Sudan’s Burhan heads to Uganda as battles rage in Khartoum

Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan is due to meet Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in Kampala, with whom he would discuss ties. (File/AFP)
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Updated 17 September 2023
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Sudan’s Burhan heads to Uganda as battles rage in Khartoum

  • Clashes around Khartoum’s military headquarters had seen two-week respite before flaring again

PORT SUDAN: Sudan’s de facto leader Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan left Saturday for a visit to Uganda, the ruling Sovereign Council said, in his latest trip abroad as battles raged in Khartoum.
The African country has been at war since fighting erupted in the capital between the regular army led by Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commanded by his deputy-turned-rival Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
Clashes around Khartoum’s military headquarters — where Burhan had been holed up until last month — had seen a brief two-week respite before flaring again, with the RSF showering it with artillery fire, residents said.
Burhan is due to meet Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in Kampala, with whom he would discuss “bilateral ties and issues of common importance,” the Sovereign Council said in a statement.

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It is the Sudanese general’s sixth trip abroad since he made his first public forays late last month, including visits to Egypt, South Sudan and Turkiye, among other countries.
At least 7,500 people have been killed since the conflict broke out on April 15, according to a conservative estimate from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.
The war has uprooted more than five million people, including one million who fled across borders, according to United Nations figures.
Eyewitnesses on the ground told AFP they heard clashes in central Khartoum, with one resident saying the RSF “is firing heavy artillery” at the army headquarters.
Neither side has been able to gain the upper hand in the conflict, with the army controlling the skies and Daglo’s fighters embedding themselves in residential areas.
Witnesses have noted an increase in the intensity of air strikes, and consequently the civilian death toll, as the army seeks to regain control of parts of the capital.
Burhan has been Sudan’s de facto leader since the ouster of longtime autocrat Omar Al-Bashir in 2019, when he was appointed head of the Sovereign Council of military and civilian figures tasked with steering the transition to a fully-fledged democracy.


Iran’s foreign minister heads to Muscat for nuclear talks with US

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi. (File/AFP)
Updated 06 February 2026
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Iran’s foreign minister heads to Muscat for nuclear talks with US

  • Iran will engage in ‌the talks “with authority ‍and with ‍the aim of reaching a fair, ‍mutually acceptable and dignified understanding on the nuclear issue,” a spokesperson said

TEHRAN: Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has departed for the Omani capital ​Muscat at the head of a diplomatic delegation for nuclear talks with the US due to be held on Friday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson said.
The US and Iran ‌have agreed ‌to hold ‌talks ⁠in ​Oman ‌on Friday, officials for both sides said, even as they remain at odds over Washington’s insistence that negotiations must include Tehran’s missile arsenal and Iran’s vow to discuss ⁠only its nuclear program.
Iran will engage in ‌the talks “with authority ‍and with ‍the aim of reaching a fair, ‍mutually acceptable and dignified understanding on the nuclear issue,” the spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said on Thursday.
“We hope the ​American side will also participate in this process with responsibility, ⁠realism and seriousness,” Baghaei added.