Al-Jazeera correspondent said that an armed clash broke out in the center and south of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, between the army forces and the Rapid Support Forces, and similar clashes broke out in the city of Marawi in northern Sudan.
Al-Jazeera correspondent reported that violent clashes took place between the army and the Rapid Support Forces on the outskirts of the presidential palace, the army command, and the residence of Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the Sovereignty Council and commander-in-chief of the army, amid panic and mass flight of citizens from the city center and south.
The army closed the bridges and roads leading to the presidential palace in central Khartoum with heavy armored vehicles, and deployed artillery and armored vehicles in the city of Omdurman.
A source from the Sudanese army told Al Jazeera that the armed forces are dealing with an attempt to control the headquarters of the General Command by the Rapid Support Forces.
Eyewitnesses told Al-Jazeera that the clashes began south of Khartoum with the deployment of the Rapid Support Forces and the army around the sports city.
Witnesses told Reuters that heavy gunfire was heard in the vicinity of the Sudanese Army General Command and the Ministry of Defense headquarters in central Khartoum. Gunfire was also heard in the city of Bahri, Khartoum, in the vicinity of facilities of the Rapid Support Forces.
The Rapid Support Forces said in a statement that they were surprised by a large force of the armed forces entering their headquarters in the campgrounds in Soba in Khartoum, besieging the forces present there, and then attacking them with all kinds of heavy and light weapons.
The statement added that the Rapid Support Forces call upon the Sudanese people and international and regional public opinion to condemn this “cowardly behavior”, and called on the Sudanese people to unite at this critical historical moment.
The statement confirmed that the Rapid Support Command had contacted the Quartet mechanism and the mediation group and informed them of the details of the attack.
Hours before the outbreak of the clashes, Sudanese mediators announced at dawn today, Saturday, after their meeting with the head of the Transitional Sovereignty Council, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, that the crisis between the army and the Rapid Support Forces is on the way to a solution.
A tripartite committee of the leaders of the armed movements, consisting of a member of the Sovereignty Council, Malik Agar, the head of the Justice and Equality Movement, Jibril Ibrahim, and the head of the Sudan Liberation Movement, the ruler of Darfur, Moni Minawi, announced that it sensed in Al-Burhan a willingness to take any step that would help resolve the emergency problem between the armed forces and the Rapid Support Forces. Getting things back to normal.
The Sudanese Mediation Committee also said that the crisis is on its way to an end, and that the leaders of the two forces are aware of leading the country to a civil war in which the victor will inevitably lose, according to what was stated in the statement.
