Army, militia clash in Sudan as democratic transition crumbles
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – The Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group, have been clashing across the country since yesterday.
According to the BBC, fights have erupted across all of Sudan, including air strikes. In the country’s capital, Khartoum, RSF militiamen reportedly took control of the presidential palace, the army chief’s residence, the airport, and the state TV offices, though the army chief denies this.
The RSF dates back to the regime of Omar al-Bashir, Sundan’s dictator who was deposed by popular protests in 2019. As the ‘janjaweed’, RSF forces under the command of Lt Gen Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo, also known as ‘Hemedti’, committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in the region of Darfur in 2003. The mass killings and rapes which occurred were directed by the al-Bashir government, human rights groups have said. The US called it a “genocide.”
After the 2019 revolution, the RSF, the army, and civil leaders shared power under a civilian council. A commonly-agreed roadmap would prepare elections for October 2022. As part of the power-sharing agreement, military forces, under the leadership of army chief Lt Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, another al-Bashir-era holdover, and Dagalo, would lead the council for the first 21 months, before handing power over to a civilian administration.
However, in October 2021, an army coup, supported by the RSF, ousted the civilian prime minister and arrested his cabinet. Popular protests forced the army to backtrack, though the civilian administration rejected another power-sharing agreement and stepped down. According to some analysts, both al-Burhan and Dagalo, like the deposed dictator Omar al-Bashir, fear international war crime charges under a democratic government.
This latest clashes seem to have been orchestrated by the RSF against al-Burhan and the army. Despite colluding to oust the civilian administration and prevent Sudan’s democratic transition, Dagalo and al-Burhan have vied for power within the established council. Al-Burhan had previously pushed for the integration of the RSF into the country’s armed forces within two years.
The conflict has taken regional dimensions, as Dagalo has been backed by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and al-Burhan received support from neighboring Egypt. The BBC reports that a number of Egyptian soldiers who were conducting military exercises with their Sudanese counterparts were arrested by RSF militiamen. Riyadh and Cairo have called for an emergency Arab League council meeting.
The clashes, which are ongoing, have so far killed at least 56 civilians and left nearly 600 injured, according to a local doctors’ union.