Fighting continues in Sudan. Air strikes and artillery fire shook the Sudanese capital on Saturday (May 20th), where the Qatari embassy was ransacked by armed men, illustrating the chaos that now reigns in the country after more than a month of war.

Residents of the capital told AFP of increasingly violent "air strikes" even "shaking the walls of houses".

Ignoring calls for a truce, the army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), of General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, are fighting for control of strategic places of power.

Shelling is taking place near the headquarters of state television, other witnesses said, while both sides continue to claim victories on social media and media.

Since it began on 15 April, the fighting has left nearly a thousand people dead and more than a million displaced and refugees.

As negotiations for a humanitarian truce stall, General Burhane appointed three of his loyalists to the top of the army, sacking General Daglo from his post as deputy to the Sovereignty Council on Friday and appointing Malik Hagar in his place.

A "unified" army

This former rebel, who had signed peace in 2020 with the power of Khartoum, announced Saturday in a statement with a unifying tone, want to "stop the war and sit at the negotiating table". "Sudan's stability can only be restored by a professional and unified army," he said, addressing General Daglo.

It is the integration of the RSF into the army that has sounded the death knell of the union between General Burhane and General Daglo, since the 2021 putsch, during which they had jointly ousted civilians from power.

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The struggle between the two men for power has plunged Sudan into chaos. Testimonies of occupation of homes, looting and other abuses are multiplying and diplomatic representations have not been spared.

Also on Saturday, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry accused the "RSF militias" of attacking, vandalizing and looting the Qatari embassy in Khartoum, taking away computers and vehicles.

Khartoum had already accused the paramilitaries of attacking evacuated chancelleries: "the embassies of India and Korea, the Saudi cultural office, the residence of Swiss diplomats and a Turkish consular section".

There were no casualties in the attack, according to Doha, which had already evacuated embassy staff. Qatar's foreign ministry denounced the attack, saying its embassy was "stormed and vandalized" by "irregular armed forces."

According to experts, the two rival generals, confident of being able to prevail militarily but so far with equal forces, have chosen a long war rather than concessions at the negotiating table.

Emergency aid

While the hope for peace is dwindling day by day, regional initiatives are multiplying to achieve a humanitarian truce.

After meeting with the South Sudanese president in Juba on Wednesday, General Daglo's special envoy visited Kampala on Saturday where he met with the Ugandan president, according to an RSF statement.

Talks on safe corridors for humanitarian aid are already dragging on in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

In a telephone exchange, US Foreign Minister Antony Blinken on Saturday urged General Burhane to be "flexible" on this issue.

The UN envoy for Sudan, Volker Perthes, who remained in the country, flew Saturday to New York where he is due to address the Security Council on Monday.

More than one in two Sudanese are in need of humanitarian assistance, the UN has announced $22 million from an emergency fund to help Sudanese who have fled to neighbouring countries.

Nearly a quarter of this money will be used to meet the needs of more than 110,000 people who have fled to Egypt, a major neighbour to the north, which is hit by a severe economic crisis.

While neighboring countries fear contagion, the United States on Friday announced $103 million in aid to Sudan and neighboring countries to deal with the humanitarian crisis.

With AFP

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