The death toll rises as coup generals continue to plunge Sudan into chaos

According to the Sudanese doctors’ organization, at least 97 civilians have been killed in the fighting in Sudan. Another 942 people, including soldiers and civilians, were injured. The World Health Organization had already reported 83 deaths and more than 1,126 injuries on Monday night.

Hospitals in the Sudanese capital, home to some six million people, have been overwhelmed by fierce fighting in Khartoum over the weekend, according to the WHO. Water and power outages and a lack of fuel for the hospitals’ power generators made operations even more difficult. Specialists such as anaesthesiologists are also missing.

Since the outbreak of fighting between the army and paramilitary forces, at least 97 civilians have been killed and 365 others injured, the Central Committee of Sudanese doctors said early Monday morning.

Military against “Rapid Support Forces”
In Sudan, the two most powerful men in the country are currently dueling. The power struggle is wreaking havoc in Africa’s third-largest country by area, with a population of some 46 million and rich oil and gold reserves. Given the confusing situation and conflicting information from both parties to the conflict, it is unclear who has the upper hand on the battlefield.

Both the Sudanese armed forces commanded by de facto President Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by his deputy Mohammed Hamdan Daglo spread success stories whose truth can hardly be verified.

Since the fall of longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir in 2019, the RSF and the military have effectively shared power in the country, but relations between the two camps have never been free of tension. In the course of the transition to civilian government, which was recently postponed again, the RSF was to be integrated into the armed forces, leading to a rift between the Allies. RSF leader Daglo, also known as Hemedti, accused General Al-Burhan of staying in power.

Fighting broke out in Khartoum on Saturday morning. The RSF claimed that Sudanese soldiers entered their headquarters in the south of the city. RSF forces attacked the airfield north of the city and the presidential palace. The army used artillery, fighter planes and tanks. On Sunday, fighting continued to focus on the nearby army headquarters and state broadcaster building.

Political scientist: chaotic conditions in Sudan
The fighting threatened to completely tear apart an already conflict-ridden Sudan, said Gerrit Kurtz, a political scientist at Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik in Berlin, the German news agency. The development of the coming days is decisive. “This includes which of the two sides gains control of state institutions in central Khartoum and which wins the battle for domestic and international legitimacy.”

“Years of competition between the two security forces, held together only by a sham partnership against civil society, is now erupting into open animosity,” Kurtz explained. “Both forces are well armed, although the RSF has no air force and has less heavy weapons.”

The army is full of loyal supporters of ruler Al-Bashir who was replaced in 2019, who distrust the leader of the RSF for his role in the then coup and see him as a traitor. “Army Chief Al-Burhan is acting in no small part under the pressure of these Islamist forces, which intensified in view of the possible transfer of power to a civilian government,” Kurtz said. The general opposed control of the security apparatus by a transitional civilian government, “while Hemedti believed he could continue his business and operations in the gray area of ​​legality.”