Fighting between the regular army led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhane and the paramilitaries of Mohamed Hamdan Daglo’s Rapid Support Forces has already left “more than 330 dead and 3,200 injured”, according to the World Health Organization.
After nearly a week of bloody clashes, neither of the two armed forces vying for sovereignty in Sudan has managed to gain the upper hand. The fighting continues, Friday, April 21, in the capital, Khartoum, and the rest of the country. The World Health Organization counted on Thursday “nearly 330 dead and 3,200 injured”while both sides claim victories that are difficult to verify.
>> Sudan: 10,000 to 20,000 people have fled to Chad, according to the UN
This sudden conflict, which erupted on April 15, resulted from the rivalry between two military leaders, Abdel Fattah al-Burhane and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who have ruled Sudan since 2021. The country’s two “strong men” seized power from civilians after the 2019 overthrow of dictator Omar al-Bashir. Franceinfo explains who are these two generals who tipped their country into civil war.
Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, the official leader of the country
General al-Burhane, 62, has been the de facto leader of the junta in power in Sudan since October 2021. During the dictatorship of Omar al-Bashir, he was a man in the shadows, little known to the big audience. His military and diplomatic career took him to Beijing for a time as a defense attaché. He also took part in the war in Darfur which broke out in 2003. The numerous abuses committed in this region of Sudan earned Omar el-Bashir the target of two arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court for “genocide”, “crimes against humanity” and “war crimes”.
In 2019, when the Sudanese revolution led the army to dismiss Omar al-Bashir, Abdel Fattah al-Burhane appeared as one of the few consensual military figures. He then took the head of a Sovereignty Council, supported by the political parties and supposed to hand over power to the people at the end of a democratic transition. In this role, he has, among other things, worked for the diplomatic rapprochement noted between Sudan and Israel, and cultivated his closeness with Egypt, the powerful neighbor.
But the political balance was shattered on October 25, 2021, when the general announced on television the arrest of almost all ministers and civilian officials. He then had the support of the head of the Rapid Support Forces, General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, number 2 of the council supposed to ensure the transition, which he opposes today.
Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, the leader of a paramilitary group that wants power
Younger (he was born in 1975), Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, known as “Hemedti” (a nickname for Mohamed), had a less orthodox career than that of General al-Burhane. In the early 2000s, he led a small militia in western Sudan, the border region with Chad where he is from and where Darfur is located. During the civil war waged in the region by Omar al-Bashir, he gained importance within the Sudanese army, orchestrating the scorched earth policy desired by the regime. “The elite in Khartoum saw him as an illiterate, upstart thug whom they armed only to do the dirty work of the Darfur war”told AFP Alan Boswell, researcher at the International Crisis Group.
He then relied on the janjaweed, Arab militiamen recruited by Omar al-Bashir to wage war against ethnic minorities in Darfur. These troops regrouped in 2013 to form the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a separate group, which operates alongside the rest of the Sudanese army.
The FSR notably engaged in Yemen in 2015 alongside the coalition led by Saudi Arabia. Experts say they are also fighting in Libya in support of Marshal Khalifa Haftar. These paramilitaries would today be around a hundred thousand. “Sudan has two de facto armies”the regular army and the FSR, and “each has a strike force on a national scale”summarizes the analyst, specialist in conflicts in Africa, Suliman Baldo, interviewed by Le Monde (article for subscribers).
In 2019, the RSFs were accused of killing around 100 pro-democracy protesters in Khartoum. This did not prevent Mohamed Hamdan Daglo to become vice-president of the Sovereignty Council established after the revolution. Two years later, he supported the coup led by General al-Burhane. “A Marriage of Convenience”explains to AFP the researcher and specialist in Sudan Hamid Khalafallah. “They never had a sincere partnership, but common interests against civilians.”
Since then, however, tensions have increased, in particular around the question of the integration of the FSR into the regular army, provided for by the political agreement which should allow civilians to return to power. According to New York Times (in English)who questioned several negotiators, discussions under the aegis of United Nations representatives were still taking place during the days preceding the start of the fighting on Saturday.
While his troops had suppressed the demonstrations of 2019, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo now resumes their slogan of the time, declaring to fight “for freedom, justice and democracy”. He has repeatedly denounced the 2021 putsch as a “failure” allowing Abdel Fatah al-Burhane to reinstall “the old regime” of Omar al-Bashir and the Islamists who supported him.
For his part, the leader of Sudan sees in the RSFs “foreign-backed rebels”. “Hemedti” notably cultivates a closeness with Russia, and the United States ensures that militiamen of Wagner help him to secure the gold mines that the FSR control in Sudan.
The two men accuse each other of having opened hostilities and of having violated the truce concluded on Tuesday but never respected. “Both sides are strong enough that a war between them will be very expensive, very deadly and very long.“, says researcher Alan Boswell. According to him, even if one of the two sides wins in Khartoum, “the war will continue elsewhere in the country”creating rival strongholds.