NYT
Rival Generals Duel for Power in Sudan, Dashing Hopes for Democracy
Mounting tensions between two military leaders broke into open battles in Khartoum and other parts of the country. At least 30 people have been killed and 400 injured, U.N. officials said.
Published April 15, 2023
Updated April 16, 2023, 12:38 a.m. ET
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Deadly Clashes Erupt in Sudan’s Capital
Fighting between the Sudanese Army and a powerful paramilitary group broke out in Khartoum, Sudan, after months of rising tensions. Video footage shows smoke billowing from the Khartoum airport and people taking cover inside.CreditCredit...Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Follow live updates of the fighting in Sudan.
Here’s what to know about the fighting in Khartoum.
Deadly clashes broke out on Saturday in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, and several other cities as months of rising tensions between rival factions of the armed forces turned into an all-out battle for control of one of Africa’s biggest countries.
At least 30 people were killed and hundreds were injured, according to United Nations officials, after fighting that erupted early Saturday at a military base in Khartoum quickly spread to the presidential palace, the international airport and the headquarters of the state broadcaster. As residents cowered in their homes amid gunfire and explosions, warplanes screeched over rooftops at low altitudes.
By Saturday evening, it was unclear who was in control of the country and it appeared that the fighting had spread to other parts of Sudan, including to the remote Darfur region.
The violence is an alarming turn for a country that only four years ago was an inspiration to Africa and the Arab world. A popular uprising that toppled a widely detested autocrat, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, ushered in expectations of democracy and an end to the country’s global isolation.
Saturday’s violence came after weeks of mounting tensions between the Sudanese Army, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, a powerful paramilitary group led by Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan. The two generals united to seize power in a coup in October 2021, making them effectively the leader and deputy leader of Sudan.
But in recent months they have publicly fallen out, clashing in public and quietly deploying extra troops and equipment to military camps in Khartoum and across the country. American and other foreign officials have been leading efforts to persuade the two generals to transfer power to a civilian-led government. Instead they are clashing violently.
Here are the latest developments:
Videos circulating on social media showed soldiers firing in the streets, armored vehicles speeding through residential areas and travelers taking shelter on the floor of the Khartoum International Airport amid reports of battles inside the terminal and near the runway.
By Saturday evening, both sides were claiming to control key installations in Khartoum and across the country — including the presidential palace, the main international airport and various other airfields. And both sides accused the other of trying to stage a coup.
Foreign governments and international officials expressed alarm over the clashes. The U.S. Secretary of State, Antony J. Blinken, said on Twitter that he was “deeply concerned” and urged both sides to “immediately” cease hostilities and avoid further escalations.
Although Sudan, which gained independence in 1956, has had more successful coups than any other African country, none have involved such intensive combat between two wings of the armed forces in the center of the capital.
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Anushka Patil
April 15, 2023, 5:28 p.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Anushka Patil
One resident of Khartoum, who asked to be identified by her first name Huda for security reasons, lives between two major flashpoints of the conflict — the airport and the Soba military camp. Her family has stayed in hiding in their home for much of the day, while intermittent sounds of fighting come from several directions. “We’re not even able to look around outside of the house,” she said, “because you don’t know what is going to happen next.”
Declan Walsh
April 15, 2023, 4:34 p.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Declan WalshReporting from Nairobi, Kenya
On Saturday night, it was still unclear who was in control of Sudan. An internal U.N. report based on hospital figures said at least 27 people had died and about 400 had been injured. In addition three Sudanese employees of the World Food Programme were killed in Darfur, U.N. officials said.
Most contested locations in Khartoum
3 mi.5 km.
© Mapbox © OpenStreetMap
Clashes across the country
200 mi.300 km.
© Mapbox © OpenStreetMap
The New York Times
Abdi Latif Dahir
April 15, 2023, 3:30 p.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Abdi Latif DahirReporting from Nairobi, Kenya
Clashes in Sudan come during the holiest days of Ramadan.
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Men seated on the ground near plates of food as they break their Ramadan fast.
A group of men gathered south of Khartoum, Sudan, on Saturday to break their fast as part of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.Credit...Ebrahim Hamid/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The fighting in Sudan between rival leaders in the armed forces erupted at a significant moment for its Muslim-majority population: the last 10 days of the holy month of Ramadan.
