After two and a half months of deadly conflict, the regular army retreats in the capital, leaving the Rapid Support Forces militiamen to retreat.
Gradually their influence spread to Khartoum. After two and a half months of fighting, General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), known as Hemetti, are making slow but steady advances in the capital. In places, the regular army, commanded by its rival, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, is virtually surrounded. In the mega-agglomeration consisting of the cities of Khartoum, Omdurman and Bahri on either side of the two Niles, the military now controls only very limited urban areas around army headquarters or strategic Defense Ministry locations. The rest of the megalopolis is in the hands of Hemetti’s militiamen, who have settled in residential areas to protect themselves from aviation.
The Sudanese army remains master of the air, but in a city as densely populated as Khartoum, that superiority doesn’t give them a significant advantage. His bombardments are often inaccurate. The Hemetti militiamen quickly left their too-exposed barracks to disperse into the living quarters. They regularly loot homes or offices, extort civilians, and rally when attacked. Their mobility protects them and allows them to threaten the positions of the army held on the defensive. A massive explosion occurred near the army headquarters on Thursday and was felt several kilometers away. Huge columns of smoke rose above the military complex in the center of the capital.
“It had become unsustainable”
Musab, a medical worker who lived with his brother in the international airport area, finally fled his home on Tuesday. “The RSFs started systematically combing the streets in my area and the fighting intensified,” he says. What decided me was the lack of water. We spent two weeks without water, it had become unsustainable. It took the two brothers seven hours to reach the city of Kosti, 300 kilometers south of Khartoum on the White Nile. They passed numerous checkpoints manned alternately by Al-Burhane soldiers or Hemetti’s paramilitaries. Musab anticipates that the capital will eventually fall to the RSF. “They are numerous, fierce and devoted to their leader,” he said. In contrast, the supreme command of the Sudanese army is not up to the task.
Nevertheless, the soldiers received reinforcements from the province earlier in the month and launched a counter-offensive on June 11. It will have lasted a week with no noticeable gain. Conversely, the FSR won a major victory on Sunday by capturing the headquarters of the Central Reserve, a police unit that had attached itself to the army camp. After two days of fighting, Hemetti’s fighters took control of this strategically located base – situated on a main road southwest of Khartoum. Most notably, they captured dozens of armored vehicles, more than a hundred pickup trucks and large amounts of ammunition, according to the videos, which the enthralled fighters were quick to share.
The belligerents had pledged to observe a ceasefire for the three days of Eid al-Adha, Wednesday through Friday. It enabled a prisoner transport under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross: 125 Sudanese soldiers, including 44 wounded, were transported by bus to Wad Madani outside the combat zone. A gesture that the FSRs staged with great communication on social media as a demonstration of their leniency. But the truce, like the previous ones, was broken. Speaking on state television to mark the holiday, Abdel Fattah al-Burhane urged “all young people in the country and all those who can defend it not to hesitate to do so.” […] or join military units. A call to arms largely rejected by civilians, disgusted by these generals who are destroying the country after leading a coup and doggedly seizing power since the fall of Omar al-Bashir’s regime in 2019.
2.6 million displaced persons and refugees
“There are bombings around our house every day, on Thursday two houses in the neighborhood were destroyed, luckily nobody was inside,” says an activist from the Jerif district on the riverbank. The FSR broke into the beautiful house next to ours and took up residence there.” As a volunteer at an emergency center that distributes soup and offers activities for children, she is refusing to leave Khartoum for the time being. “I can’t go now when there’s so much to do,” she said. She sneaks out of her apartment every day to reach the reception center: “Middle of the day is the best time, it’s hot, over 40°C, the FSRs don’t move much.”
According to the latest UN figures, the war has already resulted in more than 2.1 million internally displaced persons and more than 560,000 refugees. 1,000 kilometers away from Khartoum, in the Darfur region, where they mostly come from, the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces seem to have the upper hand over the regular army again this week. Heavy weapon clashes erupted or resumed in Nyala (South Darfur), El-Fashir (North Darfur) and Zalingei (Central Darfur). The 16th Infantry Division of the Sudanese Armed Forces reportedly lost control of a military base in Manwashi, 75 kilometers north of Nyala.
In El-Geneina (West Darfur), near the Chadian border, several witnesses reported an ethnic killing campaign by Arab militiamen affiliated with the FSR. No independent observer can confirm this information. Mobile Internet is cut. The region remains largely inaccessible as the few international NGOs and UN humanitarian agencies struggle to get aid and medicines there. United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide Alice Nderitu fears a “new campaign of rape, murder and ethnic cleansing” and recalls the tragedy that happened in the same countries twenty years ago.