Latest news with #SudaneseArmy
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Sudan PM vows to rebuild Khartoum on first visit to war-torn capital
Sudan's Prime Minister Kamil Idris on Saturday pledged to rebuild Khartoum on his first visit to the capital, ravaged by more than two years of war, since assuming office in May. Touring the city's destroyed airport, bridges and water stations, the new premier outlined mass repair projects in anticipation of the return of at least some of the millions who have fled the violence. "Khartoum will return as a proud national capital," Idris said, according to Sudan's state news agency. The war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces began in the heart of the capital in April 2023, quickly tearing the city apart. Tens of thousands are estimated to have been killed in the once-bustling capital which 3.5 million people have fled, according to the United Nations. According to Khartoum state's media office, Idris on Saturday visited the army headquarters and the city's airport, two national symbols whose recapture along with the presidential palace earlier this year cemented the army's victory in the capital. But reconstruction is expected to be a herculean feat, with the government putting the cost at $700 billion nationwide, around half of which in Khartoum alone. The army-aligned government, which moved to Port Sudan on the Red Sea early in the war and still operates from there, has begun to plan the return of ministries to Khartoum even as fighting rages on in other parts of the country. Authorities have begun operations in the capital to properly bury corpses, clear thousands of unexploded ordnances and resume bureaucratic services. On a visit to Sudan's largest oil refinery, the Al-Jaili plant just north of Khartoum, Idris promised that "national institutions will come back even better than they were before". The refinery -- now a blackened husk -- was recaptured in January, but the facility which once processed 100,000 barrels a day will take years and at least $1.3 billion to rebuild, officials told AFP. - Cabinet stumbles - The UN expects some two million people will return to Khartoum this year, but those coming back have found an unrecognisable city. The scale of looting is unprecedented, aid workers say, with evidence of paramilitary fighters ripping copper wire out of power lines before they left. Vast areas of the city remain without power, and the damage to water infrastructure has caused a devastating cholera outbreak. Health authorities recorded up to 1,500 cases a day last month, according to the UN. "Water is the primary concern and obstacle delaying the return of citizens to their homes," Idris said on Saturday. A career diplomat and former UN official, Idris was appointed in May by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan's de facto leader, to form an administration dubbed a "government of hope". But the cabinet has faced repeated hurdles and warnings from critics that it could put up a veneer of civilian rule despite its affiliation with the army and the participation of militant leaders. In 2020, during a short-lived transition to civilian rule, the government in Khartoum signed a peace agreement with Sudanese armed groups, allocating a share of cabinet posts to signatories. All but three cabinet posts are now filled, and armed groups currently fighting alongside the army have retained their representation in Idris's government. But reports that Idris has sought to appoint technocrats to replace members aligned with armed groups have created tensions. Some of the armed groups, known together as the Joint Forces, have been integral in defending North Darfur state capital El-Fasher, which has been besieged by the paramilitary RSF since May of last year. If the RSF succeeds in taking El-Fasher, it will control all of the vast western region of Darfur, cementing the fragmentation of the country. Despite the army securing the capital, as well as the country's north and east, war still rages in Sudan's west and south, where the RSF is accused of killing hundreds of civilians in recent days. Sudan is suffering the world's largest hunger and displacement crises, with nearly 25 million people in dire food insecurity and over 10 million internally displaced across the country. A further four million people have fled across borders. bur-bha/ami
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Sudan PM vows to rebuild Khartoum on first visit to war-torn capital
Sudan's Prime Minister Kamil Idris on Saturday pledged to rebuild Khartoum on his first visit to the capital, ravaged by more than two years of war, since assuming office in May. Touring the city's destroyed airport, bridges and water stations, the new premier outlined mass repair projects in anticipation of the return of at least some of the millions who have fled the violence. "Khartoum will return as a proud national capital," Idris said, according to Sudan's state news agency. The war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces began in the heart of the capital in April 2023, quickly tearing the city apart. Tens of thousands are estimated to have been killed in the once-bustling capital which 3.5 million people have fled, according to the United Nations. According to Khartoum state's media office, Idris on Saturday visited the army headquarters and the city's airport, two national symbols whose recapture along with the presidential palace earlier this year cemented the army's victory in the capital. But reconstruction is expected to be a herculean feat, with the government putting the cost at $700 billion nationwide, around half of which in Khartoum alone. The army-aligned government, which moved to Port Sudan on the Red Sea early in the war and still operates from there, has begun to plan the return of ministries to Khartoum even as fighting rages on in other parts of the country. Authorities have begun operations in the capital to properly bury corpses, clear thousands of unexploded ordnances and resume bureaucratic services. On a visit to Sudan's largest oil refinery, the Al-Jaili plant just north of Khartoum, Idris promised that "national