Sudan | At least 56 dead in fighting between the army and paramilitaries

(Khartoum) Fighting between the army and paramilitaries in Sudan has left at least 56 people dead and many injured, particularly in the capital Khartoum, the Syndicate of Doctors reported on Sunday morning.

According to AFP correspondents, windows rattled and buildings shook in many parts of Khartoum during the clashes on Saturday, and explosions were heard early on Sunday.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – thousands of ex-Darfur war militiamen turned army auxiliaries – said they control the presidential residence, Khartoum airport and other key infrastructure.

The army denies taking the airport but acknowledges that the FSRs “burned civilian planes there, including one from Saudi Airlines”, which the company confirmed.

In a statement released late Saturday, the Sudanese army asked the population to stay at home as it continued its airstrikes against paramilitary bases.

Throughout the day, calls for a ceasefire have multiplied: from the UN, Washington, Moscow, Paris, Rome, Riyadh, the African Union, the Arab League, the European Union and even the former prime civilian minister Abdallah Hamdok. But nothing in vain.

The Arab League has announced an emergency meeting on Sudan, at the request of Cairo – where it sits – and Riyadh, two great allies of the Sudanese army, struggling with the paramilitaries who now want to dislodge it from power.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on the two belligerents: army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhane and paramilitary boss Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, known as “Hemedti”, but also Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to demand “an immediate end to the violence”.

“Betrayal”

The paramilitaries say they are inflexible. They “will not stop until they have taken control of all the military bases”, threatened on al-Jazeera channel their commander Hemedti, at the head of the FSR.

General Burhane has not appeared since the morning, but assures in a press release that he was “surprised at nine o’clock in the morning” by an attack on his HQ by the FSR, his former best ally whom the army now describes as “foreign-backed militia” to carry out his “betrayal”.

The army has posted a “wanted notice” against Hemedti on its Facebook page. “This fugitive criminal is wanted by justice,” reads the photo montage, while another press release announces the dissolution of the FSR, calling on all these men to surrender.

On both sides, finished the hushed negotiations under the aegis of diplomats and other polite discussions, the army mobilized its planes to strike – and “destroy”, she says – RSF bases in Khartoum. As for calls to return to the negotiating table, the army replied that it was “impossible before the dissolution of the FSR”.

The latter call on the 45 million Sudanese and even the military to “join them” and turn against the army.

The inhabitants, themselves, remain cloistered at home. Bakry, 24, told AFP that he had “never seen anything like it” in Khartoum.

“People were terrified, they were running home. The streets emptied very quickly,” said the marketing employee, who gave only his first name.

The two sides are still battling for control of the state media headquarters, according to witnesses.

During the putsch in October 2021, Hemedti and Burhane joined forces to oust civilians from power. But over time, Hemedti never stopped denouncing the coup.

Even recently, he sided with the civilians — therefore against the army in political negotiations — blocking discussions and therefore any solution to the crisis in Sudan.

For the experts, the two commanders have not ceased in recent days to raise the stakes as civilians and the international community try to make them sign a political agreement supposed to relaunch the democratic transition.