War in Sudan: Army regains territory around Khartoum

this is what the streets of umur man suburb of wuwi now look like the aftermath of battles between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary rapid support forces or rsf homes and shops all riddled with bullet and artillery holes all destroyed since the rsf entered the district nearly 5 months ago until recently W nuwi was a battlefield between the Sudanese Army and the rapid support forces here in umur man nearly all of its residents have been displaced as a result the Sudanese Army Now controls it and is pushing to regain more grounds from the fighters but the district that was once vibrant now carries the scars of the conflict and the sound of artillery and gunfire a warning that the front line is not far from where we are ALS sadik Sheri and his family are the only civilians still remaining in this part of the district he shows us what's become of his house house which he says was occupied by the rsf while he and his family were in it he says the group terrorized them while they were there and continue to fire artillery at his house after they've left it was not easy but with time I family has adapted to the fact that we have no way to escape we are in a very critical situation without any resources we stayed and we tried to adapt ourselves to hearing the is everyone of my family I'm sure that has lost at least between 10 to 15 kgam of his own weight we're eating one foot the whole day and one meal a day the Army's recent gains comes after months of fighting omdurman is a major Supply route for the rsf even after a bridge connecting it to the northern part of the capital Kum was destroyed the rsf has been firing artillery to try to stop the Army but civilians have also been killed as a result of what local committees describe as indiscriminate shelling as the fighting continues so does the destruction and the loss of Civilian lives hia Morgan Al jazer umman Alex dwall is the executive director for the world peace Foundation at tus University he joins me now uh from Boston in the United States thanks very much for being with us so um we just we got an idea there of just how dire the situation has become uh in Sudan the number of people killed the number of people displaced and so on and the toll that it has taken on civilians there so I guess my question is what is it going to take to get these two forces to the table and and bring this conflict to an end well so far the the efforts that have been made by the International Community by the United States by Saudi Arabia by Egypt by East African countries have signally failed neither side has really shown any interest in serious peace negotiations on the side of the government when General ban the head of the sedan Armed Forces makes a move towards any sort of concession he is usually then immediately undermined by some of his um left tenants who are islamist veterans from the former regime and when uh General HTI head of the rsf makes a some sort of rhetorical public statement in favor of peace that is contradicted by the the atrocious behavior of his fighters on the ground let let's try to St take a step back then to to to hopefully understand this better but what what do you think gave rise to this conflict and how does that help us um get get to where we are now well potentially at root it is a power struggle between these these two men and their and their respective factions now as the war has gone on the external backing has become extremely important so so Egypt backs bur burhan but more significantly the United Arab Emirates is very heavily invested in in supporting General HTI and what the the peace efforts thus far have failed to do is to bring those external power backers especially the UAE to the table in some way and until that happens the the the war unfortunately is is very unlikely um to be resolved and and and the this terrible humanitarian toll the destruction of Sudan will just continue a pace so what do you think outside parties outside actors I mean you mentioned the the United Arab R there what what what can they do to try and bring this conflict to an end or what have they not done to this point well I think the the the key step needs to be taken actually by the United States whose um ostensible allies are the power Brokers behind the scenes now if the road to any serious negotiations in Sudan runs through Cairo Riyad and Abu Dhabi then the United States and it need to to bring um heavyweight political actors such as the president or the National Security advisor to bear on this these are the voices that will be listened to in these these capitals it's not good enough for us ambassadors to African countries to be running around they simply don't don't have the the weight and this is the problem that is also faced by the East African leaders such as the Kenyan President William Ruto who has been the most energetic and committed he needs um very serious backing from from Western Powers if he is to get the the um the Arab countries in line with his peace plans good to talk to you Alex the wild thanks very much for being with us you're very welcome

Channel: Al Jazeera English

Views: 37,562

Keywords: Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English, Khartoum, Khartoum fighting, Omdurman, Omdurman fighting, Sudan, Sudan clashes, Sudan fighting, Sudan rapid support forces, Sudan unrest, Sudanese Army, al Jazeera, al jazeera English, al jazeera live, al jazeera video, aljazeera English, aljazeera latest, aljazeera live, aljazeera live news, sudan latest news, sudan military rivals, sudan war

Id: firLco-Z_aE

Length: 6min 17sec (377 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 15 2024