US Ambassador to Sudan John Godfrey on Saturday called on the Sudanese military and Rapid Action Forces (RSF) paramilitaries to immediately cease the hostilities that broke out in the capital this morning.
“I woke up to the deeply disturbing sounds of gunfire and clashes. I am now sheltered with all my equipment, as the Sudanese are doing in Khartoum and elsewhere,” he wrote on his Twitter account.
“The escalation of tensions within the military component towards direct confrontation is an extremely dangerous circumstance and I urgently call on the military high command to cease the fighting,” the ambassador requested.
The Russian embassy in Sudan also called for an end to the clashes and urged Russian citizens in the capital to stay indoors, away from windows, according to a statement carried by the TASS news agency.
The clashes began around 10:00 am local time and spread to the main streets of the capital, the airport and a military base in the city of Meroe, which meant the collapse of the civil transition process in the country after the fall of the dictator Omar al. Bashir, in 2019 and a subsequent military coup – exacerbated by disputes between the Army and the paramilitaries over the composition of the Armed Forces.
As for the casualties, medical sources have already confirmed to Al Jazeera that at least one civilian has been killed and several dead and wounded soldiers have been taken to Bashaer hospital.
The Sudanese paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced today that it has taken control of the Presidential Palace in Khartoum after clashes with the army.
The president of the Sovereign Council and military leader, Abdelfatah al Burhan, resides in the palace, but his whereabouts are unknown, according to the Spanish news agency EFE.
The information was released in a statement also cited by the US news agency AP, which warned about the impossibility of independent confirmation of what the paramilitary group claims.
RSF militias also said they had seized Khartoum’s international airport, as well as an airport and air base in the city of Marawi, some 350 kilometers northwest of the capital.
Commercial planes that were supposed to land at Khartoum International Airport began returning to their home airports, the AP said.
Al Jazeera Arabic television, which was broadcast live from Khartoum, showed footage from Sudanese national television showing a singer performing, suggesting that normal broadcast had not been interrupted.
Sudan, with more than 49 million inhabitants, is located in the northeast of the African continent, along the Red Sea, which separates the country from Saudi Arabia.
It has land borders with Egypt, Eritrea, Libya, Chad, the Central African Republic, and South Sudan.
Source: TSF
