Sudan crisis: Paramilitaries seize presidential palace

After days of tension between a notorious paramilitary force and the country’s Army, explosions and shooting rocked the Sudanese capital Khartoum on 15 April. Sudan paramilitaries say they have seized presidential palace, reported Reuters.

According to various reports, the blasts and gunfire took place in the vicinity of Sudan’s Army headquarters, the defence ministry, and the airport in the national capital.

Details say that paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and army are in disagreement over how RSF should be integrated into the military.

Human Rights Watch in 2021 had said that Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has acted without lawful authority, arbitrarily detained dozens of civilians, including political activists, in the capital, Khartoum during 2020.

It had appealed the authorities to take urgent steps to ensure that the RSF stops acting outside the law.

Not only this, RSF – primarily composed of, the Janjaweed militias – while fighting on behalf of the Sudanese government during the War in Darfur in 2014-15 have been accused of ‘repeatedly attacked villages, burned and looted homes, beating, raping and executing villagers’.

Here’s what we know so far:

1) RSF claims to have taken control of presidential palace and Khartoum international airport, reported Reuters, adding, that they have also taken control over the Merowe military base in the north of the country.

2) Blasts and gunfire were reported in Sudanese capital Khartoum after Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) clashed.

3) The rift between Army and RSF came to the surface on 13 April after army said movements by RSF had happened without coordination and were illegal, reported Al Jazeera.

4) RSF is under the command of the council’s vice-president Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, while the Army is led by Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who is the head of the Sovereign Council.

5) Both the generals have been running the country, through what is called the Sovereign Council, since a coup in October 2021, reported BBC.

6) Meanwhile, Indians in Sudan have been asked to take shelter by the country’s mission after the explosions and gunfire in Khartoum.