Sudan's warring forces trade accusations over Zimbabwe embassy attack

By Columbus Mavhunga, HARARE Zimbabwe

Sudan's rival forces, the Sudanese army and the paramilitary, the Rapid Support Forces, Thursday traded accusations over the responsibility of Tuesday's attack on Zimbabwe’s embassy in the capital, Khartoum.

Zimbabwe’s embassy and the house of its ambassador to Sudan, Emmanuel Runganga Gumbo, were broken into.

The incident was the latest in a series of attacks on embassies and diplomatic missions in Sudan’s capital, amid a 10-week conflict in the northeast African nation.

Elwaleed Abdalla Ahmed, Sudan's Charge d’Affaires to the embassy in Zimbabwe, confirmed the attack telling VOA the RSF was responsible for ransacking, vandalizing and occupying the southern African nation's embassy.

"The Rapid Support Forces have been on destructive (mode)," Ahmed said, adding the RSF were invading diplomatic missions and "discrediting international norms and laws."

The Sudanese diplomat called on the international community to condemn the paramilitary group.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs renews its denunciation and condemnation of this terrorist and criminal behavior of the rebel militia forces and calls on the international community to condemn it in the strongest terms," he said.

Yousif Eizzat, a member of the RSF, denied the government's accusations.

"(Since) the beginning of the war, many embassies in Khartoum, they (SAF) tried to attack them (embassies and diplomatic missions) just trying to mobilize the world against us, against the RSF, by attacking embassies and said it is us, without investigation, even without evidence," Eizzat said.

Livit Mugejo, the spokesperson to Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, speaking to the state owned media outlet, The Herald, described the embassy attack as “sheer criminality.”

"I can confirm that our properties in Sudan were destroyed by some of the fighting forces in the country taking advantage that we evacuated our people and the current war going on there," Mugejo said.

Other embassies that have been attacked in Sudan include Uganda, Libya, Saudi Arabia, among others.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, speaking at a high-level pledging event on Sudan and the region earlier this week, called the situation Darfur and Khartoum "catastrophic."

"The scale and speed of Sudan’s descent into death and destruction is unprecedented. Without strong international support, Sudan could quickly become a locus of lawlessness, radiating insecurity across the region," Guterres said.

More than 2 million people have been forced from their homes, seeking refuge in different parts of Sudan or across borders in neighboring South Sudan, Chad and Egypt.