Sudan’s former prime minister Abdalla Hamdok has warned that the conflict in the turbulent African nation could deteriorate to one of the world’s worst civil wars if it is not stopped early.
More than 500 people have been killed since battles erupted on 15 April between the forces of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his number two Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, commonly known as Hemedti, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
They have agreed to multiple truces but none has effectively taken hold as the number of civilian deaths continues to rise and chaos and lawlessness grip the capital, Khartoum.
Many people in the city of five million have been trapped in their homes without food, water, and electricity.
“God forbid if Sudan is to reach a point of civil war proper … Syria, Yemen, Libya will be a small play,” Hamdok said in a conversation with Sudan-born telecoms tycoon Mo Ibrahim at an event in Nairobi.
“I think it would be a nightmare for the world,” he said, adding that it would have many ramifications.
The current conflict was a “senseless war” between two armies, he added. “There is nobody who is going to come out of this victorious. That is why it has to stop.”
About 75,000 people have been displaced by the fighting in Khartoum as well as in the states of Blue Nile and North Kordofan, and the western region of Darfur, according to the UN.
The fighting has also triggered a mass exodus of foreigners and international staff.
Hamdok was the premier of Sudan’s fragile transition to civilian rule before being ousted and detained in a coup. Although he was then reinstated, he resigned in January.
Burhan and Daglo seized power in a 2021 coup that derailed Sudan’s transition to democracy, established after hardline president Omar al-Bashir was ousted following mass protests in 2019.
But the two generals fell out, most recently over the planned integration of the RSF into the regular army.
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