CAIRO, Egypt
Sudan’s military leader, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, survived a drone attack Wednesday on an army graduation ceremony he was attending in the country’s east, the military said. The attack that killed five people was the latest twist in the conflict Sudan has been going through since a popular uprising removed its veteran leader Omar al-Bashir in 2019.
The attack by two drones took
place in the town of Gebeit after the ceremony was concluded, the military
added. Burhan was not hurt, according to Lt. Col. Hassan Ibrahim, from the
military spokesman’s office.
Videos posted by Al Araby TV
showed multiple people running along a dusty road at the time of the drone
attack, while other footage showed people at the graduation ceremony apparently
looking to the sky as the drone strike hit.
Another video posted on Facebook by the Sudanese Armed Forces
showed a crowd of people gathering around Burhan following the drone strike,
cheering for him as he smiled.
“A spontaneous popular
gathering of the people of the Jebait region with the President of the
Sovereign Council and Commander-in-Chief following the graduation of a new
batch of officers,” the post read.
Sudan has been torn
by war for more than a year between the military and a powerful
paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces or RSF. With fighting in the
capital, Khartoum, the military leadership largely operates out of eastern
Sudan near the Red Sea Coast.
The RSF has not commented on
the assassination attempt yet, which comes nearly a week after its leader said
that he planned to attend cease-fire talks in Switzerland next month arranged
by the United States and Saudi Arabia.
Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo,
head of the Rapid Support Forces fighting Sudan’s army, emphasized at the time
that the talks would become “a major step” toward peace and stability in Sudan
and create a new state based on “justice, equality and federal rule.”
The Sudanese Foreign Ministry
on Tuesday responded to the U.S. invitation to the talks in Geneva, saying the
military-controlled Sudanese government is prepared to take part but said that
any negotiation before implementing the Jeddah Declaration “wouldn’t be
acceptable to the Sudanese people.”
The Jeddah Declaration of
Commitment to Protect Civilians passed last year meant to end the conflict, but
neither side committed to its objectives.
Representatives from the
Sudanese Army and the RSF, led by Mohamed Hamadan Dagalo, engaged in revived
talks brokered by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia in Jeddah, focusing on the
delivery of humanitarian aid, achieving ceasefires and paving the way toward a
permanent cessation of aggression, among other objectives.
In its Tuesday statement, the
Sudanese Foreign Ministry accused the RSF of being the only party that attacks
cities, villages and civilians. The military-controlled Sudanese government
demanded sanctions be imposed on “rebels to stop their continuous aggression,
end their siege on cities, and open roads.”
“Those taking part in the
initiative are the same as the parties who participated in the Jeddah talks,
and the topics are identical to what was agreed upon,” the statement read.
The ministry added that the
military-led government must be consulted about the planned agenda for any
negotiations and parties taking part, with the provisions in the Jeddah
Declaration being the basis of future talks.
Cameron Hudson, the former
chief of staff to the special envoy to Sudan, said the
military government’s response is “far more positive and open” than he had
anticipated because it opened the door to preliminary talks with the U.S.
The Rapid Support Forces were
formed from Janjaweed fighters created under former Sudanese President Omar
al-Bashir, who ruled the country for three decades before being overthrown
during a popular uprising in 2019. He is wanted by the International
Criminal Court on charges of genocide and other crimes during the conflict in
Darfur in the 2000s.
The conflict has created the
world’s largest displacement crisis with more than 10 million people forced to
flee their homes since April 2023, according to the U.N. migration agency. They
include more than 2.2 million who crossed into neighboring countries, it said.
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