18 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The secretary of the US Department of State, Antony Blinken, spoke on Monday with the two important military figures in Sudan, who are facing each other in fighting that has shaken the country since Saturday and which has left almost 200 civilians dead, to ask them to stop the fire.
Blinken has spoken separately with the head of the Sudanese Army and president of the Sovereign Transition Council, Abdelfatá al Burhan, and his ‘number two’ in the organization and leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, alias ‘Hemedti’.
The secretary’s deputy spokesman, Vedant Patel, has indicated that Blinken has transferred to Al Burhan and ‘Hemedti’ the “urgency of reaching a ceasefire that allows the delivery of humanitarian aid to those affected by the fighting, the reunification of families Sudanese and allow the international community in Khartoum to ensure that their presence is secure.
“(The Secretary of State) has underlined the responsibility of the two generals to ensure the safety and well-being of civilians, diplomatic personnel and humanitarian workers,” read a statement.
Likewise, Blinken has expressed “his grave concern” over the deaths of Sudanese civilians, as well as the wounded, as a result of the “indiscriminate” fighting.
This Monday, and for the third consecutive day, there have been intense fighting between the two parties to the conflict in the country’s capital, Khartoum, as well as in other points of the Sudanese geography. After the outbreak of the conflict, the UN, which has indicated that it will try to stop the fighting for humanitarian reasons, has estimated the dead at 185 and the wounded at 1,800.
The clashes have broken out after weeks of tensions between the Army and the RSF in the framework of talks with civil organizations with a view to the formation of a new unity government that will return the country to the path of transition after the coup led by in October 2021 by Al Burhan against the then prime minister, Abdalá Hamdok, who took office following an agreement between the military and civilians following the 2019 overthrow of the then president, Omar Hasan al Bashir.
The main differences, which postponed the agreement on the new Constitution and the formation of the Executive, revolved around the integration of the powerful RSF into the Armed Forces, as well as the reforms in the security apparatus. Both figures, formerly allied with Al Bashir and who rose to power after the 2019 coup, have shown their willingness to guarantee the greatest possible share of power in the face of the future transition.
