JABAR EKSPRES – A battle has erupted in Khartoum and several other cities in Sudan where military forces fight each other for power. Increases the risk of a national civil war.
The fighting took place on Saturday (15/4), after weeks of pressure between the army and the powerful paramilitary group, Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The two groups are an alliance. Together, they seized power in a 2021 coup. Tensions have risen, however, over the proposed integration of the RSF into the military.
The key question is who is in control and who will be the military commander during the integration period. According to analysts, this is a power struggle for control of the country.
Some of the fighting took place in the capital, Khartoum, but clashes were reported across the country. At least 185 people died and thousands were injured in the first three days.
The protagonists in this outbreak of violence were Army General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy and RSF leader, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
In October 2021, al-Burhan and Dagalo orchestrated a coup, ending the fragile transition to civilian rule that had begun after the ouster of longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir in 2019.
al-Burhan, a career soldier from northern Sudan who rose through the ranks under al-Bashir’s rule of nearly 30 years, assumed the highest post as Sudan‘s de facto ruler after the coup.
Dagalo, from the Arab Rizeigat camel herders in Darfur, bears the responsibility of being number two. As army and civilian leaders banded together to try to hammer out a deal to end the political crisis brought on by the coup, integrating the RSF into the regular army became a sticking point.
According to analyst Kholood Khair, the December framework agreement for the deal “increased tensions between al-Burhan and Hemedti (Dagalo),” while it “raised Hemedti’s position to equal with Burhan, not his deputy,” Al Jazeera quoted JabarEkspres.com as saying. .
