MEMRI Vice President Ambassador Alberto Fernandez said in a May 2, 2023 interview with Alsyaaq (UAE) that the U.S. is partly responsible for the current armed clashes in Sudan because it failed to take measures against the two warring generals after the military coup in 2021. He said that the U.S. is leaning in favor of the Sudanese military in this conflict because it prefers “established institutions” and because the opposing Rapid Support Forces may be aligned with Russia and Wagner PMC. In addition, he warned that an Islamist regime may rise to power, particularly because the army is connected to Islamists who have been exiled to Turkey. Ambassador Fernandez served as charge d’affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, between 2007 and 2009. The interview was published on Alsyaaq’s YouTube channel.
After three weeks of fighting, envoys of Sudan’s rival generals traveled to Saudi Arabia for “pre-negotiation talks” on Saturday. Meanwhile, aid shipments have started arriving. DW has the latest.
Representatives from the warring Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary were in the Saudi port city of Jeddah on Saturday, with the two expected to start direct talks on securing an actual cease-fire.
ISIS has acknowledged the weakness of its terrorist activity Libya in 2022 after it had published the results of its criminal operations in the world, nearly half of which took place in Africa.
An Egyptian diplomat, who asked not to be named, revealed to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that a high-ranking Egyptian security delegation visited eastern Libya in the past few days and met with Khalifa Haftar to convey a warning message from officials in Cairo regarding his involvement in supporting the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in light of the close relationship Haftar has with Hemedti.
Al-Kufra municipality and the city’s emergency room have denounced linking the city and its Subul Al-Salam Brigade in the conflict in Sudan by certain media, denying the presence of any mercenaries in the city.
L’Etat-major général des Armées maliennes a mis en garde contre le « port irrégulier » d’uniformes de l’armée, après avoir constaté que les nombreux combattants neutralisés lors de l’attaque complexe déjouée contre l’aéroport de Sévaré (centre du Mali), le samedi 22 avril, portaient des uniformes militaires.
L’Allemagne va procéder d’ici mai 2024 au retrait de ses troupes engagées engagés dans la mission de casques bleus Minusma (Mission Multidimensionnelle Intégrée des Nations Unies pour la Stabilisation au Mali).
International partners are scrambling to limit the humanitarian disaster created by the fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan that erupted on April 15 while the last steps of discussions leading to a civilian and democratic transition were expected. Now, it is not enough to simply call for a ceasefire and a return to negotiations because those outcomes could reestablish the fraught balance of power between the SAF and RSF that stymied the eighteen-month-long negotiations for a return to a civilian government—the type of government that most people in Sudan are demanding.
Burkina Faso’s interim President Ibrahim Traore on Thursday said Russia had become a key strategic ally but denied that Russian mercenaries were supporting Burkinabe forces in their fight against Islamist armed groups.
The West African country’s relations with Moscow are in the spotlight after it booted out French troops in February and ended an accord that allowed France to fight insurgents there amid a rise in anti-French sentiment in parts of the region.
In a rare televised interview, Traore was asked who Burkina Faso’s international allies were now in the conflict that has killed thousands and displaced around 2.5 million in the broader Sahel region over the past decade.
“The departure of the French army does not mean that France is not an ally,” Traore replied. “But we have strategic allies too. We have new forms of cooperation. Russia, for example, is a strategic ally.”
He said Russia was a major supplier of military equipment and would remain so, without giving further details.
“I am satisfied with the cooperation with Russia. It’s frank,” he said, sitting on an ornate chair in military fatigues and a beret.
Western countries are concerned about Russia’s widening sway in Africa’s Sahel and its border regions. France withdrew its forces from Mali last year after the junta there started working with Russian military contractor Wagner Group to fight the insurgents liked to al Qaeda and Islamic State.
Traore was asked to comment on reports Wagner forces are also on the ground in Burkina Faso.
“Our army fights alone,” he said. “Wagner’s presence was invented to harm Burkina, so countries would not cooperate with us.”
The instability in Burkina Faso triggered two coups last year by the military, which has vowed to retake control of the country but has so far failed to stop attacks.
Unrest in the region began in neighbouring Mali in 2012, when Islamists hijacked a Tuareg separatist uprising. The violence has since spread into Burkina Faso and Niger and threatens to destabilise coastal countries further afield.
People who sought route to Europe before fighting erupted in Khartoum speak of police brutality, torture and homelessness
Ever since fighting erupted in his home town of Nyala, the state capital of South Darfur in Sudan, in mid-April, Khaled’s mobile phone has not stopped ringing. Family members, friends and acquaintances want to know how to reach north Africa and which country is best for departing for Europe.
