Fighting in Sudan likely to be 'protracted': US Intelligence chief

By Firdevs Bulut Kartal

TORONTO (AA) - The fighting in Sudan will likely not stop in the near future since both sides have few incentives to seek peace, US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said Thursday.

"The fighting in Sudan between the Sudanese armed forces and the rapid support forces is, we assess, likely to be protracted as both sides believe that they can win militarily and have few incentives to come to the negotiating table," she said during a US Senate hearing on Thursday.

"Both sides are seeking external sources of support, which, if successful, is likely to intensify the conflict and create a greater potential for spillover challenges in the region," she added.

The intelligence chief noted that the fighting has worsened the already dire humanitarian situation in Sudan, forcing aid organizations to curtail operations, which increases the massive refugee flows and the need for aid in the entire region.

"Even before the fighting started, roughly 1/3 of the population or approximately 15.8 million people required immediate assistance because of disease outbreaks inflation, localized conflicts, internal displacement and weather related food insecurity," Haines added.

The Sudanese capital, Khartoum, has been engulfed by violence for weeks with fighting between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group.

A disagreement had been fomenting in recent months between the army and RSF regarding the group’s integration into the armed forces, a key condition of Sudan's transition agreement with political groups.

Sudan has been without a functioning government since October 2021, when the military dismissed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok's transitional government and declared a state of emergency in a move decried by political forces as a "coup."

The transitional period, which started in August 2019 after the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir, is scheduled to end with elections in early 2024.