the international community “can do absolutely nothing”, deplores a specialist

“The aspiration of the people is obviously peace, the problem is that the people have no weapons”, declares Gérard Prunier, historian-researcher and author of several books on the conflicts in East Africa, invited Tuesday April 18 on franceinfo to discuss the conflict in Sudan. Despite calls for a truce by the G7, the armies are entering the fourth day of combat, and the latest report on Tuesday morning reports nearly 200 dead.

>> Sudan: four questions to understand the fighting that is shaking the country

The international community “can do absolutely nothing”believes Gérard Prunier. “The only possibility would be a military intervention, but for 15 or 20 years it has been the Americans who have done this and we can say that the results are somewhat disappointing”. And the author explains: “Right now, without big intervention, there will only be what the fighters decide.”

Influence from Russia

“I think the influence of the Russians is important, but I think it will not lead to peace”, adds Gérard Prunier. The author, historian and researcher considers rather that it would be a seizure of power by the Russians in a political environment which until then had been shared between pro-Westerns and pro-Islamists. Gérard Prunier concludes that Russia is seeking to “to gain importance and to create a kind of neo-colonialism in the image of what is being done in Africa”.

“Today, the balance sheet shows two armies: an official army and an unofficial army, as numerous and as well armed”, says Gérard Prunier. One is led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, leader of the country since the 2021 putsch, and the other by General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo known as “Hemedti”, his second in the coup. Faced with the people’s aspiration for peace, there are therefore two armies “both hostile to the people’s democratic movement and at the same time hostile to each other”, says the researcher and historian. However, we must not forget, according to him, that this situation is due to former President Omar el-Bashir, who has on the one hand “strengthened the regular army” and on the other “created a huge militia in the West with cameleers who are very well trained in war but not always very obedient to the military hierarchy”.