The commander of the Sudanese army warned on Thursday, August 31, that if the fight dragged on, his nation may fall apart.
After months of tension between the military, led by Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, under the command of Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, broke out in open combat on April 15, Sudan descended into chaos.
“We are facing a war, and if it is not resolved quickly Sudan will be fragmented,” Burhan said in a speech addressed to the country’s police force in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan.
Burhan’s comments mirror those he made in Egypt on Tuesday (29th August), the general’s first travel outside of the country since the war started.
Burhan met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi during the trip to discuss methods to put an end to the bloodshed. But neither provided any information regarding any future policies or projects.
Burhan ruled out any reconciliation with the RSF in a different address he gave on Monday.
“I appeal to the rebels [Editor’s note: The Rapid Support Forces fighters] to hand over their weapons because they are deceived and misguided. This war was invented to serve specific people. This war was all based on lies and will end soon because whatever was built on falsehood will not find support.”
The capital, Khartoum, has been transformed to an urban battlefield by the nearly five-month conflict, with neither side succeeding in taking control of the city.
The conflict has turned into ethnic violence in the western Darfur region, the scene of a genocidal campaign in the early 2000s. The RSF and allied Arab militias are attacking so-called “African,” or non-Arab, populations like the Masalit who have organised self-defense forces. They make up the majority of the victims of the violence.
According to the U.N. human rights office, at least 4,000 people are believed to have died in the battle, but local activists and medical professionals believe the actual death toll is likely much higher.
Among them are more than 3.6 million people who left Sudan for safer locations and more than 1 million more who crossed into nearby nations.
