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Sustained gunfire was heard in the Sudanese capital Khartoum Saturday amid rising tensions between the military and the country’s powerful Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary. A Sudanese army spokesman said the paramilitary group attacked army camps in the capital while the RSF accused the army of entering their camps in southern Khartoum.
The firing could be heard in a number of areas in Sudan’s capital, including central Khartoum and the neighbourhood of Bahri. Gunfire could also be heard from the area of the presidential palace and smoke could be seen rising from the airport, according to witnesses.
#Sudan 🇸🇩: residents of #Khartoum woke up this morning to the sound of gunfire and plumes of smoke rising into the air as clashes appear to have erupted in the capital city.
These armed confrontations follow weeks of rising tensions between the SAF and RSF military factions. pic.twitter.com/QXQXRsGnzi
— Thomas van Linge (@ThomasVLinge) April 15, 2023
Tensions between the military and the RSF paramilitary have escalated in recent months, forcing a delay in the signing of an internationally backed deal with political parties to revive the country’s democratic transition.
Sudan’s army accused the RSF of attacking its bases in Khartoum.
“Fighters from the Rapid Support Forces attacked several army camps in Khartoum and elsewhere around Sudan,” army spokesman Brigadier General Nabil Abdallah told AFP.
“Clashes are ongoing and the army is carrying out its duty to safeguard the country,” he said.
RSF claims control of airport, presidential palace
In a series of statements, the RSF paramilitary accused the country’s army of attacking its forces at one of its bases in south Khartoum and claimed they had seized the capital’s main airport and “completely controlled” Khartoum’s Republican Palace, the seat of the country’s presidency.
The paramilitary group also said it seized an airport and airbase in the northern city of Marawi, around 350 kilometers (215 miles) northwest of Khartoum
In a separate statement posted earlier Saturday on Twitter, the RSF said the army “launched a sweeping attack with all kinds of heavy and light weapons”.
The RSF also claimed to have taken control of Khartoum airport. It said its fighters “were able to take control of Merowe airport” north of Khartoum, “expelled attackers on bases in Soba” and “took control of Khartoum airport”.
Troubled transition
Commercial aircraft trying to land in the capital began turning around to head back to their originating airport. Flights from Saudi Arabia turned back after nearly landing at Khartoum International Airport, flight tracking data showed Saturday.
Tensions between the army and the paramilitary stem from a disagreement over how the RSF, headed by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, better known in Sudan as Hemedti, should be integrated into the military and what authority should oversee the process. The merger is a key condition of Sudan’s unsigned transition agreement.
However, the army-RSF rivalry dates back to the rule of autocratic President Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted in 2019. Under the former president, the paramilitary force grew out of former militias known as the Janjaweed that carried out a brutal crackdown in Sudan’s Darfur region during the decades of conflict there.
In a rare televised speech Thursday, a top army general warned of potential clashes with paramilitary group, accusing it of deploying forces in Khartoum and other areas of Sudan without the army’s consent. The RSF defended the presence of its forces in an earlier statement.
The RSF recently deployed troops near the northern Sudanese town of Merowe. Also, videos circulating on social media Thursday show what appear to be RSF-armed vehicles being transported into Khartoum, farther to the south.
In Saturday’s statement, the RSF said they were contacted by three former rebel leaders, who hold government positions, in an apparent bid to de-escalate the conflict.
Sudan has been plunged in turmoil since October 2021 when Sudanese aspirations for democratic rule after three decades of autocracy and repression under al-Bashir were dashed.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
