A US diplomatic convoy came under fire in Sudan in an apparent attack by fighters associated with Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said, in an incident he described as “reckless” and “irresponsible”.
The incident on Monday prompted a direct warning from Blinken, who separately telephoned the RSF leader Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, and Sudan’s army chief, Gen Abdel Fatah al-Burhan, to tell them any danger posed to American diplomats was unacceptable.
Blinken said the convoy that came under fire was flying US. flags and all in the convoy were safe. “We have deep concerns about the overall security environment,” he said at a press conference in Japan where he attended a G7 meeting of foreign ministers.
Fighting erupted on Saturday between army units loyal to Burhan, the head of Sudan’s transitional governing Sovereign Council, and Hemedti, the deputy head of the council. The UN envoy to Sudan says at least 185 people have been killed and more than 1,800 wounded. Many more bodies lay uncollected in the streets.
A US state department official said Blinken had expressed “grave concern” over civilian deaths in his calls with the rival leaders, and urged them to agree to a ceasefire. Both had a responsibility to “ensure the safety and wellbeing of civilians, diplomatic personnel, and humanitarian workers”, the official said.
Hemedti said he had discussed “pressing issues” with Blinken during their call and further talks were planned. “We will have another call to continuing dialogue and working hand-in-hand to forge a brighter future for our nations,” tweeted Hemedti, whose whereabouts have not been disclosed since the fighting began.
Sudan’s rival factions both claimed to have made gains on Monday as violence cut power and water in the capital. Volker Perthes, the UN envoy to Sudan, said the two sides showed no signs of being willing to negotiate.
The power struggle has derailed a shift to civilian rule and raised fears of a wider conflict.
Clashes in Khartoum have centred on key sites such as the international airport, presidential palace and the army headquarters. In comments to Sky News, Burhan said he was secure in a presidential guesthouse within the defence ministry compound.
Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, said the EU ambassador in Khartoum had been assaulted at his residency. Borrell did not say if the ambassador, the Irish diplomat Aidan O’Hara, had been badly injured, but called the attack “a gross violation of the Vienna convention”, which is supposed to guarantee the protection of diplomatic premises.
The US national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, said the US was not, for the time being, planning an evacuation from the country.
Burhan raised the stakes in the violence still further on Monday, ordering the dissolution of the RSF, which he called a “rebellious group”. For his part, Hemedti called Burhan “a radical Islamist who is bombing civilians from the air”.
Military jets flew low over the capital through much of Monday as repeated bouts of firing and shelling continued there and in Omdurman, Khartoum’s sister city across the Nile. Witnesses have reported dozens of bodies in one central neighbourhood of the capital, and hundreds of students remain trapped in schools by the fighting.
Hospitals have been particularly affected, with essential supplies badly disrupted by the fighting. Hundreds of patients have been evacuated, while medical staff attempt to move others from intensive care or dialysis units to places of safety.
“We had to move them to the isolation centres along with 70 doctors and nurses, all have been trapped here with no oxygen for the chest patients and that’s really dangerous … The oxygen we have is from the time of the pandemic and it’s limited,” one nurse said.
Aid workers in remote parts of Sudan also reported tensions or violence. One based in on the eastern border with Ethiopia described the regular army overwhelming a small RSF contingent and seizing their base amid sporadic shooting. Officials also reported fighting in the east, including the provinces of Kassala and El Gadaref.
The conflict threatens to plunge one of Africa’s biggest and most strategically important countries into chaos. Analysts say only pressure from “heavyweight” intermediaries will have a chance of ending the fighting.
In a speech broadcast by Egyptian state television late on Monday, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi said he was in regular contact with the army and RSF to “encourage them to accept a ceasefire and spare the blood of the Sudanese people”.
The African Union’s top council has called for an immediate ceasefire without conditions, while other Arab states with stakes in Sudan – Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – made similar appeals.
Reuters contributed to this report
