KHARTOUM: The death toll from clashes between Sudan’s regular military and paramilitary group — Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — reached 56.
The deadly clashes erupted across the country on Saturday, injuring over 500 people, mostly civilians.
RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo claimed that his forces seized most of Khartoum’s official sites, including the presidential palace after clashes erupted between his armed militia and the country’s regular military on Saturday.
In an interview with Sky News Arabia, Dagalo said that RSF now controls over 90 per cent of strategic sites in the capital Khartoum.
General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the country’s military chief, disputed Dagalo’s claims and said his forces still controlled government sites.
Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, in an interview with Al Jazeera, described Burhan as a criminal, accusing him of initiating the fighting.
Armed clashes were reported almost throughout Khartoum, including the presidential palace and the headquarters of the army in the capital.
Medical sources in central Khartoum told CNN that one of the hospitals received dozens of wounded military personnel and civilians.
Sudan’s military said the RSF infiltrated the Khartoum airport and burned several civilian aircraft.
“To our honourable people, the rebellious RSF continues with their cycles of traitorous plotting and attacking the country and its national sovereignty. Since this morning, the armed forces have been fighting for the nation’s rights and dignity,” the official spokesman of the Armed Forces said in a statement.
Dagalo’s dramatic rise to power started when he led Sudan’s notorious Janjaweed forces. He was implicated in human rights violations during the Darfur conflict in 2000. His paramilitary group also killed at least 118 civilians in pro-democracy protests in June 2019 after his troops opened fire at a peaceful sit-in.
Sudan’s army accused the RSF of “traitorous plotting” against the country and has demanded its dissolution.
In a statement, the Sudanese army said there would be “no negotiation or dialogue before dissolving Hemedti’s rebel militia. It also issued a most wanted poster for Dagalo, calling him a “fugitive criminal.”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres, meanwhile, called on the RSF and Sudanese military to “immediately cease fighting. The UN Security Council stressed, “the importance that humanitarian access was maintained and the safety of UN personnel was ensured.”
The African Union also urged “the parties to find a fair political solution to the ongoing crisis.”
The Sudanese army issued a statement urging civilians to stay indoors and never venture out as warplanes will be conducting sweeps looking for the RSF.
The statement said the Sudanese Air Force would conduct a total sweep of the rebel RSF militia’s presence.
Meanwhile, Khartoum’s State Security Committee declared a public holiday in the capital “to preserve the lives of citizens and their property.”
The military had been in charge of Sudan since a coup in 2021, with al-Burhan and Dagalo being in charge of office. The 2021 coup did away with power-sharing arrangement following the 2019 ouster of long-term former President Omar al-Bashir.
