Heavy fighting broke out in Sudan as the country’s army clashed with a powerful paramilitary force which claimed to have taken control of the airport and the presidential palace in the capital Khartoum.
Residents said they had heard heavy gunfire and tank shelling on Saturday after failed negotiations between the army and paramilitary and civilian groups over a long-awaited power-sharing deal following a coup in October 2021.
The violence is the latest setback in a long-delayed transition to a civilian government following the ousting of dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019 after months of street protests.
A non-governmental Sudanese doctors’ committee said that residents of Khartoum and Merowe, north-east of the capital, had heard gunfire. “These events took place in residential neighbourhoods, which led to varying injuries and serious cases among citizens,” the committee said.
“It is a frightening situation,” said a civilian activist who was involved in the power-sharing negotiations.
The fighting follows days of tensions in a power struggle between the army headed by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who became president after a coup in October 2021, and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemeti, Sudan’s vice-president and commander of the powerful Rapid Support Forces.
People familiar with al-Burhan’s thinking said there was a disagreement between the general and Hemeti over command and integration of the paramilitary force into the army. For its part, the RSF blamed the army for initiating a “sweeping attack with all kinds of heavy and light weapons”. The army was unavailable for comment.
On Saturday there was fighting at the army’s headquarters and in the grounds of the presidential compound, according to a senior member of the RSF, who added that after clashes, the international airport in Khartoum was under their control, as well as Merowe international airport.
The US ambassador to Sudan John Godfrey said that “escalation of tensions within the military component to direct fighting is extremely dangerous” and called on “senior military leaders” to stop the fighting.
In a statement, the RSF said it was “forced to make an adequate response” after “the Sudanese Armed Forces’ unprovoked attack on our camp in Soba this morning”. It had taken control of the palace and airports in Khartoum, Meroe and al-Obeid as well as “several other sites” with the aim of “preventing the further spread of violence and ensuring peace”, it said.
The RSF has its origins in the Janjaweed horseback militia, a ragtag force accused of widespread atrocities in Darfur which later evolved into an elite personal guard to protect al-Bashir, who did not want power concentrated in the armed forces.
He was deposed by al-Burhan and Hemeti in 2019 following months of streets protests led by civilians. Hemeti was also part of a putsch against former prime minister Abdallah Hamdok.
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