Sudan’s Bashir and Allies Out of Jail, Fighting Flares

Sudan's deposed president Omar al-Bashir was one of Africa's longest-serving presidents | AFP
Sudan's deposed president Omar al-Bashir was one of Africa's longest-serving presidents | AFP
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Sudan’s Bashir and Allies Out of Jail, Fighting Flares

Sudan's deposed president Omar al-Bashir was one of Africa's longest-serving presidents | AFP
Sudan's deposed president Omar al-Bashir was one of Africa's longest-serving presidents | AFP

Sudan's army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) battled on the outskirts of the capital on Wednesday, undermining a truce in an 11-day conflict that civilian groups fear could revive the influence of ousted President Omar al-Bashir and his loyalists.

Fuelling those concerns, the army confirmed the transfer of 79-year-old Bashir from Khartoum's Kober prison to a military hospital, along with at least five of his former officials, before hostilities started on April 15.

Air strikes and artillery have killed at least 459 people, wounded more than 4,000, destroyed hospitals and limited food distribution in the vast nation where a third of the 46 million people were already reliant on humanitarian aid.

Foreigners fleeing Khartoum have described bodies littering streets, buildings on fire, residential areas turned into battlefields and youths roaming with large knives.

The White House said a second American had died there.

"It was horrible," said Thanassis Pagoulatos, the 80-year-old Greek owner of the Acropole hotel in Khartoum, after arriving in Athens to the embrace of emotional relatives.

"It has been more than 10 days without any electricity, without water, and five days nearly without food," he added, describing shooting and bombing. "Really, the people are suffering, the Sudanese people."

Over the weekend, thousands of inmates were freed outright from prison, including a former minister in Bashir's government who, like him, is wanted on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

At least one other of the group transferred to hospital is wanted by the ICC.

Transition plan derailed

Bashir's three-decade reign came to an end with a popular uprising four years ago. He has been in prison, with spells in hospital, on Sudanese charges related to the 1989 coup that brought him to power.

"This war, which is ignited by the ousted regime, will lead the country to collapse," said Sudan's Forces of Freedom and Change (FCC), a political grouping leading an internationally-backed plan to transfer to civilian rule.

The plan was derailed by the eruption of fighting between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The two sides and the FCC missed an April deadline to launch the transition to democracy, largely over disputes about merging the security forces.

Civilian groups have blamed groups loyal to Bashir of seeking to use conflict to find a way back to power. The RSF, whose leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo climbed to power under Bashir but later dumped him, has strongly opposed the Islamists who backed the former army ruler.

The fighting "will not solve the main issues that civilian and military parties were trying to solve through the political process, especially the security and military reforms, which will ... lead to one professional unified army," the FCC added in its statement.

In Khartoum, which together with its sister cities is one of Africa's largest urban areas, the prisoner release - which different factions blamed each other for - added to a growing sense of lawlessness. Residents reported worsening insecurity, with widespread looting and marauding gangs.

Exodus

Foreign powers have evacuated thousands of diplomats and private citizens in recent days.

Sudanese and citizens of neighboring countries have been flooding out. More than 10,000 people crossed into Egypt from Sudan in the past five days, Cairo said, while an estimated 20,000 have entered Chad. Others have fled to South Sudan and Ethiopia, despite difficult conditions there.

Wednesday's renewed battles were mostly in Omdurman, one of Khartoum's twin cities, where the army was fighting RSF reinforcements brought in from other regions of Sudan, a Reuters reporter said.

The army and the RSF agreed to a three-day truce, due to end late on Thursday, after diplomatic pressure from the United States and Saudi Arabia. The army has accused its rivals of using the lull to replenish supplies of men and weapons.

Thanks to the ceasefire, fighting between army soldiers the RSF remained more subdued in the center of Khartoum.

UN special envoy on Sudan Volker Perthes told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that the ceasefire "seems to be holding in some parts so far".

But he said that neither party showed readiness to "seriously negotiate, suggesting that both think that securing a military victory over the other is possible".

The army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan took over in a coup, with support then from the RSF, two years after the 2019 toppling of Bashir.