During Ramadan, Muslims abstain from food and water from dawn to dusk and engage in reading the Quran and helping the poor. But the last 10 days are considered the holiest in the entire Islamic calendar because they bookend the anniversary of the evening when the Quran was revealed to Prophet Muhammad. Because of that, Muslims double their efforts during those days by giving charity, studying religious texts and staying in mosques for longer periods as part of a practice known as itikaf.
On Saturday, the timing of the armed clashes in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, and other cities shocked many African leaders, who called on the rivals to put down their weapons and let citizens enjoy the holiest period of Ramadan.
Moussa Faki Mahamat, the chairman of the African Union Commission, called on both groups to “immediately stop the destruction of the country, the terrorization of its people, and the shedding of blood during the last 10 days of Ramadan.”
In a statement, Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, said “the clashes violate the ancient Sudanese norms and values because they come in the last days of the holy month of Ramadan.”
Kenya’s president, William Ruto, also concurred, saying all differences should be addressed through dialogue “for the sake of the security of the people of Sudan and stability in the country and the region, especially during this holy month of Ramadan.”
In Sudan, Ramadan is considered a joyous celebration, with families and friends coming together to share foods like samosas, dates, sweet tea and assida, a semolina-based flour dish. But for many Sudanese, this Ramadan comes during an arduous period, with the country facing food insecurity because of poor harvests, steep food prices and a spiraling economic crisis. More than 15 million people across the country are already suffering from food shortages and rampant inflation, said Islamic Relief, the nongovernmental organization.
On Saturday evening, as the hour to break the fast got closer, gun battles in parts of the capital quieted, several witnesses said. Residents who were stuck in their homes all day then rushed out to buy bread, dates and watermelons to quench their hunger and thirst.
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Abdi Latif Dahir
April 15, 2023, 3:30 p.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Abdi Latif DahirReporting from Nairobi, Kenya
Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, who heads the paramilitary force battling the Sudanese army for control of the country, claimed on Twitter on Saturday night that his troops has had control of most of Sudan's military installations, had seized more than 200 armored vehicles and had captured the airport in El Geneina, the capital of the state of West Darfur. The Times could not independently verify any of these claims.
Anushka Patil
April 15, 2023, 3:13 p.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Anushka Patil
The Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors issued an urgent call for doctors and surgeons to go to the Al-Bashaer and East Nile hospitals near Khartoum, and the El Fashir Hospital in North Darfur, saying they were facing a large number of critical cases.
Abdi Latif Dahir
April 15, 2023, 2:57 p.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Abdi Latif DahirReporting from Nairobi, Kenya
Sudan’s armed forces said on Saturday night as fighting continued that there will be no negotiation with the powerful paramilitary force known as the Rapid Support Forces until its dissolution. “There will be no negotiation or dialogue before dissolving and breaking up the rebellious Hemeti militia,” the military, referring to the popular name of the group’s leader, said in a statement on Facebook.
Anushka Patil
April 15, 2023, 2:08 p.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Anushka Patil
The fighting forced a pediatric center on the outskirts of Khartoum to close on Saturday, according to Emergency, a humanitarian organization that runs several healthcare facilities in Sudan. At the group's cardiac surgery hospital within the city, doctors were only operating on emergency cases. “Many Sudanese colleagues cannot go home for security reasons and will stay here,” at the cardiac hospital, the group’s country director, Muhameda Tulumovic, said in a statement.
Declan Walsh
April 15, 2023, 1:32 p.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Declan WalshReporting from Nairobi, Kenya
Who is General Hamdan, the leader of the Rapid Support Forces?
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A uniformed and decorated military officer, wearing eyeglasses on the bridge of his nose, stands at a lectern rimmed with microphones.
Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan speaking during a media briefing at the Rapid Support Forces’ headquarters in Khartoum, Sudan, in February.Credit...Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters
After starting as a camel trader who led a feared militia accused of atrocities in Darfur, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan has steadily amassed influence and riches in Sudan over the past two decades as he rose toward the pinnacle of power.
Even when his one-time patron, the autocratic ruler President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, was ousted by pro-democracy protesters in 2019, General Hamdan turned it to his advantage — swiftly abandoning Mr. al-Bashir and, in the past year, reinventing himself as a born-again democrat with aspirations to lead Sudan himself.
