Death toll mounts in Sudan as army, paramilitary fight for power

Explosions and gunfire rang out on the deserted streets of Khartoum early Sunday, as a power struggle between Sudan’s military and a paramilitary group led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, entered a second day.

At the end of a day of heavy fighting, the army struck a base belonging to Dagalo’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary in the city of Omdurman, which adjoins the capital, eyewitnesses said late on Saturday.

The military and RSF, which analysts say is 100,000 strong, have been competing for power as political factions negotiate forming a transitional government after a 2021 military coup.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, eyewitness heard the sound of heavy artillery firing across Khartoum, Omdurman and nearby Bahri, and there was also gunfire heard in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, where there had been no earlier reports of fighting.

The Sudanese Doctors’ Union reported at least 56 civilians  had been killed and 595 people, including combatants, had been wounded since the fighting erupted on Saturday.

Scores of military personnel were also killed, it said without giving a specific number due to a lack of first hand information from many of the hospitals where those casualties were taken.

The group earlier said it recorded deaths at Khartoum’s airport and Omdurman, as well as west of Khartoum in the cities of Nyala, El Obeid and El Fasher.

The RSF claimed to have seized the presidential palace, army chief’s residence, state television station and airports in Khartoum, the northern city of Merowe, El Fasher and West Darfur state. The army rejected those assertions.

The Sudanese air force told people to stay indoors while it conducted what it called an aerial survey of RSF activity, and a holiday was declared in Khartoum state for Sunday, normally a working day in Sudan. Schools, banks and government offices will remain closed Sunday.

Egypt, UAE, Saudi Arabia join calls for dialogue

Violence erupted after weeks of deepening tensions between military leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy, paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, over the planned integration of Daglo’s RSF into the regular army.

The integration was a key element of talks to finalise a deal that would return the country to civilian rule and end the political-economic crisis sparked by the military’s 2021 coup.

Created in 2013, the RSF emerged from the Janjaweed militia that then-president Omar al-Bashir unleashed against non-Arab ethnic minorities in the western Darfur region a decade earlier, drawing accusations of war crimes. 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for “an immediate cessation of hostilities” and discussed ways to de-escalate with the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and African Union Commission Chair Moussa Faki. 

He also spoke with Burhan and Daglo urging them “to return to dialogue.” 

The Arab League, following a request by Egypt and Saudi Arabia, is scheduled to hold an urgent meeting Sunday to discuss the situation in Sudan.

In a joint call, the Saudi and United Arab Emirates foreign ministers, along with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, emphasised “the importance of stopping the military escalation”, the Saudi ministry said.

Trading blame

Similar appeals came from the African and Arab regional blocs, the European Union, France, Italy, Russia and Iran.

But in an interview with UAE-based Sky News Arabia, Daglo, who is also known as Hemeti, said, “Burhan the criminal must surrender.”

He denied that RSF had started the fight, after Burhan in an earlier statement said he “was surprised by Rapid Support Forces attacking his home at 9:00 am”.

The army, on its Facebook page, declared Daglo a “wanted criminal” and the RSF a “rebel militia”, saying there “will be no negotiations or talks until the dissolution” of the group.

 The military said it carried out air strikes and destroyed two RSF bases in Khartoum. It said the airport and other bases remain under its “full control”, and published a photograph of black smoke billowing from what it said was the RSF headquarters. 

RSF published on Twitter a video showing uniformed men which it claimed were “Egyptian soldiers who surrendered with Sudanese military” in Meroe, northern Sudan.

Egypt’s army confirmed “the presence of Egyptian forces” in Sudan for exercises, and said it was following the situation.

Daglo told Sky News Arabia the Egyptians would not be harmed and would be returned home.

Former civilian PM appeals for ceasefire

Haggling between Daglo and Burhan has twice delayed the signing of an agreement with civilian factions setting out a roadmap for restoring the democratic transition disrupted by the 2021 coup.

On Saturday, witnesses reported clashes around the state media building in Khartoum’s sister city Omdurman. Others described clashes in the Darfur region and elsewhere.

Chad, which borders Darfur, said it was closing its frontier, “faced with this troubling situation.” 

The military’s civilian interlocutors and ex-prime minister Abdalla Hamdok appealed for a ceasefire, a plea echoed by US ambassador John Godfrey who tweeted that he “woke up to the deeply disturbing sounds of gunfire and fighting”.

Daglo has said the coup was a mistake that failed to bring about change and reinvigorated remnants of Bashir’s regime ousted by the army in 2019 following mass protests. 

Burhan, who rose through the ranks under Bashir’s three-decade rule, maintained the coup was necessary to bring more groups into the political process.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)