UAE slams attack on Qatar embassy in war-hit Sudan
USAID announces over $100m in aid to Sudan and countries receiving fleeing Sudanese, including much-needed food and medical assistance
Air strikes and artillery exchanges shook the Sudanese capital on Saturday and armed men ransacked the Qatari embassy as the country’s warring generals kept up their struggle for control.
The UAE strongly condemned the storming and vandalism of the Embassy of the State of Qatar in Khartoum, stressing the importance of protecting diplomatic buildings according to the customs and charters that govern and regulate diplomatic work.
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MOFAIC) affirmed that the UAE expresses its strong condemnation of these criminal acts that aim to destabilise security and stability in contravention of moral and human values and principles.
The Ministry underscored the importance of intensifying efforts aimed at a ceasefire, a return to the political framework and dialogue, and advancing in the transitional phase to reach the desired political stability and security in Sudan.
On Saturday, Qatar’s embassy was the latest diplomatic mission to be atacked, drawing condemnation from Doha.
“The State of Qatar condemned in the strongest terms the irregular armed forces’ storming and vandalising its embassy building in Khartoum,” the foreign ministry said.
“The embassy staff had previously been evacuated and... none of the diplomats or embassy staff were subjected to any harm,” the ministry said.
It renewed calls for “an immediate halt to the fighting in Sudan, exercising maximum restraint... and sparing civilians the consequences of the fighting”.
Qatar did not specifically identify Daglo’s RSF as responsible but a statement from the pro-burhan authorities put the blame squarely on the paramilitaries. The embassies of Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have also come under atack in recent weeks.
Saturday’s atack came a day ater Arab leaders meeting at a summit in Saudi Arabia urged Sudan’s feuding generals to halt the fighting.
There have been multiple failed truce efforts since the fighting started, and representatives of both sides have been holding talks in Saudi Arabia.
Asked about those talks, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan said on Friday that the focus was “on reaching a truce that allows Sudanese civilians to take a breather.”
On Friday, UN aid chief Martin Griffith said he was allocating $22 million in emergency funds to help Sudanese fleeing the violence.
The funds will help relief efforts in Chad, the Central African Republic, Egypt and South Sudan where Sudanese have sought refuge, he said.
The United States promised $103 million for Sudan and neighbouring countries to support displaced people.
Khartoum residents told reporters that heavy fighting raged despite repeated international calls for a humanitarian truce.
The area around the state television building in Khartoum’s sister city Omdurman was one of the sites bombarded, witnesses said.
The power struggle between regular army chief Abdel Fatah Al Burhan and his former deputy turned rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who heads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), erupted into fighting on April 15.
The conflict has killed hundreds of people, most of them civilians, and displaced more than one million.
The United Nations has warned of a fastdeteriorating humanitarian situation in Africa’s third-largest country, where one in three people already relied on aid before the war.
On Friday, Burhan sacked Daglo, giving his title of vice president of the ruling Sovereign Council to former rebel leader Malik Agar, and appointed three allies to top jobs in the military.
A former rebel leader who signed a peace deal with Khartoum authorities in 2020, Agar said in a statement on Saturday he was determined to try to “end the war” and press for negotiations.
He also addressed Daglo directly saying “Sudan’s stability can only be re-established by a professional and unified army.”
The integration of the RSF into the regular armed forces has been the main bone of contention between Daglo and Burhan.
The force, which traces its origins to the notorious Janjaweed militia recruited in the early 2000s to crush a rebellion by ethnic minority groups in Darfur, is highly mobile but has a reputation for being ill-disciplined.
KHARTOUM
UAE underscores importance of intensifying efforts aimed at a ceasefire; none of the diplomats or embassy staff were subjected to any harm, says Doha.
Air strikes hit outer areas of the Sudanese capital Khartoum overnight and on Saturday morning, as fighting that has trapped civilians in a humanitarian crisis and displaced more than a million entered its sixth week.
The fighting between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has led to a collapse in law and order with looting that both sides blame the other for.
Stocks of food, cash, and essentials are rapidly dwindling.
Air strikes were reported by eyewitnesses in southern Omdurman and northern Bahri, the two cities that lie across the Nile from Khartoum, forming Sudan’s “triple capital.”
Some of the strikes took place near the state broadcaster in Omdurman, the eyewitnesses said.
“We faced heavy artillery fire early this morning, the whole house was shaking,” Sanaa Hassan, a 33-year-old living in the Al Salha neighbourhood of Omdurman, told Reuters by phone.
“It was terrifying, everyone was lying under their beds. What’s happening is a nightmare,” she said.
The RSF is embedded in residential districts, drawing almost continual air strikes by the regular armed forces.
Eyewitnesses in Khartoum said that the situation was relatively calm, although sporadic gunshots could be heard.
The conflict, which began on April 15, has displaced almost 1.1 million people internally and into neighbouring countries.
Some 705 people have been killed and at least 5,287 injured, according to the World Health Organization.
Saudi- and Us-sponsored talks in the Saudi city of Jeddah have not been frui , and the two warring sides have accused each other of violating multiple ceasefire agreements.
In recent days ground fighting has flared once again in the Darfur region, in the cities of Nyala and Zalenjei.
Both sides blamed each other in statements late on Friday for sparking the fighting in Nyala, one of the country’s largest cities, which had for weeks been relatively calm due to a locallybrokered truce.
A local activist said there were sporadic gun clashes near the city’s main market close to army headquarters on Saturday morning. Almost 30 people have died in the two previous days of fighting, according to activists.
The war broke out in Khartoum ater disputes over plans for the RSF to be integrated into the army and over the future chain of command under an internationally backed deal to shit Sudan towards democracy following decades of conflict-ridden autocracy.
On Friday, army leader General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan removed RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo as his deputy on the ruling council they lead.
He replaced him with former rebel leader Malik Agar.
In a statement on Saturday, Agar said he had accepted the position in order to help secure peace and support for the upcoming agricultural season, whose failure would spell widespread hunger.
He said his message to the army was that “there is no alternative to peace but peace and no way to peace other than dialogue.”
“My message to the RSF is that there is no way for stability except with one united army,” he added, but it remains unclear how much influence he will have on either side.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) announced late on Friday more than $100 million in aid to Sudan and countries receiving fleeing Sudanese, including much-needed food and medical assistance.
“It’s hard to convey the extent of the suffering occurring right now in Sudan,” said agency head Samantha Power.
Among the many looted buildings in the capital are several churches, including the Virgin Mary church in downtown Khartoum, according to a church official. Armed men gave the bishop a week to vacate the church’s premises, ater which they looted it before seting it up as their base, he said.
Church leaders have said they are not sure if atacks are targeted or part of the overall “chaos” gripping Khartoum.