Battle of control
Tensions have been brewing for weeks between Sudan’s two most powerful generals – Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan of the Sundanese Army, and Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group – who jointly orchestrated a military coup to derail the nation’s transition to democracy less than two years ago.
On weekend, the tensions escalated and metamorphosed into an unprecedented battle for control of the resource-rich nation, which has witnessed several civil wars over the last five decades, causing large scale death and starvation, and many such internal conflicts.
The core dispute
In recent months, negotiations were underway for return to the democratic transition that had been halted by the October 2021 coup.
Under mounting international and regional pressure, the armed forces and the RSF signed a preliminary deal in December 2022 with pro-democracy and civilian groups. But the agreement provided only broad outlines, leaving the thorniest political issues unsettled.
A key dispute is over how the RSF would be integrated into the military and who would have ultimate control over fighters and weapons.
The trigger
On April 12, RSF began deploying forces around the small town Merowe north of the capital without the army leadership’s consent.
On April 15, fighting erupted at a military base south of Khartoum, with each side blaming the other for having initiated the violence.
Since then, the military and the RSF have battled each other with heavy weapons, including armoured vehicles and truck-mounted machine guns, in densely populated areas of the capital and the adjoining city of Omdurman.