- Dozens were reported killed as rival military factions battled for control of the African nation. Violence intensified in the capital and clashes appeared to be spreading in Sudan’s east and west.
By Abdi Latif Dahir, Declan Walsh and Andrés R. Martínez
Fighting intensified on Sunday across the capital of Sudan and in the restive western Darfur region as months of rising tensions between factions of the country’s armed forces exploded into all-out battle, dashing remaining hopes of a transition to civilian rule.
As the deadly clashes in Sudan entered a second day, it remained unclear who was in control of the African nation, with the rival armed forces each claiming to hold key military and civilian installations. At least 56 people were dead and almost 600 injured, mostly in the capital, Khartoum, where residents hid in their homes through the night and the scent of gunpowder and ash hung in the air.
“We don’t know what’s happening,” Dallia Mohamed Abdelmoniem, a resident of the Al Almarat neighborhood near Khartoum’s airport, said by phone, over the din of a fighter jet streaking through the sky. She and her family remained huddled in the middle of their home on Sunday morning for fear that bullets could hurtle through the windows.
The chaos was an alarming turn for Sudan, a large, strategic state that serves as a bridge between north and sub-Saharan Africa, and that only four years ago saw a jubilant popular uprising topple the widely detested ruler of three decades, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. But hopes for democracy and an end to Sudan’s international isolation faltered 18 months ago when the country’s two most powerful generals united to seize power in a coup.
Those men — the army chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, the commander of the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces — are now fighting each other.
Here are other developments:
- There were signs that fighting was spreading across the sprawling western region of Darfur, where Mr. al-Bashir’s government oversaw a campaign of genocidal violence beginning in 2003. Reports of clashes in the region’s major cities and several other towns are especially worrisome because Darfur is home to several heavily armed rebel groups that analysts fear could get sucked into the fight.
- Sudan’s neighbors sought to jump-start diplomatic efforts, with the African Union and a separate regional bloc convening emergency meetings on Sunday and Egypt and South Sudan offering to mediate between the rival factions. But neither side has indicated a willingness to meet for talks. General Hamdan told a news channel that there would be no negotiations with the head of the army, General al-Burhan, saying: “He should surrender.”
- The U.N. Security Council issued a statement condemning the violence and urging both sides to restart talks, a rare show of unity while the council’s five permanent members are deadlocked over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
- While Sudan, which gained independence in 1956, has had more successful coups than any other African country, none have involved such intensive combat between two wings of the armed forces in the center of the capital.
The World Food Program said it would temporarily suspend operations in Sudan, a day after three of its workers were killed and two others injured in North Darfur. In a statement, the executive director of the U.N. agency, Cindy McCain, said that one of its aircraft was also “significantly damaged” in clashes at the Khartoum International Airport on Saturday.
Explosions have echoed across Khartoum since Saturday morning, leaving many residents sheltering indoors, including Hanan Abdulmalik, whose home in the Manshiya neighborhood was hit by a stray bullet. So when the guns briefly fell silent in Manshiya on Sunday morning, she was delighted to hear the sound of birds chirping. “It was quite eerie and almost funny,” she said in a phone interview. “It was such a contrast to the unrelenting fight that has been going on since yesterday.”
The leaders of Egypt and South Sudan spoke by phone and offered to mediate between the two sides in Sudan’s clashes, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement. The countries — Sudan’s neighbors to the north and south — called on both sides to “choose the voice of reason” and to pursue “peaceful dialogue,” according to a readout of the call on Sunday between Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and South Sudan’s leader, Salva Kiir.
Videos of warplanes zooming across Khartoum at low altitude, skimming the rooftops and firing on the positions of Rapid Support Forces paramilitaries, are proliferating on social media. They point to a major difference in the balance of power between the two armed groups clashing in Sudan: While the regular army has warplanes, the paramilitaries do not.
On Sunday morning, warplanes carried out attacks on an R.S.F. base in Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city on the west bank of the Nile, and another at Port Sudan on the Red Sea, said Izzeldin Elsafi, a relative of Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, the commander of the paramilitaries, speaking by phone.
