Sudan: fighting around strategic sites in Karthoum
Army soldiers deploy in Khartoum, April 15, 2023, amid reported clashes in the city of Khartoum, Sudan. AFP--
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
Since the morning of Saturday, April 15, the Sudanese capital Khartoum has been the scene of clashes between General al-Burhan's regular army and the paramilitaries of Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo's Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
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With our special envoy in Khartoum, Eliott Brachet
War is declared between the two armies of Sudan. Since 9:30 this morning, fighting has been taking place around strategic sites in the capital with heavy, uninterrupted light and heavy weapon fire. They are concentrated around places of power in central Khartoum, including the presidential palace, the headquarters of the armed forces and the airport overflown by military aircraft.
Both forces blame each other. Who fired first? It's hard to say. The situation is still uncertain. The people of Khartoum are caulked in their homes. Sudanese had been living for weeks in fear of conflict.
According to several reports, clashes also broke out in the north of the country, in Meroe, on an army base. It was around this military base that the Rapid Support Forces had deployed Thursday morning, raising tensions between the two rival armies.
The two generals at the head of the country, since the fall of Omar al-Bashir, were for weeks at knives drawn. Yet together they had led a coup against the civilian government in October 2021. Since December, negotiations had been underway to find a way out of the crisis but, unable to overcome their differences, the two generals preferred war to negotiations.
" READ ALSO – In Sudan, calls for calm multiply in the face of rising tension between the armed forces
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Read on on the same topics:
- Sudan
- Abdel Fattah al-Burhan