The fighting that has erupted in Sudan between the country’s armed forces and a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces pits the president against his vice-president in a struggle for control of Africa’s third-largest country.
Both men had emerged as leaders of the transitional government after a 2019 coup that ousted Omar al-Bashir, who had ruled over the country as a dictator for 30 years.
Now General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, president of Sudan’s military government, and his rival Lt General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemeti, vice-president and head of the RSF, are in open warfare. Some fear the violence, which has killed at least 50 civilians in less than 48 hours, could yet descend into full-scale civil war.