The R.S.F. is trying to hit back. Video circulated on Sunday morning that appeared to show paramilitary fighters in the back of a pickup truck, firing an antiaircraft gun at warplanes passing overhead. Mr. Elsafi said the R.S.F. forces had shot down a Sukhoi fighter jet over Khartoum this morning that crashed in nearby Nile State.
Mr. Elsafi also said that some of the fighter jets belonged to neighboring Egypt, which has sided with Sudan’s army and whose forces were operating from a base near the two nations’ border. The claim could not be verified independently.
Diplomatic efforts to stop the violence continued on Sunday as the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, a eight-nation regional bloc that Sudan belongs to, each convened emergency meetings.
The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors said a doctor died of a gunshot wound on Sunday. The doctor, whom the group identified as Najwa Khaled Hamad, an eye consultant, is the second doctor reported killed since clashes began on Saturday morning. The group did not say where she died.
Violence also appeared to be spreading in eastern Sudan, with reports of clashes in the cities of Qadarif and Kassala. The Sudanese Army posted a video on Facebook showing its troops at the entrance of the Rapid Support Forces headquarters in Qadarif, pointing weapons and stepping on a photo of General Hamdan, the head of the paramilitary force. The Times could not independently verify the images.
In the Kafouri neighborhood of northern Khartoum, residents said army troops shelled and fired at a camp belonging to Rapid Security Forces paramilitaries on Sunday morning. “We can feel the windows and doors shaking,” Reem Sinada said in a text message.
On Saturday, Sinada said, more than 50 R.S.F. fighters parked seven heavily armed Toyota S.U.V.s in front of her home, prompting her family to flee to her brother’s house about a mile away. “I am overcome with very sad feelings,” she said. “But hopefully we get through this soon.”
As clashes between rival military forces in Sudan entered their second day, violence had spread to an area of the country long tormented by conflict and displacement: the restive western region of Darfur.
Adam Regal, a spokesman for the General Coordination for Refugees and Displaced in Darfur, an aid agency, said that 12 people had been killed and wounded on Saturday in a camp for displaced people in the North Darfur region. He also said that clashes had spread to the cities of Nyala in South Darfur, El Fasher in North Darfur and Zalingei in Central Darfur, forcing many people to flee displacement camps and their homes in those towns.
In Nyala, residents reached by phone said that intense fighting was going on Sunday morning between the army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group for the control of the airport.
“The security situation, in my estimation, is difficult and dangerous,” Mr. Regal said in a text message.
On Saturday evening, the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors asked doctors in El Fasher to come to the nearest hospital and provide care, citing “the large number of injured and critical conditions that require urgent surgical intervention.”
For two decades, Darfur has been beset by genocidal violence that has killed as many as 300,000 people and displaced over two million others. The violence was overseen by the former dictator Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who was indicted on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The Rapid Support Forces emerged from militias that supported the Sudanese government in its assaults on Darfur.
Even after a popular uprising deposed Mr. al-Bashir in 2019, the violence in Darfur has not abated. Ethnically motivated attacks, largely against ethnic African communities, have forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes in the past two years. In late March, violence in West Darfur alone drove about 30,000 people to seek shelter across the border in Chad, according to the United Nations.
Many people in Darfur also face food insecurity because of floods and conflict over land and grazing areas.
With the army and the Rapid Support Forces now clashing in Darfur, analysts worry that the violence could draw in other armed rebel groups in the region, many of which have crisscrossed the porous borders to fight as mercenaries in countries including Chad and Libya.
“When the generals were on the same team, they did untold damage to Darfur,” said Kholood Khair, founding director of Confluence Advisory, a think tank in Khartoum. “But as enemies, they could do a lot more.”
Residents of Nyala, in South Darfur state, report intense fighting on Sunday morning between the army and the Rapid Security Forces paramilitary group. Reached by phone, residents say the two factions are battling for control of the local airport.
Fighting is spreading rapidly across Darfur, the sprawling, western region that covers an area the size of Spain. It adds an especially combustible element to the chaos: Darfur is already home to several heavily armed rebel groups that could get sucked into the fight. It is also a major gold mining region, and has been a base for troops from Russia’s Wagner private military company.
