Sudan army chief evacuated after deadly drone strike on base

PORT SUDAN, Sudan: Sudan army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, whose forces are battling paramilitaries, was evacuated after a drone attacked a military base he was visiting in the country’s east on Wednesday, witnesses told AFP.

The army said five people were killed in a drone attack on a ceremony at the Gibet base, about 100 kilometres (62 miles) from Port Sudan, where the army-aligned government has fled since fighting gripped the capital Khartoum.

War broke out in April last year between Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by general Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, killing tens of thousands and triggering a major humanitarian crisis.

Burhan could be seen during a live broadcast of the event on Sudanese television, before it was interrupted for about 15 minutes.According to witnesses AFP spoke to over the phone, Burhan managed to leave after the attack, which has not been claimed by the RSF. It was the first attack on a military base in the Red Sea state, where the army, government and the United Nations have all relocated their headquarters.

At the end of June, the paramilitaries announced they had taken control of a base in the capital of Sennar state, in the country’s southeast. The RSF now controls most of the capital Khartoum, the central Al-Jazira state, most of the vast western Darfur region, as well as large parts of Kordofan in the south. Paramilitaries are besieging El-Fasher—the capital of North Darfur state and the largest city in the region not yet under the control of the RSF—cutting off food and water to hundreds of thousands of civilians. Sixty-five people, mostly children, have been killed there between Saturday and Monday during RSF bombardment, according to a statement from local activist committees. The war has forced more than 11 million people to flee their homes to other parts of the country or abroad, devastated infrastructure and pushed Sudan to the brink of famine. Both sides have been accused of war crimes for deliberately targeting civilians and blocking humanitarian aid.