Despite repeated international calls for a humanitarian truce, heavy fighting continues to rock the Sudanese capital of Khartoum with air strikes and artillery exchanges. Armed men also ransacked the Qatari embassy in the midst of the ongoing struggle for control between the country’s warring generals.
Khartoum residents reported that the area surrounding the state television building in the city’s sister, Omdurman, was heavily bombarded. The power struggle between regular army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who heads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), erupted into fighting on April 15 and has since claimed the lives of hundreds of people, mostly civilians. The conflict has also displaced over one million people.
The United Nations has warned of an increasingly dire humanitarian situation in Sudan, which was already reliant on aid before the war. One in three people in Africa’s third-largest country needed assistance before the outbreak of hostilities.
On Friday, Burhan sacked Daglo and handed over his title of Vice President of the ruling Sovereign Council to former rebel leader Malik Agar. Burhan also appointed three of his allies to top positions in the military. Agar, who signed a peace deal with Khartoum authorities in 2020 after leading a rebel group, stated on Saturday that he is determined to “end the war” and press for negotiations. He addressed Daglo directly, saying that only a “professional and unified army” can restore stability to Sudan.