At the same time, he allied himself with Russia and its Wagner private military company, whose mercenaries guard gold mines in Sudan and which has supplied military equipment to his forces.
But General Hamdan faced perhaps his toughest challenge yet on Saturday, as fighting raged across the capital between his powerful paramilitary group and the Sudanese army under Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
“This man is a criminal,” General Hamdan said in an interview with Al Jazeera on Saturday, lashing out against General al-Burhan, the army chief who until Saturday was technically his boss and is now his mortal enemy.
“This man is a liar,” General Hamdan continued. “This man is a thief. He destroyed Sudan.”
The army hit back, with a spokesman disparaging General Hamdan a “rebel.” But the heated language brought home to many Sudanese that, despite his earlier talk about democracy, General Hamdan, a commander with a long record of ruthless action, was literally fighting for his future.
And it was a reminder of a depressing reality: Although protesters ousted the widely reviled Mr. al-Bashir in 2019, the military leaders who thrived in his brutal system of rule are still fighting to dominate the country.
General Hamdan cut his teeth as a commander with the janjaweed militias that carried out the worst atrocities in the western region of Darfur. The conflict, which began in 2003, displaced millions and caused the deaths of as many as 300,000 people.
His ability to crush local rebel groups won him the loyalty of Mr. al-Bashir, who in 2013 appointed him to lead the newly-created Rapid Support Forces.
After protesters flooded the streets of Khartoum in early 2019, roaring for Mr. al-Bashir’s ouster, General Hamdan turned on Mr. al-Bashir, helping to push him out of power.
But two months later, in June 2019, when protesters demanding an immediate transition to civilian rule refused to leave a protest site, General Hamdan’s Rapid Support Forces led a brutal assault.
His troops burned tents, raped women and killed dozens of people, dumping some of them in the Nile, according to numerous accounts from protesters and witnesses. At least 118 people were killed, according to Sudanese medics.
General Hamdan denied any role in the violence and bristled at those who referred to his fighters as janjaweed, despite the militia’s key role in his rise to power. “Janjaweed means a bandit who robs you on the road,” he told The New York Times. “It’s just propaganda from the opposition.”
Since then, the Rapid Support Forces has evolved into far more than a gun-toting rabble. With about 70,000 fighters by some estimates, the force has been deployed to quash insurgencies across Sudan and to fight for pay in Yemen as part of the Saudi-led coalition.
War also made General Hamdan very rich, with interests in gold mining, construction and even a limousine hire company.
He has also emerged as a surprisingly agile politician, traveling across the Horn of Africa region and the Middle East to meet with leaders and developing close ties with Moscow.
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Matina Stevis-Gridneff
April 15, 2023, 1:09 p.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Matina Stevis-Gridneff
António Guterres, the secretary general of the United Nations, said on Twitter that he was engaging with the African Union and regional leaders over the crisis in Sudan.
Declan Walsh
April 15, 2023, 1:00 p.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Declan WalshReporting from Nairobi, Kenya
The Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary force fighting the Sudanese army for control of the country, published a video claiming to show Egyptian troops who had “surrendered” to them in Merowe, northern Sudan. The New York Times has not independently verified the video. In recent weeks, Egypt has openly taken the Sudanese military’s side as tensions rose.
Declan Walsh
April 15, 2023, 1:07 p.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Declan WalshReporting from Nairobi, Kenya
In a statement, the Egyptian military said it was “coordinating with relevant authorities to guarantee safety of Egyptian Forces.”
Declan Walsh
April 15, 2023, 12:46 p.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Declan WalshReporting from Nairobi, Kenya
Reports are coming in that fighting has spread to the western region of Darfur, where the Sudanese military and Rapid Support Forces paramilitiaries are clashing mostly around air fields. If confirmed, that would be an especially worrisome development because Darfur is already home to numerous local rebel groups that are heavily armed and could easily be drawn into the conflict.
April 15, 2023, 12:35 p.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Abdi Latif Dahir, Euan Ward and Anushka Patil
‘We are fearful’: Sudanese take shelter as rival armed forces fight.
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Smoke rises above buildings.
