Violence erupted over the weekend between Sudan’s military and a prominent paramilitary group as the two factions battled for control of the presidential palace and the international airport in Khartoum. At least 61 have been killed in the conflict Saturday and Sunday with more than 670 wounded, according to the Sudan Doctors’ Syndicate, which believes there were dozens of additional deaths among the contending forces. The ongoing conflict is the result of a power struggle between Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, the commander of the Sudanese armed forces, and Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the Rapid Support Forces. Dagalo was previously a commander of the janjaweed militias who committed atrocities in the Darfur region, where Burhan also served as a regional army commander. Tensions between the two have politically destabilized the country in recent months, eventually boiling over to this weekend’s violence. Both sides have signaled that they’re unwilling to negotiate as the conflict continues to endanger the nation’s civilians. “The battles have not stopped,” Sudanese human rights advocate Tahani Abass told the Associated Press. “They are shooting against each other in the streets. It’s an all-out war in residential areas.”
Read it at Associated Press