S. Jaishankar, India’s minister for external affairs, said that he was “deeply grieved to learn about the death of an Indian national in Khartoum” amid the fighting there. The Indian Embassy, which said that the person had sustained bullet injuries and that it was in touch with the family, has advised Indian nationals in Sudan to take precautions and remain indoors.
Dallia Mohamed Abdelmoniem and her family huddled in the middle of their home through Sunday morning to avoid any bullets that might come through the windows. The fighting was non-stop since 3 a.m. and intensified at 7 a.m. in the Al Amarat neighborhood of Khartoum near the city’s airport, she said.
“We don’t know what’s happening,” Abdelmoniem said by phone on Sunday morning as a fighter jet flew by, creating a deafening noise. “The streets are so quiet. You can’t even hear the sound of stray dogs,” she said. “The only sound is that of bullets, explosions and fighter jets. And the only smell in the air is the stench of gunpowder and ash.”
The Sudanese army rejected claims that it had lost control of key military installations, posting videos and photos on Facebook showing that it was in control of facilities including the public broadcaster. Earlier, the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group said they had taken over the army’s General Command building.
With hopes of a transition to democracy and civilian rule fading in Sudan, regional and global leaders are weighing in, urging the two military factions to put down their weapons and negotiate.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke to his counterparts in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. He said all three agreed that the two sides must end fighting immediately, and that the only way forward is through negotiations.
The U.N. Security Council issued a rare statement, condemning the violence and urging both sides to start talks again. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, the 15-member council has not been able to agree on much, with China and Russia, two of the permanent members, blocking most statements.
Fighting in the capital, Khartoum, is taking place in the middle of residential areas where the two sides have offices and bases, putting civilians further at risk.
Sunday began much like Saturday, with neither side willing to meet for talks. Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, head of the paramilitary force battling the army, told Al Hadath TV that there will be no negotiations with the head of the army, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. “We have no agreement with Burhan,” he said. “He should surrender.”
While much of the attention was on fighting in the capital, there were signs of unrest throughout the country. Adam Regal, a spokesman for the General Coordination for Refugees and Displaced in Darfur, an aid agency, said that 12 people were killed and wounded in a camp for displaced people in the North Darfur region.
Clashes between rival forces continued in Sudan through the night, with residents in the capital Khartoum reporting that loud explosions shook their homes early Sunday morning. It wasn’t immediately clear who was in control of the country, as both sides claimed they were winning the battle.
One resident of Khartoum, who asked to be identified by her first name Huda for security reasons, lives between two major flashpoints of the conflict. Her family has hid in their home for much of Saturday. “We’re not even able to look around outside of the house,” she said, “because you don’t know what is going to happen next.”
On Saturday night, it was still unclear who was in control of Sudan. An internal U.N. report based on hospital figures said at least 27 people had died and about 400 had been injured. In addition three Sudanese employees of the World Food Programme were killed in Darfur, U.N. officials said.
The fighting in Sudan between rival leaders in the armed forces erupted at a significant moment for its Muslim-majority population: the last 10 days of the holy month of Ramadan.
During Ramadan, Muslims abstain from food and water from dawn to dusk and engage in reading the Quran and helping the poor. But the last 10 days are considered the holiest in the entire Islamic calendar because they bookend the anniversary of the evening when the Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad. Because of that, Muslims double their efforts during those days by giving charity, studying religious texts and staying in mosques for longer periods as part of a practice known as itikaf.
On Saturday, the timing of the armed clashes in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, and other cities shocked many African leaders, who called on the rivals to put down their weapons and let citizens enjoy the holiest period of Ramadan.
Moussa Faki Mahamat, the chairman of the African Union Commission, called on both groups to “immediately stop the destruction of the country, the terrorization of its people, and the shedding of blood during the last 10 days of Ramadan.”
In a statement, Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, said “the clashes violate the ancient Sudanese norms and values because they come in the last days of the holy month of Ramadan.”
Kenya’s president, William Ruto, also concurred, saying all differences should be addressed through dialogue “for the sake of the security of the people of Sudan and stability in the country and the region, especially during this holy month of Ramadan.”
