Sudan’s RSF to move Egyptian troops to Khartoum
The RSF says in a statement that Egyptian troops will be transferred to Cairo “as soon as the situation allows.”
Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) will move Egyptian troops that were at Merowe airport when fighting broke out to the capital Khartoum, the group said.
The RSF said in a statement that Egyptian troops will be transferred to Cairo “as soon as the situation allows”.
After clashes broke out between Sudan’s forces and the rival RSF on Saturday, the RSF shared a video it said showed Egyptian troops “surrendering” to them in the northern city of Merowe, about halfway between Khartoum and the border with Egypt.
The video showed a group of men dressed in army uniforms crouching on the ground and speaking to members of the RSF in an Egyptian Arabic dialect.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Monday that Egyptian troops detained in Sudan were only there to conduct exercises with their Sudanese counterparts and not to support any of the warring factions.
Fighting between the army and the RSF raged for a fifth day on Wednesday, with airstrikes and shelling shaking the capital following the failure of a United States-brokered ceasefire. The warring parties accuse each other of violating the ceasefire.
Later on Wednesday, the RSF said it had committed to a 24-hour ceasefire from 6pm (4pm GMT).
“We reaffirm our full commitment to a full ceasefire and we hope that the other side will adhere to the ceasefire as per the time announced,” the RSF added in a statement.
It was not immediately clear whether the military would announce its own commitment to the ceasefire.
Violence broke out in Sudan on Saturday between the forces of two generals who seized power in a 2021 coup: army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, better known by his nickname Hemedti, who commands the RSF .
It followed a bitter dispute between them over the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army – a key condition for a final agreement to restore Sudan’s transition to democracy.
The fighting has killed at least 270 people and injured more than 12,600, World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Tuesday.
Widespread power and water outages have caused many hospitals to be shut down and thousands have begun to leave their homes in the capital.
Egyptian troops held out
In a speech broadcast by Egyptian state television after Abdel Fattah el-Sisi chaired a meeting of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces on Monday, the president said he is in contact with the RSF to ensure the safety of Egyptian soldiers in Sudan.
“We hope to get our troops back as soon as possible,” el-Sisi said.
El-Sisi also said Egypt was in regular contact with the Sudanese military and the RSF to “encourage them to accept a ceasefire and spare the blood of the Sudanese people”.