Sudan's Army Attacks Paramilitary Bases with Airstrikes In A Bloody Power Struggle

In a brutal power struggle with rival paramilitary forces, the Sudanese army looked to gain the upper hand on Sunday, bombarding their bases with air strikes, according to witnesses. At least 59 civilians, including three U.N. employees, were killed in the airstrikes.
Army units loyal to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, leader of Sudan's transitional government Sovereign Council, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, alias Hemedti, who serves as vice chairman of the council, engaged in combat on Saturday.

A dispute over the RSF's incorporation into the military as part of a transition towards civilian administration set off the first such outbreak since both joined forces to overthrow veteran Islamist tyrant Omar Hassan al-Bashir in 2019.
According to the U.N. mission in Sudan, Burhan and Hemedti agreed to a three-hour pause in hostilities from 4 p.m. local time (1400 GMT to 1700 GMT) to allow for humanitarian evacuations. However, the agreement was mostly disregarded after a brief period of relative calm.

RSF fighters were being forced to flee as a result of the army's renewed airstrikes on RSF facilities in Omdurman, Khartoum's sister city across the Nile, and the nearby Bahri neighborhoods of Kafouri and Sharg El-Nil, according to eyewitnesses who spoke to Reuters.

The U.S., China, Russia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the U.N. Security Council, the European Union, and the African Union have all made urgent appeals for a stop to the hostilities that have the potential to exacerbate instability in a wider area that is already unstable.