Sudan: arrival of the army chief in Port Sudan

General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, head of the army at war for more than four months against the paramilitaries, arrived on Sunday in Port Sudan, the only city in Sudan to have a port and an airport in operation, according to official statements.

Since the start of the war on April 15, General Burhane, de facto head of state since his putsch in 2021, has been entrenched at army headquarters in Khartoum, regularly attacked by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of General Mohamed Hamdane Daglo.

According to a statement from the Sudanese authorities, Mr. Burhane met on Sunday with his number two in military power, Malik Agar, and other government officials who have transferred their operations to Port Sudan.

On Thursday, for the first time, he appeared in the northern suburbs of Khartoum and then in Atbara, 300 km northeast of the capital, reviewing the troops and saluting civilians, ensuring everyone a “near” victory.

While Khartoum’s airport was bombed on the first day of the conflict, that of Port-Sudan is still functioning. In addition to humanitarian aid planes, private companies operate trips to and from Sudan there.

All these elements feed the rumor of a possible trip of General Burhane abroad. Local journalists evoke the capitals which weigh in the Sudanese diplomatic game, in particular Cairo, which has always supported the army, or Riyadh, which for a time led negotiations with Washington for a ceasefire.

The fighting continues. On Sunday, “rockets fell on houses, killing five,” a medical source in Khartoum told AFP.

Residents also reported air raids on the capital.

The war killed nearly 5,000 people, according to the NGO ACLED. But the real toll would be much higher because many areas of the country are completely cut off from the world and both sides refuse to communicate their losses.

More than 4.6 million people have fled their homes due to the fighting and more than six million Sudanese are now “on the brink of starvation”, according to the UN.

War and hunger now threaten to “swamp” all of Sudan and tip the region into a humanitarian disaster, the UN warned on Friday, as it lacks funds and faces bureaucratic obstacles in delivering aid.