Smoke rises above Khartoum, Sudan, on Saturday as rival military factions clashed.Credit...Mohnd Awad/EPA, via Shutterstock
Before rival factions of the army began clashing, the people of Sudan were already facing multiple crises: rising inflation, escalating unemployment levels and mounting hunger.
And then on Saturday, they woke up to heavy gunfire and explosions as the army battled with a large paramilitary force in areas across the capital, Khartoum, and other cities. The clashes came after 17 months of military rule, civilian protests and interminable political wrangling over how the northeastern African nation will transition to democratic rule.
“The generals are fighting over resources and influence,” said Bassam Mohamed, 23, an engineering student who resides in the southern Jabra neighborhood of Khartoum. Mr. Mohamed, who has regularly participated in protests against the military, said he and his brother had been worried and had sheltered at home all day. During an interview, sporadic gunshots could be heard in the background.
“We are fearful,” Mr. Mohamed said. “The situation will get worse in every possible way in Sudan, especially if the clashes develop into a civil war.”
Other Sudanese said they had been anticipating the unfortunate turn of events. In recent weeks, tensions had been simmering between Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the chief of the army, and Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, the leader of the Rapid Support Forces, a powerful paramilitary force.
“I am not surprised at all,” said Galal Yousif, a Sudanese artist in Khartoum. “Unfortunately, on the one side is a militia force and on the other side is a general who is making the national army into a militia so that it could help him stay in power.”
The latest clashes, he said, undermine the efforts of all the Sudanese people who went into the streets to fight for democracy during the 2019 popular uprising. “It is like it happened for nothing,” he said.
Others were caught off guard by the violence. Nisrin Elamin, an American and Sudanese citizen, had arrived in the country only two weeks ago with her 3-year-old daughter to conduct academic research. It was her child’s first trip to the country. They were awakened on Saturday morning to the sound of heavy gunfire.
“We just looked out the window and there was this cloud of smoke over Khartoum,” said Ms. Elamin, who had just broken her Ramadan fast when she spoke over the phone Saturday evening. “We were hearing these kinds of missile-like sounds. It shook the whole building.”
Ms. Elamin said her plans had now been upended. She said her family has been without electricity since Saturday morning, and was relying on their building’s backup generator to keep their phones charged.
Others couldn’t believe it was really happening despite rumblings over recent days. Huda, who asked that her full name not be used out of security concerns, said she had long heard rumors of a potential conflict, but that what happened on Saturday was bigger than anything she could have imagined.
She said her family has been “imprisoned” because their home in Khartoum’s Arkaweet neighborhood sits between two major flash points — to the north is the embattled airport, and to the south is Soba Camp, where much of the fighting began.
At times, the sounds of gunfire and explosions were so close that, Huda said, it felt as if it was coming from next door. Several bullets had landed in the open-air courtyard in the center of her house. No one was hurt, because she, her husband and their children hid in interior rooms all day, with the gates and doors shut.
“We’re not even able to look around outside of the house,” she said, “because you don’t know what is going to happen next.”
The sense of uncertainty only grew as night fell. Makuoi Agany Dong, a 21-year-old living in southern Khartoum, has watched the situation deteriorate on television and social media all day after waking up to the sound of gunshots so loud that he immediately knew something was wrong. When he stepped outside, “the whole city was just war,” he said.
Mr. Dong, who left South Sudan as a teenager to pursue an education, said the fighting was especially upsetting for him as a young person. He said doesn’t know whether he is expected to report to his job as a translator and security guard at the Russian Embassy in the morning, but that he does know the fighting isn’t over.
“Tomorrow,” he said, “there might be war again.”
April 15, 2023, 12:34 p.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Euan Ward
Volker Perthes, the U.N. envoy to Sudan, said he has reached out to both the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces to ask for an immediate cessation of fighting. “The safety of the Sudanese people is a priority,” he said.
Anushka Patil
April 15, 2023, 12:32 p.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Anushka Patil
Chad has closed its border with Sudan until further notice, saying it was concerned about security in the neighboring country. In a statement, the government called for a return to peace.
Abdi Latif Dahir
April 15, 2023, 12:29 p.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Abdi Latif DahirReporting from Nairobi, Kenya
The prime minister of neighboring Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, called on all sides to return to the path of dialogue and offered to help solve what he called “a dangerous dispute for Sudan and the entire region.” Abiy has in the past acted as a mediator of sorts in Sudan.
