmac, a movie showed the helicopter on fire. Another aircraft also seemed to have caught burning. It was identified as a SkyUp Airlines Boeing 737 by the flying tracking site FlightRadar24. SkyUp is a flight company based in Kyiv, Ukraine. It did not respond right away to a post get.

Without stating the conditions, the Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate claimed that two civilians were killed at the airport. Another soldier was reportedly shot to death in the state of North Kordofan, according to the family. Men allegedly stopped one of the BBC’s’s writers, took him to the military command post, and beat him.

The officials of the military forces and the RSF exchanged responsible for starting the fighting on Saturday and provided conflicting accounts of who was in charge of important installations.

The military commander of Sudan, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, claimed that RSF soldiers first” harassed” the army south of Khartoum, which led to the clashes, according to Qatar-based dish news channel Al Jazeera.

Burhan claimed that some helicopters were set on fire by the RSF as they entered the Khartoum airports. Additionally, he claimed that his troops are in charge of all corporate assets, including the military’s’s command center and the Republican house, which serves as the presidential residence of Sudan. He threatened to send more soldiers from across the region to Khartoum.

Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the RSF’s’s commander, charged Burhan with inciting the conflict by encircling them. He said,” This crime, he forced this battle upon us.”

Dagalo stated to Al Jazeera that he thought it would be over in” the next few years.”

The RSF claimed to have control over geopolitical locations 350 km( 215 yards ) northwest of the funds in Khartoum and the northeastern city of Merowe. The army ruled out the allegations as” lies.”

The battle comes after years of political unrest following the coup in 2021 and decades of escalating general-general tensions. The conflict is over who should be in charge of overseeing the RSF’s’s integration into the military soldiers, which is led by Dagalo. A crucial requirement of Sudan’s’s anonymous transfer partnership with political parties is the merger.

Over the past four decades, pro-democracy activists in the region have accused Burhan and Dagalo of mistreating activists, including the deadly dissolution of a protest camp outside the military’s’s Khartoum office in June 2019 that resulted in over 120 fatalities. Most organizations have pleaded with them on numerous occasions to be held responsible. The RSF has long been charged with crimes connected to the issue in Darfur.

Antony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, and many distinguished officials expressed their deep concern over the violence’s’s start on Saturday. Blinken wrote on Twitter,” We urge all actors to put an end to the murder right away, prevent further troop movements or escalations, and start discussions to resolve outstanding matters.”

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Josep Borrell, the mind of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, and Qatar all called for a cease-fire and for both parties to resume negotiations to resolve their difference. Sudanese battle was urged to exercise caution and work toward a democratic resolution by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, who was overthrown in the revolution in 2021, issued a warning that if the battle intensifies, there could be retaliation. He stated in a movie appeal to both sides posted on his Twitter account,” Shooting may stop immediately.”

Previous U.S. minister and senior associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank Cameron Hudson said he was unsurprised by the battle.

This has been anticipated for a long time ,” he said.

Hudson expressed concern that the issue might get bigger and last longer, urging the US to form a coalition of regional nations to put pressure on war and RSF officials to stop fighting.

According to a U.N. official who requested anonymity to discuss internal discussions, Dagalo and Burhan were in contact with Volker Perthes, the United Nations envoy for Sudan, and Ali Bin Hassan Jaffar, Saudi Arabia’s’s ambassador to Sudan.

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In the meantime, Chad declared that due to the battle, it would close its get borders with Sudan until further notice.

According to a military official speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was never authorized to short the media, the clashes occurred not only in Khartoum but also in other regions of the nation, including the Northern responsibility and the conflict-torn Darfur region.