AL BURHAN MAKES HIS SECOND PUBLIC APPEARANCE SINCE SUDAN WAR BEGAN
▶ UN says more than half of country’s population now need aid and protection as fighting rages despite talks
Sudan’s army chief Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan has made only his second public appearance since his troops started fighting a powerful paramilitary group in Khartoum a month ago.
The general wore camouflage trousers, a matching T-shirt and a jungle hat. An AK-47 rifle was strung over his shoulder. He had a pistol on his right hip.
Scores of soldiers cheering, ululating and chanting “Allahu akbar” surrounded him as he walked outside a gate bearing a sign in Arabic that said “Headquarters of the Ground Forces”, suggesting they were in central Khartoum.
The soldiers embraced and kissed a smiling Gen Al Burhan as he shook hands with many before he sat in the passenger seat of what appeared to be a military pick-up truck.
Gen Al Burhan did not say anything in the footage released by the military late on Wednesday night.
Fighters loyal to Gen Al Burhan’s adversary – Gen Mohamed Dagalo of the Rapid Support Forces – are believed to be in partial control of the armed forces’ headquarters in central Khartoum, and the nearby Nile-side Republican Palace – Sudan’s traditional seat of government.
Gen Al Burhan’s first public appearance since the war broke out was in the early days, when he appeared to walk at night, shaking hands with troops standing next to tanks and other armoured vehicles.
Gen Dagalo’s only public appearance since the war began on April 15 was also in the early days of the conflict, when he was briefly shown in a video while in the passenger seat of an all-terrain vehicle. This week, the RSF released an audio recording in which he denied rumours that he had been killed.
Gen Al Burhan’s Wednesday appearance came just hours after the UN said more than half of Sudan’s population now needed aid and protection. The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva said 25 million people needed help, the highest number in Sudan’s history.
Before the conflict, the figure was about 15 million. Ocha appealed for $2.6 billion in aid.
With no sign of a let-up in fighting, anti-aircraft guns and drones could be heard in the capital, residents said.
“We have been moving from one place to the other in past days,” Abbas Al Sayyed, 27, said by phone from Bahri, a city adjoining the capital Khartoum.
“There is no electricity, no water at all, and even the bread we used to get in the first days of the war, we can’t get now. We can’t move out.”
Khartoum has been at the centre of the conflict, which has killed hundreds and wounded thousands.
Across Sudan, the fighting has uprooted close to one million people, 220,000 of whom have fled into neighbouring states.
Talks mediated by the US and Saudi Arabia in Jeddah have so far failed to secure a ceasefire.
The sides agreed last week to a statement of principles on protecting civilians and allowing aid supplies, but arrangements for humanitarian corridors and agreeing on a truce are still being discussed.
Several ceasefires have collapsed. The conflict is likely to dominate deliberations during the Arab Summit on Friday.
With aid agencies unable to gain access to the capital, the distribution of medical aid, food and fuel in the Khartoum area has fallen to local groups known as the Resistance Committees, which had led protests against the military after Gen Al Burhan and Gen Dagalo seized power in a 2021 coup.
The two generals took the top positions on Sudan’s ruling council after the 2019 overthrow of Omar Al Bashir during a popular uprising.
The fighting erupted after disputes over plans for the RSF to be integrated into the army and the future chain of command under an internationally backed deal for a transition towards civilian rule.
Fighters loyal to rival Gen Mohamed Dagalo are believed to be in partial control of the armed forces’ headquarters