Euan Ward
April 15, 2023, 11:42 a.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Euan Ward
Sudan has a long history of military coups.
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A pickup truck decorated with flags courses along a street, carrying uniformed soldiers bearing weapons, as pedestrians stroll by.
A Sudanese military vehicle en route to the site of a sit-in in front of Sudan’s military headquarters, in Khartoum, Sudan, in 2019.Credit...Bryan Denton for The New York Times
Sudan has experienced many military coups: Since independence in 1956, the country has had more attempted military takeovers than any other in Africa.
But it has rarely seen open clashes between military units like the ones unfolding on Saturday in the capital, which have raised fears that Sudan is tumbling into a new chapter of bloody unrest.
Here is a look at some of Sudan’s turbulent history of coups and coup attempts, some of which usurped democratically elected governments:
In October 2021, Sudan’s two most powerful generals seized power, derailing a revolution that had ousted President Omar Hassan al-Bashir after his 30-year, iron-fisted rule. The coup crushed the euphoria that had gripped Sudan at the time of Mr. al-Bashir’s ouster and also cost the country financially, depriving it of billions of dollars in foreign aid and debt forgiveness.
One month before that, in September 2021, the Sudanese authorities said that they had thwarted another attempted military takeover. It was a near miss for Sudan’s fragile democracy, Abdalla Hamdok, then the country’s prime minister, said at the time. But that luck soon ran out, and Mr. Hamdok was arrested when the two generals seized power.
Mr. al-Bashir himself came to power in a bloodless military coup in 1989, toppling the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi. Mr. al-Bashir, after he was ousted, was placed on trial in Khartoum for leading that coup, a historic moment for Sudan. The Islamist cleric Hassan al-Turabi, widely seen as the true architect of the 1989 coup, died in 2016 without facing trial.
The democratically elected government that Mr. al-Bashir deposed took power after a 1985 coup that toppled Col. Gaafar al-Nimeiry — an army chief who ruled over Sudan for 16 years and established a one-party socialist state with close ties to Mao Zedong’s China.
Mr. al-Nimeiry had himself risen to power in 1969 after overthrowing a civilian government in yet another successful coup, and also endured four attempted coups over his first nine years in power before he was finally deposed.
Ivan Nechepurenko
April 15, 2023, 10:56 a.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Ivan Nechepurenko
The Russian Embassy in Khartoum urged its citizens to “stay at home and remain calm.” Russia’s Foreign Ministry, in a statement, expressed concern “about the dramatic events” and called on all sides to “take urgent steps toward a cease-fire.”
Abdi Latif Dahir
April 15, 2023, 10:45 a.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Abdi Latif DahirReporting from Nairobi, Kenya
Abdalla Hamdok, Sudan’s last civilian prime minister who was ousted in the October 2021 coup, called for an end to the fighting. “Our country faces the danger of falling apart,” he said in a video posted on Twitter.
Abdi Latif Dahir
April 15, 2023, 10:39 a.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Abdi Latif DahirReporting from Nairobi, Kenya
Who is Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of Sudan’s military?
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Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan at a podium with the United Nations flag behind him.
Sudan’s army chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, in March. Hopes of a peaceful transition to democracy were dashed on Saturday when his strained relations with another general in charge turned violentCredit...Karim Jaafar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
One of the rival factions of the Sudanese armed forces fighting on Saturday is led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, a powerful military commander who has for years been a de facto leader of the African nation.
Little known before 2019, General al-Burhan rose to power in the tumultuous aftermath of the military-led coup that ousted Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the authoritarian leader who was deposed after popular uprisings in 2019.
Then the inspector general of the armed forces, he had also served as a regional army commander in Darfur, when 300,000 people were killed and millions of others displaced in fighting from 2003 to 2008.
General al-Burhan had been closely aligned with Mr. al-Bashir. But when Mr. al-Bashir was ousted, his defense minister, Lt. Gen. Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Auf, took over, pushing protesters to demand for his resignation. When General Ibn Auf stepped down, General al-Burhan replaced him, becoming the most powerful leader of the country in a tenuous transitional period. General al-Burhan then went on to progressively tighten his grip on Sudan.
