Sudan paramilitary attacks army HQ, evacuations hit

Khartoum, April 19

Sudanese troops battled waves of attacks on Wednesday by a paramilitary force trying to seize the army’s headquarters (HQ), while the failure of a US-brokered ceasefire hampered efforts to evacuate foreigners and residents trapped in the capital.

Another ceasefire attempt failed in the day. Continuous bombardments and loud blasts could be heard in central Khartoum around the compound housing the army HQ and also at the main airport, which has been fiercely contested and put out of action since fighting erupted at the weekend. Thick smoke billowed and the streets were largely empty in Khartoum.

Gunfire rattled in the south of the city while the army appeared to retake a key military airport in the country’s north, images on TV network al Arabiya showed.

Earlier in the week, Sudan’s military ruler General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said he was operating from a presidential guesthouse within the Khartoum army HQ. “The armed forces are responding to a new attack in the vicinity of the General Command,” the army said in a statement.

People are finding it very tough to leave war-hit zones. Huddled in their homes, residents of the capital, one of Africa’s largest cities, struggled with power cuts and worried how long food supplies would last. With no signs of peace in the city before Eid, some Khartoum residents braved the bombardments to leave for the nearby state of Al Gezira, to the south, where fighting has not been reported.

Violence erupted at the weekend in a power struggle between the army and the paramilitary troops known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). At least 270 people have died and 2,600 have been injured, Sudan’s health ministry said, cited by the World Health Organization.

The fighting pits military leader Burhan against RSF chief General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely know as Hemedti, following tension over a plan to integrate the RSF into the regular military. — Reuters

270 killed, over 2,600 injured

• At least 270 people have died and 2,600 have been injured, Sudan’s health ministry has said.
• Sudan’s military and Rapid Support Forces are fighting over plans to integrate the latter into the army.