WAD MADANI, Sudan: Sudan’s army chief was headed to Turkiye Wednesday on his fifth foreign visit since late August as he vies for legitimacy in a devastating power struggle with his former deputy.
General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, who has been de facto head of state since he led a 2021 coup, will hold talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on “bilateral relations and ways to strengthen them,” said the Sudanese leader’s office.
Until late last month, Burhan had been holed up under siege in army headquarters in Khartoum ever since fighting erupted on April 15 between his loyalists and fighters of the paramilitary Rapid Military Support Forces (RSF) led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
From his new base in the Red Sea coastal city of Port Sudan, he has since visited Egypt, South Sudan, Qatar and Eritrea in what analysts say is a diplomatic push to burnish his credentials in the event of negotiations to end the conflict.
The fighting, which has already killed nearly 7,500 people, according to a conservative estimate from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, showed no sign of any letup Wednesday, particularly in the key battlegrounds of Khartoum and the Darfur region.
“Air strikes which hit two markets in (South Darfur state capital) Nyala caused civilian casualties,” a witness said by telephone.
Burhan’s regular army is the only party to the conflict with an air force.
On Tuesday, shelling by RSF fighters killed at least 17 civilians in North Khartoum, across the Blue Nile from the capital, witnesses said.
The war has uprooted more than five million people, including one million who fled across borders, according to United Nations figures.
Sudan army chief headed to Turkiye on latest trip abroad
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Sudan army chief headed to Turkiye on latest trip abroad
- General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan has been de facto head of state since he led a 2021 coup
- Fighting erupted on April 15 between his loyalists and fighters of the paramilitary forces
Syrian authorities arrest leader of terrorist cells in Lattakia
- Ali Aziz Sbeira is accused of violating civilians’ rights during the Syrian uprising after 2011
LONDON: Syrian authorities have arrested Ali Aziz Sbeira, a prominent leader of terrorist cells responsible for attacks on internal security checkpoints, the Syrian army and civilians during the country’s uprising against the former regime of Bashar Assad.
The Internal Security Directorate announced on Wednesday the capture of Sbeira in Lattakia province, located on the Mediterranean Sea.
Authorities accuse him of leading and supplying arms to terrorist groups. Hailing from the town of Jableh, Sbeira is also accused of having links to Ghiyath Dalla and Brigadier General Nours Makhlouf, two military figures associated with the former rule of Assad.
Sbeira is accused of violating civilians’ rights during the Syrian uprising after 2011, when he joined the National Defense Militia and helped suppress peaceful demonstrations, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency.
In 2014, he joined the 4th Armoured Division, which was commanded by Maher Assad, brother of the former president, from 2018 until the collapse of the Assad regime in December 2024.
