Khartoum
Sudan conflict widens: Foreign countries are getting involved in Sudan’s civil war, U.S. security officials said this week, threatening to escalate a bloody conflict that has killed at least 5,000 people since April. Egypt has sent advanced drones to the Sudanese military, while the United Arab Emirates has armed the rebel Rapid Support Forces, the successor to the Arab janjaweed militias that helped crush a rebellion in Darfur in the 2000s. RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan, known as Hemedti, rose up this spring when the government tried to absorb his forces into the army, and he has since captured swaths of territory in the east and north. The Sudanese army has used its new drones to destroy many RSF weapons stockpiles, vehicles, and bases, but it has also hit civilian targets, killing 40 people at an outdoor market last month.