Leading Member of Taqaddum Calls for End to Sudan War

Smoke billows from fighting between the Sudanese army and RSF in Khartoum. (Reuters file photo)
Smoke billows from fighting between the Sudanese army and RSF in Khartoum. (Reuters file photo)
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Leading Member of Taqaddum Calls for End to Sudan War

Smoke billows from fighting between the Sudanese army and RSF in Khartoum. (Reuters file photo)
Smoke billows from fighting between the Sudanese army and RSF in Khartoum. (Reuters file photo)

Leading member of the Sudanese Coordination of Civil Democratic Forces (Taqaddum) and head of the Unionist Alliance Babiker Faisal Babiker urged the Sudanese warring parties to end the conflict and resolve disputes through negotiations “to save the country from the fate of others where wars have lasted decades.”

In an interview to Asharq Al-Awsat from Addis Ababa, he said: “I call on both parties to show determination to stop the war as soon as possible before it spirals out of their control.”

He called on the army and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to reach a “peaceful negotiated solution that safeguards our country and places it back on the path of the revolution and democratic civil transition.”

He recalled that before the eruption of the conflict last year and as a member of the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) liaison committee, he met with army commander Abdul Fattah al-Burhan for three hours on a Friday during which they agreed to ease the tensions in the country.

They also agreed to form a committee comprised of army, RSF and FFC members. The committee was set to meet the next day, Saturday, and withdraw army forces from Khartoum, Babiker went on to say.

After meeting with Burhan, the liaison committee then headed to meet with RSF commander Mohammed Hamdan Daglo at his home but couldn’t find him. It was instead met with his brother and deputy leader of the RSF Abdulrahman, who expressed his support for the agreement reached by the meeting hours earlier.

He pledged to take part in the meeting that was set for Saturday.

Babiker told Asharq Al-Awsat that he returned home after these meetings reassured that they had succeeded in defusing the tensions.

However, they were taken by surprise the next morning when an “armed group” surrounded the sports city - an RSF camp. The war erupted soon after.

Babiker said the group that fired the first shot “had an interest in thwarting the ‘framework agreement’ because it wanted to return to power.”

The agreement details the transition to a civilian democracy in Sudan.

Babiker added that a group “loyal to the Islamist movement and National Congress Party had made several threats about thwarting the transition and it then fired that first shot that sparked the war.”

Asked by Asharq Al-Awsat why the situation spiraled out of control, he replied: “We had to contend with several new factors when the war erupted, such as air strikes that have killed hundreds of people.”

“Every party then amassed its forces. The drive for war was difficult to contain,” he said.



Hezbollah Says Fired Missiles at Base Near South Israel's Ashdod

Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system operates to intercept incoming projectiles, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Nahariya, Israel, November 21, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system operates to intercept incoming projectiles, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Nahariya, Israel, November 21, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
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Hezbollah Says Fired Missiles at Base Near South Israel's Ashdod

Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system operates to intercept incoming projectiles, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Nahariya, Israel, November 21, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Peter
Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system operates to intercept incoming projectiles, amid hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, in Nahariya, Israel, November 21, 2024. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

Hezbollah said its fighters on Thursday fired missiles at a military base near south Israel’s Ashdod, the first time it has targeted so deep inside Israel in more than a year of hostilities.

Hezbollah fighters "targeted... for the first time, the Hatzor air base" east of the southern city, around 150 kilometers from Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, "with a missile salvo," the Iran-backed group said in a statement.

A rocket fired from Lebanon killed a man and wounded two others in northern Israel on Thursday, according to the Magen David Adom rescue service.
The service said paramedics found the body of the man in his 30s near a playground in the town of Nahariya, near the border with Lebanon, after a rocket attack on Thursday.
Israel meanwhile struck targets in southern Lebanon and several buildings south of Beirut, the Lebanese capital.

Israel has launched airstrikes against Lebanon after Hezbollah began firing rockets, drones and missiles into Israel the day after Hamas' attack on Israel last October. A full-blown war erupted in September after nearly a year of lower-level conflict.
More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the country’s Health Ministry, and over 1 million people have been displaced. It is not known how many of those killed were Hezbollah fighters and how many were civilians.
On the Israeli side, Hezbollah’s aerial attacks have killed more than 70 people and driven some 60,000 from their homes.