(Khartoum) Airstrikes and artillery fire shook the Sudanese capital on Saturday where the Qatar embassy was ransacked by armed men, illustrating the chaos which now reigns in the country after more than a month of war.
Residents of the capital have reported increasingly violent “air strikes” even causing “the walls of houses to shake”.
Ignoring calls for a truce, the army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, clash for control of strategic places and power.
Shelling is taking place near the headquarters of public television, other witnesses have reported, while both sides continue to claim victories on social networks and the media.
Since their start on April 15, the fighting has left nearly a thousand dead and more than a million displaced and refugees.
While negotiations for a humanitarian truce are stalling, General Burhane has appointed three of his loyal followers to the top of the army, dismissing General Daglo from his post as deputy to the Sovereignty Council on Friday and appointing Malik Agar in his place.
“unified” army
This former rebel who had signed peace in 2020 with the power of Khartoum announced on Saturday in a unifying statement that he wanted to “stop the war and sit down at the negotiating table”.
“Sudan’s stability can only be restored by a professional and unified army,” he said, addressing General Daglo.
It was the integration of the FSRs into the army that sounded the death knell for the union between General Burhane and General Daglo, since the 2021 putsch, during which they together ousted civilians from power.
The struggle between the two men for power has plunged Sudan into chaos. Testimonies of occupation of housing, looting and other abuses are increasing and diplomatic representations have not been spared.
Again on Saturday, the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused the “FSR militias” of having attacked, vandalized and looted the Qatari embassy in Khartoum, taking computers and vehicles.
Khartoum had already accused the paramilitaries of having attacked evacuated chancelleries: “the embassies of India and Korea, the Saudi cultural office, the residence of Swiss diplomats and a Turkish consular section”.
The attack caused no casualties, according to Doha, which had already evacuated embassy staff. The Qatari Foreign Ministry denounced the attack, saying its embassy was “stormed and vandalized” by “irregular armed forces”.
According to experts, the two rival generals, sure of being able to win militarily, but so far on equal terms, have chosen a long war rather than concessions at the negotiating table.
Emergency aid
If the hope of peace is dwindling day by day, regional initiatives are multiplying to achieve a humanitarian truce.
PHOTO AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
More than one in two Sudanese needs humanitarian aid, the UN has announced that it will release $22 million from a UN emergency fund to help Sudanese who have fled to neighboring countries.
After meeting the South Sudanese president in Juba on Wednesday, General Daglo’s special envoy traveled to Kampala on Saturday where he met with the Ugandan president, according to an FSR statement.
Talks on safe corridors for humanitarian aid are already dragging on in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
During a telephone conversation, the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken on Saturday urged General Burhane to be “flexible” on this file.
The UN envoy for Sudan, Volker Perthes, who remained in the country, flew to New York on Saturday where he is to address the Security Council on Monday.
More than one in two Sudanese needs humanitarian aid, the UN has announced that it will release $22 million from an emergency fund to help Sudanese who have fled to neighboring countries.
Nearly a quarter of this sum will be used to meet the needs of more than 110,000 people who have fled to Egypt, a large neighbor to the north, hit by a serious economic crisis.
As neighboring countries fear contagion, the United States announced on Friday $103 million in aid for Sudan and neighboring countries to deal with the humanitarian crisis.