institutions will come back even better than they were before". The refinery -- now a blackened husk -- was recaptured in January, but the facility which once processed 100,000 barrels a day will take years and at least $1.3 billion to rebuild, officials told AFP. Idris is a career diplomat and former UN official who was appointed in May by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan's de facto leader, to form an administration dubbed a "government of hope". The war has created the world's largest hunger and displacement crises, with nearly 25 million people suffering dire food insecurity and over 10 million internally displaced across the country. A further four million people have fled across borders. In Sudan's southern Kordofan and western Darfur regions, the fighting shows no signs of abating, with the paramilitaries accused of killing hundreds in recent days in attempts to capture territory. bur-bha/ami
France 24
3 days ago
- Business
- France 24
Sudan PM vows to rebuild Khartoum on first visit to war-torn capital
Touring the city's destroyed airport, bridges and water stations, the new premier outlined mass repair projects in anticipation of the return of at least some of the millions who have fled the violence. "Khartoum will return as a proud national capital," Idris said, according to Sudan's state news agency. The war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces began in the heart of the capital in April 2023, quickly tearing the city apart. Tens of thousands are estimated to have been killed in the once-bustling capital which 3.5 million people have fled, according to the United Nations. According to Khartoum state's media office, Idris on Saturday visited the army headquarters and the city's airport, two national symbols whose recapture along with the presidential palace earlier this year cemented the army's victory in the capital. But reconstruction is expected to be a herculean feat, with the government putting the cost at $700 billion nationwide, around half of which in Khartoum alone. The army-aligned government, which moved to Port Sudan on the Red Sea early in the war and still operates from there, has begun to plan the return of ministries to Khartoum even as fighting rages on in other parts of the country. Authorities have begun operations in the capital to properly bury corpses, clear thousands of unexploded ordnances and resume bureaucratic services. On a visit to Sudan's largest oil refinery, the Al-Jaili plant just north of Khartoum, Idris promised that "national institutions will come back even better than they were before". The refinery -- now a blackened husk -- was recaptured in January, but the facility which once processed 100,000 barrels a day will take years and at least $1.3 billion to rebuild, officials told AFP. Idris is a career diplomat and former UN official who was appointed in May by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan's de facto leader, to form an administration dubbed a "government of hope". The war has created the world's largest hunger and displacement crises, with nearly 25 million people suffering dire food insecurity and over 10 million internally displaced across the country. A further four million people have fled across borders. In Sudan's southern Kordofan and western Darfur regions, the fighting shows no signs of abating, with the paramilitaries accused of killing hundreds in recent days in attempts to capture territory.
Arab News
3 days ago
- Business
- Arab News
Sudan PM vows to rebuild Khartoum on first visit to war-torn capital
KHARTOUM: Sudan's Prime Minister Kamil Idris on Saturday pledged to rebuild Khartoum on his first visit to the capital, ravaged by more than two years of war, since assuming office in May. Touring the city's destroyed airport, bridges and water stations, the new premier outlined mass repair projects in anticipation of the return of at least some of the millions who have fled the violence. 'Khartoum will return as a proud national capital,' Idris said, according to Sudan's state news agency. The war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces began in the heart of the capital in April 2023, quickly tearing the city apart. Tens of thousands are estimated to have been killed in the once-bustling capital which 3.5 million people have fled, according to the United Nations. According to Khartoum state's media office, Idris on Saturday visited the army headquarters and the city's airport, two national symbols whose recapture along with the presidential palace earlier this year cemented the army's victory in the capital. But reconstruction is expected to be a herculean feat, with the government putting the cost at $700 billion nationwide, around half of which in Khartoum alone. The army-aligned government, which moved to Port Sudan on the Red Sea early in the war and still operates from there, has begun to plan the return of ministries to Khartoum even as fighting rages on in other parts of the country. Authorities have begun operations in the capital to properly bury corpses, clear thousands of unexploded ordnances and resume bureaucratic services. On a visit to Sudan's largest oil refinery, the Al-Jaili plant just north of Khartoum, Idris promised that 'national institutions will come back even better than they were before.' The refinery — now a blackened husk — was recaptured in January, but the facility which once processed 100,000 barrels a day will take years and at least $1.3 billion to rebuild, officials told AFP. Idris is a career diplomat and former UN official who was appointed in May by army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, Sudan's de facto leader, to form an administration dubbed a 'government of hope.' The war has created the world's largest hunger and displacement crises, with nearly 25 million people suffering dire food insecurity and over 10 million internally displaced across the country. A further four million people have fled across borders. In Sudan's southern Kordofan and western Darfur regions, the fighting shows no signs of abating, with the paramilitaries accused of killing hundreds in recent days in attempts to capture territory.