After civilians and the military signed a power-sharing agreement in 2019, General al-Burhan became the chairman of the Sovereignty Council, a body that would oversee the country’s transition to democratic rule. But as the date for the handover of power to civilians got closer in late 2021, General al-Burhan seemed reluctant to hand over power.
As tensions rose, Jeffrey Feltman, the U.S. envoy to the Horn of Africa at the time, arrived in Sudan to talk with both sides. Despite his differences with the civilian side, Mr. al-Burhan gave no indication that he wanted to seize power.
But on Oct. 25, just hours after the U.S. envoy left, General al-Burhan detained Abdalla Hamdok, the prime minister at the time, in his own house, blocked the internet and seized power, effectively derailing the country’s transition to democratic rule.
Two weeks later, he also appointed himself the head of a new ruling body that he promised would deliver Sudan’s first free election. But that did not assuage opposition groups and civilian protesters, who continued to pour into the streets every week to demand his resignation and the end to military rule.
In December 2022, the military, represented by General al-Burhan, and a coalition of civilian pro-democracy groups, signed a preliminary agreement brokered by members of the international community to end the political standoff. But that deal did not satisfy the demands of some civilians who continued to protest, or his biggest rival, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, the leader of the Rapid Support Forces, a powerful paramilitary group.
Abdi Latif Dahir
April 15, 2023, 10:32 a.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Abdi Latif DahirReporting from Nairobi, Kenya
Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, the leader of the Rapid Support Forces, blamed the leader of the army, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, for the clashes. “We are sorry to be fighting our countrymen, but this criminal is the one who forced us to do it,” he told Al Jazeera in an interview.
Declan Walsh
April 15, 2023, 10:08 a.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Declan WalshReporting from Nairobi, Kenya
Here is why Sudan matters far beyond Africa.
An anti-government demonstration in Khartoum, Sudan, in March.
An anti-government demonstration in Khartoum, Sudan, in March.Credit...Faiz Abubakar Muhammed for The New York Times
The clashes between rival military factions that erupted on Saturday are an alarming turn for Sudan, which only four years ago was an inspiration to both Africa and the Arab world.
In 2019, jubilant protesters — symbolized in part by a young woman in a white robe — toppled their widely detested ruler of three decades, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, ushering in expectations of democracy and an end to the country’s global isolation.
The revolution faltered 18 months ago when the army chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, commander of the powerful Rapid Support Forces paramilitaries, united to seize power in a coup. But Sudan’s transition to democracy has remained a priority for protesters, who continued to demonstrate and risk their lives, resulting in more than 125 deaths.
Sudan’s future has also preoccupied leaders of many Western countries, notably the United States. In the past year, the country, which is just south of Egypt, has become an important battleground in the West’s rivalry with Russia.
The Russian private military company Wagner, which has assumed a key role in the war in Ukraine, has deployed mercenaries to Sudan and runs a major gold mining concession there. The Kremlin also has pressed Sudan for permission to allow Russian warships to dock at ports on the country’s Red Sea coastline.
The ouster of Sudan’s longtime dictator, Mr. al-Bashir, spurred hopes for an end to decades of internal strife and international isolation. Mr. al-Bashir, who ruled for three decades, oversaw a ruinous conflict in the south of the country that culminated in the secession of South Sudan in 2011.
He also presided over a campaign of state-sponsored violence in the western region of Darfur beginning in 2003 that led to him being indicted on charges of war crimes and genocide at the International Criminal Court at The Hague. Mr. al-Bashir was never brought to trial on those charges, but was convicted of corruption and other offenses after the 2019 revolution. He is currently incarcerated at the Kober prison in Khartoum.
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Declan Walsh
April 15, 2023, 9:57 a.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Declan WalshReporting from Nairobi, Kenya
Although it was too early to say if Sudan was tumbling into civil war, some people reached by phone said it felt like that. “There is fighting in Khartoum. There is fighting in Meroe. There is fighting around the Khartoum airport,” Amgad Fareid Eltayeb, a former adviser to Abdalla Hamdok, Sudan’s civilian prime minister who was ousted in the October 2021 military coup, said in a phone interview. “How else do you define civil war?”