In Sudan, Ramadan is considered a joyous celebration, with families and friends coming together to share foods like samosas, dates, sweet tea and assida, a semolina-based flour dish. But for many Sudanese, this Ramadan comes during an arduous period, with the country facing food insecurity because of poor harvests, steep food prices and a spiraling economic crisis. More than 15 million people across the country are already suffering from food shortages and rampant inflation, said Islamic Relief, the nongovernmental organization.
On Saturday evening, as the hour to break the fast got closer, gun battles in parts of the capital quieted, several witnesses said. Residents who were stuck in their homes all day then rushed out to buy bread, dates and watermelons to quench their hunger and thirst.
Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, who heads the paramilitaries battling the Sudanese army, said on Twitter on Saturday night that his troops had control of most of Sudan’s military installations, and had captured the airport in El Geneina, the capital of the state of West Darfur. The Times could not independently verify any of these claims.
The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors issued an urgent call for doctors and surgeons to go to the Al-Bashaer and East Nile hospitals near Khartoum, and the El Fashir Hospital in North Darfur, saying they were facing a large number of critical cases.
Sudan’s armed forces said on Saturday night as fighting continued that there will be no negotiation with the paramilitary force known as the Rapid Support Forces until its dissolution.
The fighting forced a pediatric center on the outskirts of Khartoum to close on Saturday, according to Emergency, a humanitarian organization that runs several healthcare facilities in Sudan. At the group’s cardiac surgery hospital within the city, doctors were only operating on emergency cases.
After starting as a camel trader who led a feared militia accused of atrocities in Darfur, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan has steadily amassed influence and riches in Sudan over the past two decades as he rose toward the pinnacle of power.
Even when his one-time patron, the autocratic ruler President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, was ousted by pro-democracy protesters in 2019, General Hamdan turned it to his advantage — swiftly abandoning Mr. al-Bashir and, in the past year, reinventing himself as a born-again democrat with aspirations to lead Sudan himself.
At the same time, he allied himself with Russia and its Wagner private military company, whose mercenaries guard gold mines in Sudan and which has supplied military equipment to his forces.
But General Hamdan faced perhaps his toughest challenge yet on Saturday, as fighting raged across the capital between his powerful paramilitary group and the Sudanese army under Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
“This man is a criminal,” General Hamdan said in an interview with Al Jazeera on Saturday, lashing out against General al-Burhan, the army chief who until Saturday was technically his boss and is now his mortal enemy.
“This man is a liar,” General Hamdan continued. “This man is a thief. He destroyed Sudan.”
The army hit back, with a spokesman disparaging General Hamdan a “rebel.” But the heated language brought home to many Sudanese that, despite his earlier talk about democracy, General Hamdan, a commander with a long record of ruthless action, was literally fighting for his future.
And it was a reminder of a depressing reality: Although protesters ousted the widely reviled Mr. al-Bashir in 2019, the military leaders who thrived in his brutal system of rule are still fighting to dominate the country.
General Hamdan cut his teeth as a commander with the janjaweed militias that carried out the worst atrocities in the western region of Darfur. The conflict, which began in 2003, displaced millions and caused the deaths of as many as 300,000 people.
His ability to crush local rebel groups won him the loyalty of Mr. al-Bashir, who in 2013 appointed him to lead the newly-created Rapid Support Forces.
After protesters flooded the streets of Khartoum in early 2019, roaring for Mr. al-Bashir’s ouster, General Hamdan turned on Mr. al-Bashir, helping to push him out of power.
But two months later, in June 2019, when protesters demanding an immediate transition to civilian rule refused to leave a protest site, General Hamdan’s Rapid Support Forces led a brutal assault.
His troops burned tents, raped women and killed dozens of people, dumping some of them in the Nile, according to numerous accounts from protesters and witnesses. At least 118 people were killed, according to Sudanese medics.
General Hamdan denied any role in the violence and bristled at those who referred to his fighters as janjaweed, despite the militia’s key role in his rise to power. “Janjaweed means a bandit who robs you on the road,” he told The New York Times. “It’s just propaganda from the opposition.”
Since then, the Rapid Support Forces has evolved into far more than a gun-toting rabble. With about 70,000 fighters by some estimates, the force has been deployed to quash insurgencies across Sudan and to fight for pay in Yemen as part of the Saudi-led coalition.