The whereabouts of Bashir came into question after a former minister in his government, Ali Haroun, announced he had left Kober prison with other former officials.

The ICC in The Hague has accused Bashir of genocide, and Haroun of organizing militias to attack civilians in Darfur in 2003 and 2004. It declined to comment on the situation.



Damascus Says Security Operation Ends in Ashrafiyat Sahnaya

Armed members of Syria's Druze community attend the funeral of seven people killed during overnight clashes with Syrian security forces, in Damascus, on April 30, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
Armed members of Syria's Druze community attend the funeral of seven people killed during overnight clashes with Syrian security forces, in Damascus, on April 30, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
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Damascus Says Security Operation Ends in Ashrafiyat Sahnaya

Armed members of Syria's Druze community attend the funeral of seven people killed during overnight clashes with Syrian security forces, in Damascus, on April 30, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
Armed members of Syria's Druze community attend the funeral of seven people killed during overnight clashes with Syrian security forces, in Damascus, on April 30, 2025. (Photo by AFP)

The head of security in Syria’s Damascus countryside, Hussam Al-Tahan, said a security operation in the flashpoint town of Ashrafiyat Sahnaya had concluded, with Syrian forces now deployed across all neighborhoods to restore calm and stability.

State-run SANA news agency quoted Tahan as saying security forces had taken full control of the area, located southwest of the capital, and were launching measures to secure civilians and stabilize the situation.

Syrian state television reported that large reinforcements from General Security had entered the town to pursue what it described as “outlawed groups,” with forces now deployed at all entry and exit points to prevent further violence.

At least 75 people were injured over the past 48 hours in Sahnaya, according to state television, amid heavy gunfire and attacks blamed on armed groups. The clashes have stoked fears of deepening sectarian tensions in the area.

In an effort to defuse the crisis, local dignitaries and religious leaders from the Druze community held a meeting with the governors of Damascus countryside, Sweida, and Quneitra. Syria’s top cleric, Grand Mufti Sheikh Osama Abdul Karim Al-Rifai, called on citizens to reject sectarian strife.

“Any act of revenge or retaliation is unjust,” the Mufti said in a televised address on Wednesday. “Syrian blood is sacred. Do not listen to calls for revenge – extinguishing this strife will save lives,” he added, urging Syrians to allow justice to take its course.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement that armed militants had launched a surprise assault on several General Security checkpoints in Ashrafiyat Sahnaya using light weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, injuring a number of personnel.

In response, security forces fanned out across the area. But snipers from the armed groups reportedly took up positions on rooftops, targeting officers and killing five General Security members and wounding others.

In the early hours of Wednesday, the ministry added, militants opened fire on a vehicle arriving from the southern province of Daraa, killing six civilians inside.

General Security forces have since tightened control in and around the town, sending additional units to contain the violence and ensure the safety of residents.

A curfew was imposed on Tuesday after gunmen based in a nearby town launched an attack on security posts surrounding Ashrafiyat Sahnaya. The situation briefly calmed after General Security forces took up positions at the town’s eastern entrance, but clashes flared again overnight and continued into Wednesday morning.

A security source in Damascus said a wide-scale sweep was underway to arrest armed groups accused of using the town as a base for launching “terrorist operations” against civilians.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, residents described a harrowing night of intense gunfire, explosions, and drone activity. “We didn’t sleep. The sound of gunfire and mortars didn’t stop,” said one civilian source. “Snipers were on rooftops, and drones hovered all night.”

With no reliable news source other than conflicting and fear-inducing social media updates, residents expressed confusion about the unfolding events.

Locals called on Syrian civil society to act and protest against incitement and militia activity, urging the disarmament of rogue groups. They warned that armed factions from outside Sahnaya were launching attacks from the town’s outskirts, including a shooting incident on Tuesday that targeted a General Security checkpoint.

Tensions flared further in and around the Syrian capital as the town of Jaramana, south of Damascus, held funerals on Wednesday for seven people killed in overnight clashes earlier this week.

The city witnessed heavy fighting between Monday and Tuesday night, part of a broader wave of unrest in southern Damascus and surrounding areas.