AFP, published Saturday, May 20, 2023 at 9:50 p.m.
Airstrikes and artillery barrages rocked the Sudanese capital on Saturday, where the Qatari embassy was looted by gunmen, highlighting the chaos that now reigns in the country after more than a month of war.
Residents of the capital told AFP of increasingly violent “airstrikes” that even resulted in “house walls shaking”.
The army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, ignore calls for a ceasefire and engage in a struggle for control of strategic locations and power.
Shelling erupted near the public television headquarters, other witnesses said, while both sides continued to announce victories on social media and in the media.
Since the fighting began on April 15, nearly a thousand have died and more than a million have been displaced and displaced.
As negotiations for a humanitarian ceasefire stalled, General Burhane appointed three of his staunch supporters to head the army, sacking General Daglo from his post as Deputy Sovereignty Council on Friday and appointing Malik Agar in his place.
– “Unified” Army –
The former rebel, who signed a peace deal with the Khartoum power in 2020, announced in a unifying statement on Saturday that he wanted to “end the war and sit down at the negotiating table.”
“Sudan’s stability can only be restored by a professional and united army,” he told General Daglo.
It was the integration of the FSRs into the army that struck the death knell for the Union between Gen. Burhane and Gen. Daglo since the 2021 coup in which they collectively ousted civilians from power.
The struggle for power between the two men has thrown Sudan into chaos. The testimonies of squatting, looting and other abuses are piling up and diplomatic missions have not been spared either.
On Saturday, the Sudanese foreign ministry again accused the “FSR militias” of attacking, destroying and looting the Qatari embassy in Khartoum, taking computers and vehicles.
Khartoum had already accused the paramilitaries of attacking evacuated offices: “the embassies of India and Korea, the Saudi cultural office, the residence of Swiss diplomats and a Turkish consular section”.
According to Doha, where embassy staff had already been evacuated, there were no fatalities in the attack. Qatar’s Foreign Ministry condemned the attack, saying its embassy was stormed and destroyed by “irregular forces”.
According to experts, the two rival generals, certain of being able to win militarily but so far on an equal footing, have opted for a long war rather than concessions at the negotiating table.
– emergency aid –
As hope for peace dwindles by the day, regional initiatives to achieve a humanitarian truce multiply.
After meeting the South Sudanese president in Juba on Wednesday, Gen Daglo’s special envoy traveled to Kampala on Saturday, where he met with the Ugandan president, according to an FSR statement.
In Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, talks on safe corridors for humanitarian aid are already ongoing.
During a phone call on Saturday, the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken urged General Burhane to be “flexible” on the matter.
The UN envoy for Sudan, Volker Perthes, who remained in the country, flew to New York on Saturday, where he will address the Security Council on Monday.
More than every second Sudanese needs humanitarian aid. The United Nations has announced it will release $22 million from an emergency fund to help Sudanese who have fled to neighboring countries.
Almost a quarter of that sum will be used to meet the needs of more than 110,000 people who have fled to Egypt, a major neighbor to the north hit by a severe economic crisis.
As neighboring countries fear contagion, the US on Friday announced $103 million in aid to Sudan and neighboring countries to deal with the humanitarian crisis.