“Artillery shelling everywhere”, says a witness who is in the capital. The headquarters of the pan-Arab TV Al Arabiya hit
In Sudan fighting continues to take power between former cronies of dictator Omar al-Bashir, deposed by the 2019 coup, the general and head of the military junta Abdel Fattah al Burhan and his deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, which has an armed militia Rsf. “Artillery shelling” is heard everywhere in Khartoum. This was reported by a qualified source who is with other people in the capital. Meanwhile, three humanitarian workers from Pam-Wfp, the UN World Food Programme, were killed in the Darfur region. It happened in the area where the army and the paramilitaries have been fighting since Saturday. The anger of the secretary general Antonio Guterres: “Bringing the guilty to justice”.
In Sudan, the headquarters of Al Arabiya TV were hit In the clashes in Khartoum, the headquarters of the correspondence office of the pan-Arab TV Al Arabiya and its al-Hadath news channel were hit.
What happens in Sudan Sudan, one of Africa’s resource-rich countries, seems to be sinking inexorably towards civil war: the second day of the crisis saw the fighting widen and intensify between the regular army of General Abdel Fattah al Burhan, head of the Supreme Council of transition after the 2019 coup d’état, and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), whose leader Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo is considered a man very close to Russia.
The fights Harsh clashes took place in Khartoum around all the key structures: the presidential palace, the state television headquarters, the army headquarters. The RSF claim to have control of 90 percent of the capital, but the situation appears much more uncertain. The local Red Cross reports ongoing fighting throughout the city, including in residential areas. Elsewhere in the country, regular troops appear to have the upper hand. The spokesman of the armed forces, general Nabil Abdallah, claimed the conquest of the RSF bases in seven cities (Port Sudan, Kassal, al Qadaref, al Damazin, Kosti, Kaduqli and Omdurman) and the release of two army officers who were taken prisoner by the paramilitaries, generals Rukn al Sadiq Sayed and Othman Awad Allah.
Also according to the military spokesman, the leader of the RSF, Dagalo, would have disappeared and the task of finding him would have been entrusted to a group of elite soldiers. The conquest of the RSF bases in Port Sudan, on the Red Sea, and in Omdurman, adjacent to the capital, would in any case be confirmed by some videos circulating on the net in these hours and which show the soldiers of the regular army exulting inside the two sites .
The death toll The balance of the first day of clashes was 56 civilian dead and almost 600 injured, that of the second day could be much heavier. The count also includes three World Food Program (WFP) workers who lost their lives in Kabkabiya, in North Darfur. The episode led the United Nations agency to announce the suspension of its activities in the country and the UN to appeal to the parties in conflict to allow humanitarian workers access to areas where the clashes took place. The proposal was accepted by both the regular army and the RSF: a humanitarian truce should be respected every day for three hours between 16:00 and 19:00, but both sides have granted themselves the right to return fire from the enemy in case of violations.
No opening for a dialogue However, at the moment there seems to be no room for dialogue between Al Burhan and Dagalo, who accuse each other of attempting a coup d’état. However, diplomatic efforts are intensifying. The closest neighbors, Egypt and South Sudan, have offered to mediate on the occasion of a telephone call between the presidents Abdel Fattah al Sisi and Salva Kiir. The African Union convened an emergency meeting in Addis Ababa, at the end of which came an invitation to avoid external interference in the crisis, and the Arab League did the same in Cairo, at the request of Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Previously, a telephone consultation had been held between the heads of diplomacy of the United States, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, respectively Antony Blinken, Faisal bin Farhan and Abdullah bin Zayed.
Tajani at the G7 expressed his “concern” The crisis in Sudan was also one of the topics of the G7 ministerial meeting that began today in Karuizawa, Japan. According to a statement from the Farnesina, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Antonio Tajani, expressed “deep concern” on the occasion for the continuation of the armed clashes. At the request of Italy, a discussion on Africa had already been scheduled for the G7 countries’ foreign ministerial meeting. “The Italian government has long since begun to launch invitations to operate more rapidly for the political and economic stabilization of the countries of North Africa and the sub-Saharan region”, said Tajani.