Declan Walsh
April 15, 2023, 9:39 a.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Declan WalshReporting from Nairobi, Kenya
An official at a Western embassy in Khartoum said clashes had also erupted in the city of Nyala, in the remote Darfur region of western Sudan. Darfur has experienced two decades of genocidal violence, and the political turmoil in the capital, Khartoum, has thwarted efforts to bring peace to the region.
Shashank Bengali
April 15, 2023, 9:20 a.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Shashank Bengali
The clashes in Sudan prompt concern in foreign capitals.
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Dark smoke is seen over a deserted street of low-slung brick and concrete buildings.
Smoke rising over an empty street in Sudan’s capital of Khartoum on Saturday.Credit...Marwan Ali/Associated Press
Foreign governments and international officials expressed alarm on Saturday at the clashes in Sudan and urged the rival armed factions to cease the hostilities that have threatened to plunge one of Africa’s largest countries into another chapter of bloody unrest.
The U.S. secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, said on Twitter that he was “deeply concerned about reports of escalating violence between the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces.”
“We urge all actors to stop the violence immediately and avoid further escalations or troop mobilizations and continue talks to resolve outstanding issues,” he added.
The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell Fontelles, called “on all forces to stop the violence immediately.”
“An escalation will only aggravate the situation,” he tweeted. “Protection of citizens is a priority.”
Mr. Blinken and Mr. Borrell both said that all members of their diplomatic missions in Sudan were safe and accounted for.
The violence also prompted a response from the African Union, the continentwide grouping of nations. Moussa Faki Mahamat, the chairman of the African Union Commission, which runs the body’s day-to-day affairs, said in a statement that he was following the developments in Sudan with “great concern” and urged the international community to redouble efforts to bring both sides to the negotiating table.
He also called on the rival groups to “immediately stop the destruction of the country, the terrorization of its people and the shedding of blood during the last 10 days of Ramadan.”
Martin Griffiths, the top humanitarian chief at the United Nations, also expressed his worries.
“With nearly 16 million people — or a third of the population — in need of humanitarian aid, more violence will only make things worse,” he wrote on Twitter.
Matina Stevis-Gridneff contributed reporting.
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Abdi Latif Dahir
April 15, 2023, 9:04 a.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Abdi Latif DahirReporting from Nairobi, Kenya
The pro-democracy Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors said in multiple statements on social media that people had been killed or injured in the clashes Khartoum and other Sudanese cities, without giving an exact figure. It also urged all doctors to go to their nearest hospital to treat the injured.
April 15, 2023, 8:55 a.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Farah Mohamed
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said he was “deeply concerned” by the reports of escalating violence in Khartoum.
Abdi Latif Dahir
April 15, 2023, 8:49 a.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Abdi Latif DahirReporting from Nairobi, Kenya
Moussa Faki Mahamat, the chair of the African Union Commission, said he was following the developments with “great concern.” In a statement, he urged the international community to bring both sides to the negotiating table and called on those fighting to “immediately stop the destruction of the country, the terrorization of its people and the shedding of blood during the last ten days of Ramadan.”
Cassandra Vinograd
April 15, 2023, 8:43 a.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Cassandra Vinograd
Dramatic videos that appear to be of Khartoum International Airport are emerging on social media. Some show planes on fire while others show passengers indoors ducking for cover.
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Declan Walsh
April 15, 2023, 8:03 a.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Declan WalshReporting from Nairobi, Kenya
Both sides are now claiming to control key installations in Khartoum and across the country — including the presidential palace, the main international airport and various other airfields. And both sides have accused the other of trying to stage a coup.
Matina Stevis-Gridneff
April 15, 2023, 7:57 a.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Matina Stevis-Gridneff
The European Union’s top diplomat said news of fighting in Khartoum was “alarming” and called for an immediate end to hostilities.
Declan Walsh
April 15, 2023, 7:50 a.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Declan WalshReporting from Nairobi, Kenya
The fighting in Khartoum is the culmination of months of rising tensions.
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A huge crowd of people, some carrying flags, crowd the street far into the distance. Others sit atop a bridge.
A protest in front of Sudan’s military headquarters in Khartoum, the capital, in April 2019.Credit...Bryan Denton for The New York Times
The fighting that erupted on Saturday in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, was the culmination of months of rising tensions between two military leaders who only 18 months ago came together to seize power in a military coup.
