8/24/2023 0 Comments Groups fighting it![]() Now they find themselves locked in a power struggle. ![]() They commanded separate battalions of Sudanese forces, who were sent to serve with the Saudi-led coalition forces in Yemen. He also rose to prominence in the 2000’s for his role in the dark days of the Darfur conflict, where the two men are believed to have first came into contact.Īl-Burhan and Dagalo both cemented their rise to power by currying favor with the Gulf powerhouses. His career has run an almost parallel course to Dagalo’s. At the time of Bashir’s toppling, Burhan was the army’s inspector general. The bolster in support comes amid deepening ties between Moscow and Sudan’s military leadership.Ī July 2022 CNN investigation found that Sudan’s military leaders granted Russia access to the east African country’s gold riches in exchange for military and political support.ĭagalo’s forces were a key recipient of Russian training and weaponry, and Sudan’s military leader Burhan is also believed by CNN’s Sudanese sources to have been backed by Russia, before international pressure forced him to publicly disavow the presence of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, in Sudan.īurhan is essentially Sudan’s leader. In bordering Libya, where a Wagner-backed rogue general, Khalifa Haftar, controls swathes of land, satellite imagery supports these claims, showing an unusual uptick in activity on Wagner bases. The sources said the surface-to-air missiles have significantly buttressed RSF paramilitary fighters and their leader Dagalo. Russia’s mercenary group, Wagner, has involved itself in the conflict by boosting the RSF’s missile supplies, Sudanese and regional diplomatic sources told CNN. He was later appointed deputy of the transitional Sovereign Council that ruled Sudan in partnership with civilian leadership. In 2007, its troops became part of the country’s intelligence services and, in 2013, Bashir created the RSF, a paramilitary group overseen by him and led by Dagalo.ĭagalo turned against Bashir in 2019, but not before his forces opened fire on an anti-Bashir, pro-democracy sit-in in Khartoum, killing at least 118 people. The Rapid Support Forces are the preeminent paramilitary group in Sudan, whose leader, Dagalo, has enjoyed a rapid rise to power.ĭuring Sudan’s Darfur conflict in the early 2000s, he was the leader of Sudan’s notorious Janjaweed forces, implicated in human rights violations and atrocities.Īn international outcry saw Bashir formalize the group into paramilitary forces known as the Border Intelligence Units. Passengers fleeing war-torn Sudan disembark at a bus station near the Egyptian city of Aswan, on April 25, 2023. However, the media office of Sudan’s Police and sources familiar with the matter told CNN Bashir remains in the custody of the Sudan Armed Forces at a military hospital in Omdurman, west of Khartoum. Unconfirmed reports on Wednesday claimed Bashir was among those released. That all ended in 2021, when the power-sharing government was dissolved by armed forces.įormer Sudanese minister Ahmed Haroun, wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes, said he and a number of former regime figures, left prison in Khartoum after chaos hit the facility on Sunday. He had led the country for nearly three decades when popular protests that began over soaring bread prices toppled him from power.ĭuring his rule, South Sudan split from the north while the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Bashir alleged war crimes in Darfur, a separatist Western region.Īfter Bashir’s ouster, Sudan was ruled by an uneasy alliance between the military and civilian groups. It is difficult to overstate how seismic Bashir’s overthrow was. Smoke is seen over Khartoum on Apafter days of fighting in the Sudanese capital. The unrest entered its 12th day on Wednesday as efforts to evacuate foreign diplomats and citizens intensified. ![]() Both sides later denied shelling hospitals, in comments to CNN. Volker Perthes, the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Sudan, said Tuesday that the ceasefire “seems to be holding in some parts however, reports of sporadic shooting are still coming in as well as reports of relocation of troops.”ĭoctors’ organizations and several eyewitnesses said medical facilities were being bombarded with military strikes in targeted attacks. Forces loyal to two rival generals are vying for control, and as is so often the case, civilians have suffered the most.Īt least 459 people have been killed and more than 4,000 injured in the unrest so far, according to the World Health Organization, while parts of the capital Khartoum have become a war zone.Ī 72-hour ceasefire agreed on by Sudan’s Armed Forces (SAF) and Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) came into effect at midnight local time on Tuesday (Monday 6 p.m. Fierce fighting across Sudan has left hopes for a peaceful transition to civilian rule in tatters.
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