In Sudan its Saturday morning fierce fighting broke out within the national army, between a militia officially part of that army and the regular forces. According to eyewitnesses, the militia of Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, alias Hemedti, occupied the presidential palace, the airport of the capital Khartoum, an air base in Omdurman as well as a military base in the northern city of Marowe. They would also control an army base in western Al-Obeid. Both sides accuse each other of starting the fight. According to unconfirmed reports, the regular army launched the attack, but the initiative was taken by a faction opposed to the president and army chief Abdul Fattah Burhan.
In the early afternoon gunfire could be heard from all parts of the capital and both the American and Russian ambassadors went into hiding and spoke of a dangerous situation. Residents told over the phone how they lay flat on the floor at home to avoid the flying bullets. Clouds of smoke hung over the presidential palace and the first clips to appear on social media show militiamen at the national airport. The television channel Al Jazeera also reported that a few passenger planes are on fire.
Violence explosion
The explosion of violence was coming. On Thursday morning, the Sudanese awoke to the alarming message from the army that the militia was mobilizing for an attack. It concerns the Rapid Support Forces, a force of around 100,000 men. They were formerly known as the Janjaweed, a murderous Arab militia that fought against insurgents of African descent in the western region of Darfur earlier this century alongside the government army of then-President Omal al-Bashir. Bashir, who was overthrown in a popular uprising in 2019, later joined the militia led by Hemedti in the army, but the fighters were never integrated.
This toxic legacy of Bahshir has recently bubbled to the fore when it was decided to integrate the militiamen into the army as part of talks with civilian groups about a transitional democratic regime. Quarrels arose between the fighters about this: army chief Burhan wanted the integration to take place in two years, Hemedti in ten years. Now the dolls are dancing: the authorities call the militia “rebels” since today.
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