The gunfire, explosions and chaotic scenes across the capital dashed the once heady hopes stirred by the 2019 revolution, when tens of thousands of Sudanese massed in the streets to force the ouster of President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, their autocratic ruler of nearly 30 years.
Those euphoric scenes led to Mr. al-Bashir being thrown into prison, and spurred hopes that Sudan could end decades of ruinous international isolation and turn to democracy.
But that optimism received a crushing setback in October 2021 when the military seized power in a coup.
The takeover was led by the army chief, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, who commands the powerful Rapid Support Forces paramilitaries. But the two generals struggled to impose authority on Sudan’s fractious political scene.
The country’s economy tumbled deeper into trouble, and anti-military protests erupted practically every week in Khartoum, led by angry young Sudanese impatient for a transition to democracy.
And then the two generals themselves had a falling out.
What started over a year ago as private sniping between General Hamdan and General al-Burhan degenerated in recent months into barely veiled public attacks, delivered either by the two generals in speeches or in statements by close aides.
In December, under growing international pressure, the two generals agreed to hand power back to a civilian-led government, in a process that was due to culminate this month.
But the two generals squabbled over key issues, notably over how quickly their two rival forces should be integrated into a single army. Hard-liners inside the military wanted the Rapid Support Forces, estimated by foreign diplomats to number up to about 70,000 fighters, to disband within two years.
General Hamdan, who started out as a commander in the notorious Janjaweed militias responsible for atrocities in the western Darfur region in the 2000s, told negotiators that the process could take at least 10 years.
Both General Hamdan and General al-Burhan quietly reinforced their military forces at camps across Khartoum and in provincial capitals. Residents of Khartoum grew wary when they saw vehicles carrying troops and armored vehicles entering the city at night.
In an interview with The New York Times last month, Abdul Rahim Dagalo, the deputy commander of the Rapid Support Forces, accused General al-Burhan of being willing to allow the country to “burn.”
Tensions spiked last Wednesday when the Rapid Support Forces seized control of an army base in Meroe, 125 miles north of Khartoum. The army issued a statement in response accusing the R.S.F. of “disturbing the peace and spreading fear.”
That escalation prompted intensive diplomatic efforts to dial back the tensions, led by officials from the United Nations, the United States, Britain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
But those efforts crumbled on Saturday morning when explosions and gunfire rang out across the capital.
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Abdi Latif Dahir
April 15, 2023, 7:50 a.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Abdi Latif DahirReporting from Nairobi, Kenya
Workneh Gebeyehu, the executive secretary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, an eight-nation regional body of which Sudan is a member, said he was “extremely alarmed” by the clashes. In an emailed statement, he urged “both sides to immediately cease fighting, de-escalate the situation and resolve their differences through dialogue.”
Abdi Latif Dahir
April 15, 2023, 7:35 a.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Abdi Latif DahirReporting from Nairobi, Kenya
Western embassies in Sudan said they were monitoring the situation but did not announce any evacuation plans for their citizens. The British Embassy in Khartoum asked its nationals to “remain indoors and follow our travel advice for more updates.”
Abdi Latif Dahir
April 15, 2023, 7:12 a.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Abdi Latif DahirReporting from Nairobi, Kenya
The authorities in Sudan have been notorious in the past for blocking the internet and phone communications during protests or ahead of coups in the country, sometimes for weeks on end. What is interesting about today’s events is that phone and digital networks continue to be remain active, allowing citizens to share videos and photographs on social media platforms including WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter.
Abdi Latif Dahir
April 15, 2023, 7:11 a.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Abdi Latif DahirReporting from Nairobi, Kenya
Sudan is a majority Muslim nation, and the clashes in the capital are unfolding during the last 10 days of Ramadan, which are considered among the holiest days of the Islamic calendar. Besides fasting, Muslims usually stay in the mosque for extended periods of time to pray and read the Quran.
Credit...Marwan Ali/Associated Press
Declan Walsh
April 15, 2023, 7:11 a.m. ETApril 15, 2023
April 15, 2023
Declan WalshReporting from Nairobi, Kenya
Each side accused the other of starting the fight. In a statement, the Rapid Support Forces said it first came under attack at a camp in Soba, in the south of Khartoum, by the regular army “with all kinds of heavy and light weapons.”
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