Sudan’s Bloody Reckoning. Can al-Burhan and Hemeti Put Down The Guns, Please? Civilians Are Hurting
The Oasis Reporters
April 18, 2023
Smoke has been billowing over the Sudanese skyline while rival forces have been firing artillery shells at each other.
Despite a flurry of diplomatic efforts by the international community to push a ceasefire through, the combatants seem set to destroy each other.
Fighting in Sudan has already led to horrendous loss of life.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) April 17, 2023
Any further escalation could be devastating for the country & the region.
Those with influence over the situation must use it to support efforts to end the violence, restore order & return to the path of transition.
Caught in the middle are civilians looking for food to eat, as hospitals have been shelled and nothing is safe so far while the situation in Khartoum remains dire.
Foreign Policy reports that:
“Sudan is facing a bloody reckoning. Violent clashes have engulfed the streets for three (four) days as rival forces loyal to the country’s two leading generals, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemeti), battle each other for total power.
Burhan is the country’s de facto ruler and leads its military.
Hemeti commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which evolved out of the janjaweed, militias that once sought violent control over the Darfur region during the genocide and years long war that began in 2003. It’s unclear which side currently has the upper hand, but in an interview with Sky News, Burhan said he feels certain of the RSF’s defeat and is willing to negotiate for the RSF’s surrender.
More than 180 civilians have been killed and 1,800 people wounded since fighting began on Saturday. Artillery and warplane bombardments struck the capital, Khartoum, on Monday, with locals hearing fighting intensify near Khartoum International Airport and strikes by both sides reportedly hitting hospitals already low on lifesaving equipment.
Fighting has also erupted in other areas of the country.
Burhan and Hemeti were not always enemies. The pair joined forces to oust then-President Omar al-Bashir in 2019 after he had served almost three decades in power. In the aftermath, they agreed to the demands of pro-democracy protesters to form a transitional civilian-military council.
That fragile arrangement—backed by the United States, the United Nations, and others—was intended to help the country transition from decades of autocracy to democracy.
But in 2021, Burhan and Hemeti orchestrated a coup, dissolving the transitional power-sharing agreement and returning power back to the military.
However, tensions sparked during negotiations to integrate the RSF into the country’s military. Those tensions eventually erupted into this weekend’s outbreak of violence.
But the clashes are also a result more broadly of the international community’s failure to fully support and help solidify the country’s democratic transition when it had the chance in 2019.
“There was a window of opportunity to make important reforms before a counterrevolution that was missed not only by these technocrats but also by those foreign nations and institutions that wanted to support democracy,” journalist Justin Lynch wrote for Foreign Policy following the 2021 coup. “The story of the international community’s role in Sudan details the limits of foreign assistance, but also a story of self-delusion and negligence.”
Foreign governments’ past failures to facilitate a lasting transition to democracy in Sudan aren’t stopping them from trying again.
Both Egypt and South Sudan offered to help negotiate a peace agreement on Sunday, stressing the need for a cease-fire before the situation spirals out of control.
We urge Sudan’s security services to end hostilities immediately without preconditions.
— Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (@USAmbUN) April 18, 2023
Now is the time to put down the guns and start talking. pic.twitter.com/A9fRnfXo3a
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, also called for one, saying, “We urge Sudan’s security services to end hostilities, end them immediately, without preconditions. Now is the time to renounce violence and return to negotiations.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with his counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to call for an immediate end to hostilities—without promising tangible aid.
I spoke to both Sudanese Armed Forces Commander Burhan & Rapid Support Forces Commander Dagalo and underscored the urgent need for a ceasefire. Too many civilian lives have already been lost. Stressed the importance of ensuring the safety of diplomatic personnel and aid workers.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) April 18, 2023
And the United Nations World Food Program temporarily suspended operations on Sunday after three of its emergency workers were killed in the crossfire.”
The Sudanese military and the militia should “prioritize the needs of their people and give them a chance to recover, rebuild their lives & their country”, as Guterres said to the Yemeni combatants at their disruptive war of attrition.
Greg Abolo
(gregabolo@gmail.com )
Foreign Policy
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