Follow live the latest news about the war in Ukraine
18 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The head of the Wagner Group, the Russian oligarch Yevgeni Prigozhin, denied on Tuesday that there are Russian mercenaries deployed in Sudan, the scene since Saturday of fighting between the Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that have so far left the least 185 dead and about 1,800 wounded.
“I can state with complete certainty and accuracy, and you can quote my statements literally (…), that as of today in Sudan there is not a single fighter from the Wagner Group, and I stress that there is not one,” he said. Prigozhin in response to a question from the magazine ‘Jeune Afrique’, as indicated by his press service through his account on the Telegram social network.
Thus, he has emphasized that “this has been the case for more than two years”. “For two years there has been no presence of any fighter from the Wagner Group in Sudan and today there are none. That is the main thing to know,” he reiterated, after being asked about this possible presence or the position he could adopt. the group of mercenaries around the clashes in the African country.
During the day of this Tuesday, the Army and the RSF have announced an agreement for a 24-hour ceasefire that in principle will come into force at 6:00 p.m. The fighting broke out on Saturday in the context of an increase in tensions over the reform of the security apparatus and the integration of the paramilitary force within the Armed Forces, a key part of an agreement signed in December to form a new civil government and reactivate the transition.
The talks process began with international mediation after Al Burhan led a coup in October 2021 that overthrew the then unity prime minister, Abdalá Hamdok, appointed to the position as a result of contacts between civilians and the military after the riot of April 2019, which put an end to 30 years of the regime of Omar Hasan al Bashir.
