Situation in Sudan ‘catastrophic’: Sudanese official

KHARTOUM, Sudan

The deputy leader of Sudan’s ruling Transitional Sovereignty Council has termed the situation in the country as “catastrophic”.

Sudan has been ravaged by clashes between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group since mid-April. Nearly 1,000 civilians have been killed and thousands injured in the violence, according to local medics.

“The situation in Sudan now is catastrophic,” Malik Agar said during a discussion session at the Cairo-based Egyptian Center for Strategic Studies on Saturday.

“There is total destruction in Khartoum and the RSF are occupying residential neighborhoods,” he added.

Agar warned that Sudan’s collapse “means a complete collapse of the Horn of Africa.”

“The war must end with the army’s victory. The war must end with the support of the army but on condition that Sudan has only one army to defend it,” he added.

The Sudanese official accused the RSF of taking civilians as human shields. “They are treating the country as if it were a private property,” he added.

“We are confident that the army will win this war,” Agar stressed.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that more than 2.2 million people have been displaced by the current conflict in Sudan.

Disagreement had been fomenting in recent months between the army and the RSF over integration of the paramilitary group into the armed forces — a key condition of Sudan's transition agreement with political groups.

Sudan has been without a functioning government since fall 2021, when the military dismissed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok's transitional government and declared a state of emergency, in a move decried by political forces as a "coup."

The transitional period, which started in August 2019 after the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir, had been scheduled to end with elections in early 2024.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi