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Tensions between dueling factions within Sudan’s military leadership erupted in violence across Khartoum on Saturday.
One of those factions, a powerful paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces, claimed to have captured both the presidential palace and the international airport. Those claims, however, have not been independently confirmed as fighting continues.
Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who leads the Sudanese Army, and Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the leader of the Rapid Support Forces, have been jockeying for control since the two seized power in 2021.
Both al-Burhan and Dagalo have ties to Russia, a CNN investigation found last year. The two generals helped Russian President Vladimir Putin exploit Sudan’s gold resources to help buttress Russian finances against Western sanctions and fund his war in Ukraine. Dagalo also received Russian military training.
CNN spoke with both Sudanese and US officials and reviewed documents that showed multiple attempts to smuggle gold out of Sudan — and into Russia — around the same time Putin invaded Ukraine. The investigation also showed how Dagalo and al-Burhan colluded with Russia in the operation, which deprived Sudan — one of the poorest countries in the world despite being one of the world’s largest gold producers — of the valuable resource.
In return for their cooperation, Russia provided military and political backing to help the two generals stymie Sudan’s pro-democracy movement, CNN found.
Russia’s infamous Wagner Group, a Kremlin-backed mercenary group that rose to international fame during the Ukraine War, earlier obtained valuable gold mining concessions in Sudan and partnered with Dagalo, according to The New York Times.
Despite their alliance early on, al-Burhan and Dagalo eventually clashed over efforts to merge the Rapid Response Forces — a group of some 100,000 soldiers — into the Sudan army, and who would then lead this new military, the BBC reported.
That disagreement turned to open warfare on Saturday. At least three people have been killed and dozens more injured so far, according to Sudanese doctors.
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