Paramilitaries claim to control Sudan’s presidential palace and airport

The paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (FAR) said on Saturday (15) that it controls Sudan’s Presidential Palace, where Sovereign Council President and military leader Abdel Fattah al Burhan resides, although its fate is unknown.

The units, headed by Sovereign Council vice president and army number two, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, alias “Hemedti,” indicated that the action is a response to the “attack launched this morning by the Armed Forces” on the Soba camps in southern Khartoum.

The two military leaders starred in the country’s 2021 coup to topple civilians from power and are now vying for command.

According to a FAR statement, the group controls the Presidential Palace and guesthouse and Khartoum’s international airport, the country’s largest; Marawi, in northern Sudan and on the border with Egypt and Al Obeid, in the south of the country.

“What the Armed Forces Command and several officers have done represents a clear violation against our forces, who have committed to peace and exercised restraint,” the FAR said in the statement, in which it also tried to calm the citizens of Sudan, assuring them that “they are safe and the situation is under control.”

For its part, the Sudanese Army denied that the FAR controls the Presidential Palace and assured that there are already deserters in the ranks of the rival units.

“The Rapid Support Forces spread false news from outside Sudan and claim control of the General Command and the Republic Palace,” the Sudanese Armed Forces said.

Similarly, in another statement, the Sudanese Armed Forces said they face “brutal aggression” from the FAR and will protect the country from “their treachery.”

The Sudanese Air Force has begun bombing FAR positions in Sudan to repel the “aggression” of what it described as a “rebel militia” that started this morning after the Sudanese Army attacked the headquarters of a rival unit.

Two days ago, the Sudanese Army had warned that the country was going through a “dangerous juncture” that could lead to armed conflict after units of the FAR, Sudan’s most powerful paramilitary group, “mobilized” in the capital Khartoum and other cities.

“Hemedti” on Friday expressed its willingness to seek a solution to the generated tension without “bloodshed,” according to Sudanese officials acting as mediators between the military.

This mobilization comes amid negotiations to reach a final political agreement to end the 2021 coup and lead Sudan to a democratic transition, a pact whose signing has been postponed twice this April precisely because of tensions between the Army and the FAR.

The FAR emerged from the Yanyawid militias, accused of committing crimes against humanity during the Darfur conflict (2003-2008).

The special envoy of the UN mission in Sudan, Volker Perthes, “strongly condemned the outbreak of fighting in Sudan” and called for the “immediate cessation” of hostilities between the Army and the paramilitary group.

“Representative Perthes has communicated with both parties to ask them to immediately cease the fighting and ensure the safety of the Sudanese people and prevent the country from suffering further violence,” the UN mission said in a brief statement.

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