Memri
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Memri
Beware Sudan's Islamist Army Generals
It was the English writer Oscar Wilde who said that second marriages were like the "triumph of hope over experience." That we hope things work out better "the second time" could apply to the terrible civil war raging in Sudan and the role of the Sudanese Army (SAF), led by General (and interim Head of State) Abdel Fatah Al-Burhan. In 1989, the Sudanese Army overthrew a civilian government and imposed harsh Islamic rule. What was supposedly a regime run by a clever Islamist civilian, Dr. Hassan Al-Turabi, eventually became a regime run by SAF generals, led by General Omar Al-Bashir, committed to Islamist ideology. The Al-Bashir regime which ruled the country for almost 30 years until 2019 oversaw not one but two genocides – one in South Sudan and the other in Darfur – and promoted terrorism both regionally and internationally. Of course, Sudan harbored Osama bin Laden and what became Al-Qaeda in the early days. In those years in Sudan – 1992-1997 – Bin Laden had already forged an agreement with the terrorists of Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) which became a key part of Al-Qaeda and provided bin Laden with his second in command, Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri. Even today, Al-Qaeda's leadership sheltering in Iran is led by an Egyptian, Saif Al-Adel. It is while in Sudan and protected by SAF General and President Al-Bashir, or shortly thereafter, that Al-Qaeda tried to assassinate Egyptian President Mubarak in Addis Ababa in 1995 and bombed the American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. The SAF-ruled regime in Sudan continued support for terrorism long after bin Laden departed and Hassan Al-Turabi was purged. The Khartoum regime later played a key role in supporting the so-called Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) terrorist group in Uganda.[1] Sudan served as a key smuggling partner for Iran in supplying missiles to Hamas in Gaza, a fact that would lead to Israeli airstrikes in Sudan in 2009, 2011, and 2012.[2] The Al-Bashir regime was overthrown in 2019, in the face of massive public demonstrations, by his own generals. Al-Burhan quickly moved to consolidate power and in 2021 overthrew a fragile interim civilian government under technocrat Dr. Abdullah Hamdok. In 2023, SAF and their longtime military allies-turned-rivals in the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began fighting among themselves, plunging the country into a brutal civil war that still continues.[3] Like Al-Bashir in the early days of his rule, Al-Burhan is supposed to shine in comparison with others, supposedly being "the moderate" compared to the many extremists in his camp. In addition to Islamist senior army officers, a key part of the SAF formations fighting the RSF are now units made up of and led by Islamists.[4] Among them are the former Darfur rebels of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) led by Dr. Jibril Ibrahim, currently Sudan's minister of finance. JEM used to be adversaries of the Sudanese Army – now they are allies. Ibrahim played a key role in the egging on of the overthrow of the interim civilian government (of which he was a part) in 2021. Not surprisingly, he kept the finance minister job after the military coup. Also fighting alongside SAF are Islamist formations, such as the Al-Bara Bin Malik Brigade, the military wing of the Islamist Movement in Sudan and the Bunyan Al-Marsous Brigade.[5] According to the Lebanese research site Daraj, there are also thousands of other Islamists, including former members of the Al-Bashir regime's state security – NISS – that have flooded into the ranks of other SAF units.[6] At the beginning of the war, SAF was outnumbered by the RSF and the army has been able to at least partially remedy the situation by taking in as many of these extremist factions as they can, either individually or collectively.[7] Of course, most of the senior leadership of SAF as it existed in 2019 or 2021 or today is essentially the same force that Al-Bashir created through the years, purging secular or disloyal officers. Multiple reports say that Al-Burhan is empowering the Islamists rather than try to limit their sway.[8] Given that the war continues to rage and that propaganda is a key part of the battle, one would think that SAF would be on its best behavior, wanting to reassure the Sudanese people and the international community that it is very different from the army that ruled and brutalized Sudan from 1989 to 2019. But that is not the case. Not only has SAF been creditably accused (as has RSF) of numerous war crimes, it has also protected former senior officials of the Al-Bashir regime, including the former dictator himself. SAF has also behaved brutally against many Sudanese civilians after "liberating" them from RSF. And, as the Al-Bashir regime did more than a decade ago, SAF has forged ties with Iran, their old partner, in supplying them arms (including Iranian drones) for the SAF war machine.[9] Al-Burhan himself – the statesman, the "moderate" – has shown himself to be an intolerant and aggressive figure but surprisingly pliable and amenable to extremist penetration of the military and the bureaucracy.[10] While there are rumors of Islamist dissatisfaction with Al-Burhan, others say that he is either too weak to stop Islamist influence within SAF or that he agrees with the Islamist trend.[11] The concern is not that he is forced to deal with Islamists because of circumstances, but that he is in lockstep with them and intends to rule with them. An early July Cairo 2025 meeting between Al-Burhan and Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar, arranged by Egypt, seems to have gone disastrously wrong, with a fiery Al-Burhan making an already tense situation worse. Reportedly Egypt's President Al-Sisi, who sought to mediate and improve relations between Libya and Sudan, was not pleased.[12] If Al-Burhan is like this now, when he has not won the war yet, how will he be if he triumphs? *Yigal Carmon is President of MEMRI.
