Background: Two generals are fighting for power
A power struggle within the military regime in Sudan degenerated into great violence on Saturday 15 April.
The fighting is between the Sudanese army, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary RSF (Rapid Support Forces) led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
Both generals claim to lead the country. Both are also the subject of allegations of widespread human rights abuses since cracking down on democratic opposition.
In 2019, the military deposed the dictator Omar al-Bashir, when he was pressured by widespread protests in the country where the population had grown tired of his rule.
Before falling out with each other, the generals created a junta and initially promised to share power during a transition to a democratic Sudan. But in October 2021, a new military coup took place in which the civilian leaders who were involved in governing were poked or imprisoned. A regular military junta took over, with the two generals at the helm.
The conflict in Sudan will be a “nightmare for the world” if the fighting develops into a full-scale civil war, the country’s former prime minister Abdalla Hamdok emphasized at a conference in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Saturday.
The fighting in Sudan, a country with nearly 45 million inhabitants, is a “senseless war” between two armies, Hamdok continued.
— There is no one who will emerge victorious from this.
More than 500 people have been killed and nearly 4,200 injured since the power struggle between Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, leader of the paramilitary militia RSF, erupted on April 15.
The warring generals have agreed to several cease-fires, but so far all have failed to varying degrees.
The violence has spread over large parts of Sudan. In the province of Darfur, residents testify to intense fighting and looting. In the provincial capital al-Geneina, close to 100 people have been killed since Monday, according to the UN.
Abdalla Hamdok was sworn in as prime minister in 2019 to prepare the transition to civilian rule after the military overthrew former dictator Omar al-Bashir. But the two generals now at war with each other clung to power and Hamdok was ousted in another military coup in 2021. He was then reinstated but with reduced powers, after which he resigned.
Smoke rises from fighting in the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Saturday.