Sudan paramilitary chief admits setbacks, vows to expel army from Khartoum
PORT SUDAN: Sudan's paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, in a rare video address on Friday, acknowledged setbacks in the capital Khartoum but vowed to expel the army from the city again.
The war since April 2023 between Dagalo's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the army has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted more than 12 million, according to the United Nations, and pushed millions to the brink of famine.
After months of apparent stalemate in Khartoum, the army one week ago broke an almost two-year RSF siege of its Khartoum General Command headquarters. On the same day, the army reported reclaiming its Signal Corps base in Khartoum North, and expelling the RSF from Jaili oil refinery north of Khartoum.
In his address on Friday, Dagalo — commonly known as Hemeti — acknowledged setbacks in the capital but urged his troops 'not to think of the army entering the General Command or the Signal Corps... or taking control of Al-Jaili or Wad Madani.'
Two weeks before its gains in Khartoum the army reclaimed the Al-Jazira state capital Wad Madani, securing a key crossroads just south of the capital.
The RSF last week said army statements claiming they had broken the sieges and seized Jaili refinery were rumors intended to sway public opinion.
But on Friday, Dagalo promised his fighters that the army 'will not enjoy the General Command for long, nor will they enjoy the Signal Corps.'
'We must think of what we intend to take,' he added.
Appearing behind a desk in military fatigues, with a camouflage scarf wrapped around his neck, the RSF leader said 'we expelled them (from Khartoum), and we will expel them again.'
Dagalo has remained out of sight for most of the war, with his rare addresses usually delivered via voice message on social media.
His troops early in the war conquered much of Khartoum and pushed south. They still control almost all of Sudan's vast western Darfur region.
Army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan — Dagalo's former ally before they fell out in a power struggle — on Sunday visited his troops at the General Command, which is near central Khartoum and the airport.
His push into RSF-controlled Khartoum North, also known as Bahri, enabled the army's biggest victory since it regained Omdurman, the third district of the capital, around a year ago.
According to an army source, who was not authorized to speak to the media, fighting continued Friday for the Kafouri neighborhood in eastern Bahri.
This month, the United States sanctioned both Hemeti and Burhan, accusing the former of genocide and the latter of attacking schools, markets and hospitals, as well as using food deprivation as a weapon of war.
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