Sudan is facing a coup, with the Rapid Support Forces seizing Khartoum International airport along with the presidential palace and army head’s residence. The group also says they’ve taken over airports in Merowe and El-Obeid. The country’s army says it’s fighting back, and footage shows commercial aircraft on fire in the capital city of Khartoum.
Khartoum airport has been targeted by competing Sudanese forces, planes have caught fire, some passengers have been killed, Sudanese military carrying out air strikes. Like wars, coups have also become deadlier in the 21st century. pic.twitter.com/uYUwc8Tz5Z
— Ashok Swain (@ashoswai) April 15, 2023
At a minimum a Saudia Airbus A330-300 from Riyadh and a SkyUp Boeing 737-800 from Cairo are on fire.
Meanwhile in Sudan, an attempted military coup… (Yeah + Wagner again)
"In Khartoum – shooting, on the streets – military equipment and artillery. There is a struggle between the army of the state and another power structure – the Rapid Reaction Force" – writes Reuters. pic.twitter.com/tIiptpuyl9
— MAKS 22🇺🇦 (@Maks_NAFO_FELLA) April 15, 2023
Departure Hall Khartoum Airport #Sudan pic.twitter.com/Eia1B5Y7De
— Nada. (@NadaWanni) April 15, 2023
Khartoum airport is served by Emirates; Qatar; Egyptian; Ethiopian; Royoal Jordanian; Turkish and Gulf Air. It’s also served by local Badr Airlines which offers more than 20 destinations including London and Abu Dhabi. There’s additional service from the likes of Afriqiyah and Berniq out of Libya; Air Arabia; Eritrean; flydubai; flynas and numerous others. There are reports of at least two passengers killed at the airport.
#Sudan 🇸🇩 BREAKING: #RSF forces have stormed #Khartoum international Airport. pic.twitter.com/t5RPQhG0tm
— Thomas van Linge (@ThomasVLinge) April 15, 2023
Currently the 100,000 member ‘RSF’ is in the midst of a process to be integrated into the military, and the country is working towards democratic elections. They’re led by the deputy head of the country’s ruling Sovereign Council and have accused the army of attacking them first, and say the military loyal to former dictator General Omar Hassan al-Bashir (himself the victim of a 2019 coup) is engaged in a coup. Armored vehicles and cannons are reportedly deployed in the streets of the Khartoum, while the rebel forces are engaged in fighting at the headquarters of Sudanese state television – you always want to take over communication.
The RSF is a coalition of militias that formed two decades ago during conflict in Darfur that killed 300,000 people and created 2.5 million refugees. This followed conflict between the North and South of the country that had already caused the world’s largest famine by the early 1990s.
Reminds me of what the Democrats did to Portland.
So exactly as if trumpers stormed newark.
It’s safer in Khartoum right now than at that elementary school in Uvalde last May 24.
My God people does everything have to be compared to American electoral politics? Your brains have rotted so much from the obsession, it’s depressing.
Seems these folks were upset about lack of PDB.
So true L3. Or Seattle. Chaz, anyone?
North Americans need to stop whining and start being practical. Please, read a book about statistics; go to your community college for a class of the same.
I agree, Matt. It is wearying to hear constant references to irrelevant obsessions. And right too, SoupKuma, most folks seem to be statistical illiterates, though I blame a lot of that on poor teaching, systemic mishandling of data by news people who know nothing about it, and advertisers and politicians who use it to lie. Statistics is a very powerful tool for getting at what is really going on, but it can also be used to prove anything one wants to show. Anyway, data or not, Sudan is a mess. Again.
L3 add San Fran Seattle,chicago…and on and on
“Numeracy reminds us that “what we see on television” is utterly unrepresentative. Every day, the media show us the ugliest stories they can find on a planet with 7.5 billion people! No matter how wondrous our world becomes, the news will always horrify us.” Unknown
OK, I could relate to that shootout at the Santiago, Chile airport a few weeks ago (I’m pretty sure I’m not the only reader who frequents SCL), but Khartoum literally feels like a world away. I have literally never thought of visiting Sudan, and I’ve been to 100 countries.
I agree Matt. I was hoping Gary was going to get rid of the irrelevant political garbage. This has nothing to do with domestic American political obsessions.
Reminds me of the reaction of the woke left when Hillary was indicted and convicted.
Or do I have that slightly wrong?
Lock who up?
Lol Americans are such subhumans.
Of course you make it about your politics. The most middle-of-the-road non extreme politics in the world.
The Saudi and other GCC country-funded operational bosses of the terrible atrocities in Darfur came together after the Darfur campaigns for de facto coup upon coup. Now they have turned on each other, and the monsters are eating their own and each other and making a mess closer to their own families after making a brutal, ugly mess for families in Darfur. Lesson is that the crimes state actors do abroad often come home to roost in their own communities closer to home.
Reading the comments here I am amazed how many are talking about Woke, Trump, Seattle , Portland and other things in the US.
This has nothing to do with the US so please let’s leave politics out of the comments and focus on what’s happening in Sudan.
DaveS: I disagree. Free world cover what you want. Don’t read it if it ant your interested