War also made General Hamdan very rich, with interests in gold mining, construction and even a limousine hire company.
He has also emerged as a surprisingly agile politician, traveling across the Horn of Africa region and the Middle East to meet with leaders and developing close ties with Moscow.
Before rival factions of the army began clashing, the people of Sudan were already facing multiple crises: rising inflation, escalating unemployment levels and mounting hunger.
And then on Saturday, they woke up to heavy gunfire and explosions as the army battled with a large paramilitary force in areas across the capital, Khartoum, and other cities. The clashes came after 17 months of military rule, civilian protests and interminable political wrangling over how the northeastern African nation will transition to democratic rule.
“The generals are fighting over resources and influence,” said Bassam Mohamed, 23, an engineering student who resides in the southern Jabra neighborhood of Khartoum. Mr. Mohamed, who has regularly participated in protests against the military, said he and his brother had been worried and had sheltered at home all day. During an interview, sporadic gunshots could be heard in the background.
“We are fearful,” Mr. Mohamed said. “The situation will get worse in every possible way in Sudan, especially if the clashes develop into a civil war.”
Other Sudanese said they had been anticipating the unfortunate turn of events. In recent weeks, tensions had been simmering between Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the chief of the army, and Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, the leader of the Rapid Support Forces, a powerful paramilitary force.
“I am not surprised at all,” said Galal Yousif, a Sudanese artist in Khartoum. “Unfortunately, on the one side is a militia force and on the other side is a general who is making the national army into a militia so that it could help him stay in power.”
The latest clashes, he said, undermine the efforts of all the Sudanese people who went into the streets to fight for democracy during the 2019 popular uprising. “It is like it happened for nothing,” he said.
Others were caught off guard by the violence. Nisrin Elamin, an American and Sudanese citizen, had arrived in the country only two weeks ago with her 3-year-old daughter to conduct academic research. It was her child’s first trip to the country. They were awakened on Saturday morning to the sound of heavy gunfire.
“We just looked out the window and there was this cloud of smoke over Khartoum,” said Ms. Elamin, who had just broken her Ramadan fast when she spoke over the phone Saturday evening. “We were hearing these kinds of missile-like sounds. It shook the whole building.”
Ms. Elamin said her plans had now been upended. She said her family has been without electricity since Saturday morning, and was relying on their building’s backup generator to keep their phones charged.
Others couldn’t believe it was really happening despite rumblings over recent days. Huda, who asked that her full name not be used out of security concerns, said she had long heard rumors of a potential conflict, but that what happened on Saturday was bigger than anything she could have imagined.
She said her family has been “imprisoned” because their home in Khartoum’s Arkaweet neighborhood sits between two major flash points — to the north is the embattled airport, and to the south is Soba Camp, where much of the fighting began.
At times, the sounds of gunfire and explosions were so close that, Huda said, it felt as if it was coming from next door. Several bullets had landed in the open-air courtyard in the center of her house. No one was hurt, because she, her husband and their children hid in interior rooms all day, with the gates and doors shut.
“We’re not even able to look around outside of the house,” she said, “because you don’t know what is going to happen next.”
The sense of uncertainty only grew as night fell. Makuoi Agany Dong, a 21-year-old living in southern Khartoum, has watched the situation deteriorate on television and social media all day after waking up to the sound of gunshots so loud that he immediately knew something was wrong. When he stepped outside, “the whole city was just war,” he said.
Mr. Dong, who left South Sudan as a teenager to pursue an education, said the fighting was especially upsetting for him as a young person. He said doesn’t know whether he is expected to report to his job as a translator and security guard at the Russian Embassy in the morning, but that he does know the fighting isn’t over.
“Tomorrow,” he said, “there might be war again.”
One of the rival factions of the Sudanese armed forces fighting on Saturday is led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, a powerful military commander who has for years been a de facto leader of the African nation.
Little known before 2019, General al-Burhan rose to power in the tumultuous aftermath of the military-led coup that ousted Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the authoritarian leader who was deposed after popular uprisings in 2019.
Originally published in New York Times, April 16, 2023
