violent clashes between the army and paramilitary forces

First modification: 04/15/2023 – 15:09

With our special envoy to Khartoum, Eliott Brachet

War is declared between the two armies of Sudan. Since 9:30 in the morning on Saturday, fighting has taken place in strategic areas of the capital, with intense, uninterrupted fire, with heavy and light weapons. They are concentrated next to enclaves of power in the center of Khartoum, especially around the presidential palace, the headquarters of the armed forces, and the airport flown over by military planes.

Both forces blame each other. Who has opened fire? Hard to tell. The situation is still uncertain. Khartoum residents are barricaded in their homes. Sudanese have been living in fear of conflict for weeks.

According to various reports, clashes have also broken out in the north of the country, in Meroe, at an army base. It is next to this military base that the Rapid Reaction Forces deployed on Thursday morning, escalating the tension between the two rival armies.

The two generals in command of the country since the fall of Omar al-Bachir had been preparing for the attack for weeks, despite having jointly carried out a coup against the civilian government, in October 2021. Since last December, negotiations were underway to find a way out of this crisis, but unable to overcome their differences, the two generals preferred war to negotiations.

The UN emissary in Sudan, Volker Perthes, has called on the military and paramilitaries to cease “immediately” the fighting in Khartoum. “Mr. Perthes has contacted the two parties to ask them for an immediate cessation of hostilities, for the safety of the Sudanese people, to prevent further violence in the country,” says a UN statement in Sudan.