CAIRO (Reuters) – Sudanese paramilitary leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, called for the replacement of army leadership on Friday in his first on-camera appearance since fighting broke out.
The fighting, broke out in April as the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) vied for power amid a planned transition towards civilian rule, has led to the displacement of more than 3 million people and thrown the country into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
At least 580 civilians have been killed just in Khartoum, the capital, according to local volunteers, a Reuters tally found.
The video of Hemedti was posted to the paramilitary group’s Facebook page showing him surrounded by cheering members of the RSF, as he apologised to the Sudanese people for the impact of the ongoing conflict.
“We tell our brothers in the armed forces, if you want a quick solution … change your leadership and we’ll come to an agreement in 72 hours.”
Hemedti also warned that Ahmed Haroun, an ex-official under former President Omar Al Bashir who escaped from prison in late April, was leading the security committee in eastern parts of the country where the army is in control. In previous audio messages, Hemedti has accused the army of taking orders from loyalists of the autocrat, who was in power for almost three decades.
(Reporting by Khalid Adel Aziz in Dubai and Nafisa Eltahir and Adam Makary in Cairo; Editing by Leslie Adler)
