Sudan’s army said two drone strikes hit an army base in the country’s east on Wednesday after a graduation ceremony attended by the country’s de facto leader, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who has been locked in a civil war for over a year with a rival military general.
At least five people were killed and several others injured in the attack in the town of Gebeit, the army said, which has been held by the army and is about 50 miles from its wartime capital of Port Sudan. The Sudanese army spokesman, Nabil Abdallah, told the BBC that General al-Burhan had survived an assassination attempt, and blamed it on the Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group that has been battling the army for power for 15 months.
A military spokesman could not be reached for comment. In statements posted on social media, the military did not say whether General al-Burhan had been hurt or where he was during the attack. But it posted videos showing him interacting with the soldiers and members of the public before and after the graduation ceremony.
No group has claimed responsibility for the strikes. The paramilitary group’s media office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The war between General al-Burhan and his rival, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, who leads the Rapid Support Forces, has devastated Sudan, one of Africa’s largest nations. More than 18,000 people have been killed, according to an estimate from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, though aid workers estimate the death toll to be higher.
At least 10 million people have been driven from their homes, according to the United Nations, while more than half the country’s 48 million people face hunger, and hundreds of thousands of others are facing a looming famine.
The army and the paramilitary group have both used drones in the war, which are sometimes supplied by close foreign allies such as Iran or the United Arab Emirates, according to Western and Sudanese officials.
The paramilitary group, which has dominated the capital, Khartoum, and the western region of Darfur, has in recent weeks been ramping up its attacks on areas controlled by the army in the east. The paramilitary group has also recently clashed with the army in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, and in the southeastern state of Sennar.
The two military leaders were once allies who brutally cracked down on Sudan’s pro-democracy forces after a popular revolt forced out the country’s longtime dictator, Omar Hassan al-Bashir. But they fell out over who should hold supreme power in the country and how swiftly their forces should merge into a single army.
The reported drone attacks on the base come just two weeks before mediation talks to end the war, hosted by the United States, were set to begin in Switzerland. The U.S. secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, said in a statement this month that Saudi Arabia will co-host the talks, which will include the African Union, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Nations as observers.
The paramilitary force’s leader, General Hamdan, said his group will participate in the talks. On Tuesday, Sudan’s foreign ministry, which is allied with the army, signaled it was ready to join the talks in Geneva on Aug. 14. but said the paramilitary should stop its attacks and open humanitarian corridors.
The army, however, has also been accused of thwarting the flow of food aid, especially to the Darfur region in the west, by preventing United Nations trucks from passing through a crucial border checkpoint. The army says it is necessary to stop the flow of weapons.
The war in Sudan has become one of the world’s most urgent, and ignored, humanitarian emergencies. The country’s health care system has been all but decimated, disrupting treatment for millions. Disease outbreaks have risen, with aid groups saying hundreds have died from malaria, dengue, measles and other illnesses.
Schools and universities have been shuttered in a nation that once drew many foreign students. Looting has been widespread, with banks, private homes and government institutions burned and robbed.
