Sudan: army chief returns to headquarters in Khartoum

This return comes two days after a drone attack on the main hospital in El-Facher – the capital of North Darfur, in the west, besieged by the RSF – which left 70 dead.

In the war that has ravaged Sudan since April 2023, this toll was described on Sunday as “appalling” by the World Health Organization (WHO).

“Our forces are in top form,” General Burhane said in headquarters, according to a video released by the army. He added that the FSR of his rival, General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo, were “doomed to disappear”.

The recapture of its headquarters is the army’s biggest victory in the capital since the recapture of Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city on the west bank of the Nile, almost a year ago.

The Sudanese army controls, according to witnesses, most of Bahri (Khartoum-North), as well as the north and center of Omdurman. in the south of Khartoum, it also holds the base of the Armored Corps. .

At the start of the conflict, the army had lost Khartoum and Omdurman. Surrounded in his headquarters, General Burgane escaped by helicopter in August 2023 for Port Sudan, which has become the de facto capital of the country.

Read also: Sudan: the army says it has broken the siege of its headquarters in Khartoum

In a statement on Friday, the army said it had joined forces between its troops in Khartoum North and Omdurman and those near the headquarters.

The army added that it had “expelled” the RSF from the Jaili refinery, north of the capital, the largest in the country, over which the paramilitaries had claimed control since the start of the war.

Two weeks ago, it regained control of Wad Madani, south of Khartoum, securing a key crossroads with surrounding states.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 12 million people in Sudan, where famine rages in some regions, particularly in the west and south.

Pope Francis deplored on Sunday that the country was the scene of “the most serious humanitarian crisis in the world”. He called on both camps to silence the guns and the international community to provide humanitarian aid and “help the belligerents quickly find the path to peace.”

“Violation of humanitarian law”

In North Darfur, the attack targeting the Saudi hospital of El-Facher left 70 dead and 19 injured among the patients and their companions, indicated the head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on X.

In a rare statement on the conflict, Saudi Arabia on Sunday denounced a “violation of international law and international humanitarian law”.

Read also: Sudan: thousands of people flee a town in the south due to clashes, according to the UN

She called on the belligerents to “protect medical and humanitarian workers” and to avoid “targeting civilians.”

The RSF, which controls the majority of Darfur, has been besieging El-Facher since May.

“The best medicine is peace”

The AFP could not independently verify the origin of the attack on the hospital.

But according to local activists, the RSF had demanded that the army and its allies leave the city before Wednesday, in anticipation of an offensive.

Intermittent fighting has been reported there since, including RSF artillery fire on the Abou Chouk displaced persons camp, hit by famine and where bombings killed eight people on Friday, according to a civil society organization.

According to a medical source, the emergency room of the Saudi hospital had already been targeted by an RSF drone “a few weeks ago”.

Read also: Sudan: army and paramilitaries accuse each other of burning down a refinery

According to the WHO, another establishment in Al-Malha, north of El-Facher, was also attacked.

Both camps, against which the United States announced sanctions, are accused of targeting civilians and indiscriminate bombing of residential areas, with the RSF specifically accused of ethnic cleansing, systematic sexual violence and the siege of entire cities.

Across the country, up to 80% of health facilities are out of service, according to official figures.

“We continue to call for an end to all attacks on health care and to allow full access for the rapid restoration of damaged facilities,” Ghebreyesus stressed.

“Above all, the Sudanese people need peace. The best medicine is peace,” he added.