Dozens of Egyptian soldiers caught in fighting in Sudan have returned home after being handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, (RSF) one of the two factions battling for control in Khartoum and across the vast country for almost a week.
The Egyptian army said three flights carrying its troops had arrived at a Cairo airbase on Wednesday night.
In a statement, the army also announced that other Egyptian troops still in Sudan had reached Egypt’s embassy in Khartoum in co-ordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The RSF had detained the soldiers after storming an airbase at Merowe, a strategic town famous for archaeological remains about 300km north of the Sudanese capital, where they had been part of routine joint-military exercises between the two countries.
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Analysts said the handover was “good news” as it suggested that some negotiations with the combatants in the bitter power struggle in Sudan were possible, but warned it should not be seen as any kind of turning point.
Nearly 300 people have been killed and thousands more injured since the fighting erupted on Saturday.
The conflict has pitted army units loyal to Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of Sudan’s transitional governing sovereign council and the regular army, against the RSF, led by Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, who is deputy head of the council. Their power struggle has derailed a shift to civilian rule and raised fears of a long, brutal civil war.
Explosions and gunfire were heard across Khartoum again on Thursday and there has also been widespread violence in remote areas, particularly in the restive southwestern region of Darfur.
In Nyala, a city in South Darfur, RSF forces have wrested control of many former army bases and are now in control. Dozens of facilities run by international aid organisations in the region have been looted or burned, along with government offices, and many civilians have been killed or wounded, according to local civil society sources.
One activist said: “The situation is calm at the moment, but we are afraid. The terrifying thing is that the markets are all burned and they were the basic supply place for seeds, foods, everything we need to live – so that is a real disaster. The roads are closed everywhere so we are totally cut off. We are at the mercy of the militia now.”
In Khartoum, civilians have been trapped in schools, colleges, hospitals and their homes without electricity, food and water since the fighting began. Another truce unravelled on Wednesday evening.
“We were awoken today at about 4.30am to the roaring sound of fighter jets and airstrikes,” said Nazek Abdalla, a 38-year-old in southern Khartoum. “We locked our doors and windows hoping no stray bullets would hit our building.”
[ ‘A recipe for conflict’: the rival generals behind Sudan’s power struggleOpens in new window ]
Around the capital and elsewhere, RSF fighters atop armoured vehicles and pickup trucks laden with weapons have taken over entire streets, sometimes setting up checkpoints to search cars carrying civilians trying to escape Khartoum’s worst battle zones to safer areas in the capital and beyond.
Witnesses said RSF fighters were seen taking food from homes, as well as valuables, suggesting the force was running low on supplies.
Doctors in Khartoum have reported acute shortages of medicines, fuel, clean water and power, as they try to cope with a flood of wounded and sick. More than two-thirds of medical facilities in Khartoum are now “out of service” due to the fighting, the country’s main doctors’ union said.
Many countries have started to make plans to evacuate thousands of foreigners, but their efforts have been put on hold by the ongoing violence. Many international humanitarian staff have sought shelter at the 300-bed Rotana hotel in Khartoum, where more than a thousand people are now staying.
Gen Burhan and Gen Daglo toppled autocratic president Omar al-Bashir together in April 2019 after months of huge protests against the dictator’s three decades of repressive rule. They then marginalised political parties and terrorised pro-democracy campaigners before working together in October 2021 to overthrow the civilian government installed after Mr Bashir’s fall, derailing an internationally backed transition to democracy. – Guardian