Sudan’s armed forces chief Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan vowed on Sunday to build on recent battlefield successes in the capital and fight on until the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces is defeated, prolonging the 21-month-old war in Africa's third-largest country.
The armed forces have in the past week recorded a string of battlefield gains against the paramilitary group in Bahri, one of three cities that make up the Sudanese capital’s greater region, and secured a foothold in central Khartoum.
"Our forces and our resources are in good shape and we owe that to the compassion and will of God," Gen Al Burhan told commanders inside the armed forces' headquarters in the capital, which the army said it had retaken from the RSF on Friday. Gen Al Burhan arrived at the sprawling complex on Sunday, according to the military.
"The battle will continue 'til its conclusion and the end of the mutiny," he added. A video of his comments was released by the military.
"Bahri will be totally cleansed in two to three days. Omdurman is next and we will march on Khartoum," he said, referring to the three Nile-side cities that make up the capital's greater region.
Gen Al Burhan made similar comments on Saturday during a visit to a major oil refinery north of the Sudanese capital that the army retook from the RSF the previous day.
“Our pledge to the people is to continue battling this mutiny until every inch desecrated by that militia is cleansed,” he said.
The military also released a video of the refinery showing large parts of the complex charred and some buildings smouldering. They accused the RSF on Wednesday of setting the refinery ablaze. The RSF denied the claim, saying strikes by the air force were responsible for the fire.
However, Hesham Babkr, the refinery's director, told reporters on Sunday that the damage to the facility was minor and that it would soon resume operations.
On Saturday night, the RSF also dismissed the army’s claims of gains in Bahri and denied the fall of the armed forces headquarters into the army’s hands.
“We emphasise that our forces are strong and solid on all fronts in Khartoum, Bahri and Omdurman as well as outside the capital,” it said.
The RSF, led by Gen Al Burhan’s former ally Gen Mohamed Dagalo, has repeatedly dismissed claims of battlefield gains by the army only to later acknowledge its losses. The army at times does not acknowledge the loss to the RSF of territory.
Last week, soldiers began a two-pronged offensive in Bahri, advancing against the RSF in opposite directions. They marched on Al Jeely refinery to the north and the besieged army Signals Corps in the south.
On Friday, the troops broke the siege of the Signals Corps and crossed a strategic bridge on the Blue Nile to win back control of the armed forces headquarters in Khartoum, according to the military.
A video purportedly taken by the military’s media unit showed a vehicle with bullet holes in its windscreen speeding across the Blue Nile bridge towards the armed forces headquarters. Blackened vehicles and abandoned sandbagged machine-gun positions could be seen on the Khartoum end of the bridge.
The authenticity of the video could not be verified by The National.
The recapture of the army headquarters is symbolically significant and could signal the start of further expansion in Khartoum, where the RSF continues to control the presidential palace, the airport and government ministries.
“Taking back the armed forces general command will allow the troops to capture central Khartoum, including the presidential palace,” said military analyst Galal Tawar, a retired army general. “What we are witnessing is the fruition of a neat, detailed and comprehensive plan by the army to retake the entire capital.”
The RSF has controlled most of the armed forces complex since the start of the war, with only a small contingent of troops holding out in one section.
Gen Al Burhan himself was stuck in the complex for months before he escaped last year amid a heavy gun battle between his guards and besieging RSF fighters. He has since been based in Port Sudan on the Red Sea, where the army commanders and the military-backed government are now based.
The armed forces headquarters is linked to the military section of Khartoum’s International Airport, which has also been held by the RSF since the war began in April 2023.
Photographs posted online on Saturday purportedly showed army troops inside the airport, with an aircraft visible in the background.
There have been no reports of fighting at the airport or confirmation from the military on whether an offensive to retake it is under way. The RSF said on Saturday night it continued to control the airport.
The RSF also continues to control large parts of the capital’s three cities, with the army’s presence in Omdurman largely restricted to the city’s historical district, areas of Bahri housing military bases and a narrow foothold in Khartoum.
However, retaking the armed forces complex, which houses Gen Al Burhan’s residence, the Defence Ministry and the headquarters of the army, air force and navy, is a milestone in a war whose early days saw significant army losses.
“This is the beginning of a new history of the armed forces,” said chief of staff Gen Mohammed Osman Al Hassan in an address to the nation.
“This will serve as a motivation for us to cleanse the entire land of Sudan from the militia,” he said.
Besides the areas under its control in the capital, the RSF holds most of the western Darfur region, large swathes of Kordofan to the south-west and areas south of the capital.
Gen Al Burhan and Gen Dagalo are vying for control of the resource-rich Afro-Arab nation, with both men claiming to be fighting for the benefit of Sudan. However, both stand accused by the UN and rights groups of war crimes and have recently been sanctioned by the US for their part in the conflict.
The war has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 10 million Sudanese, including three million who have found refuge outside Sudan. The war has also left about 26 million people facing acute hunger, with some pockets of famine already surfacing across the nation.
Al Shafie Ahmed reported from Kampala, Uganda.
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Profile of Tarabut Gateway
Founder: Abdulla Almoayed
Based: UAE
Founded: 2017
Number of employees: 35
Sector: FinTech
Raised: $13 million
Backers: Berlin-based venture capital company Target Global, Kingsway, CE Ventures, Entrée Capital, Zamil Investment Group, Global Ventures, Almoayed Technologies and Mad’a Investment.
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Takreem Awards winners 2021
Corporate Leadership: Carl Bistany (Lebanon)
Cultural Excellence: Hoor Al Qasimi (UAE)
Environmental Development and Sustainability: Bkerzay (Lebanon)
Environmental Development and Sustainability: Raya Ani (Iraq)
Humanitarian and Civic Services: Women’s Programs Association (Lebanon)
Humanitarian and Civic Services: Osamah Al Thini (Libya)
Excellence in Education: World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) (Qatar)
Outstanding Arab Woman: Balghis Badri (Sudan)
Scientific and Technological Achievement: Mohamed Slim Alouini (KSA)
Young Entrepreneur: Omar Itani (Lebanon)
Lifetime Achievement: Suad Al Amiry (Palestine)
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
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Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
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Countdown to Zero exhibition will show how disease can be beaten
Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease, an international multimedia exhibition created by the American Museum of National History in collaboration with The Carter Center, will open in Abu Dhabi a month before Reaching the Last Mile.
Opening on October 15 and running until November 15, the free exhibition opens at The Galleria mall on Al Maryah Island, and has already been seen at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
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Name: Dhabia Khalifa AlQubaisi
Age: 23
How she spends spare time: Playing with cats at the clinic and feeding them
Inspiration: My father. He’s a hard working man who has been through a lot to provide us with everything we need
Favourite book: Attitude, emotions and the psychology of cats by Dr Nicholes Dodman
Favourit film: 101 Dalmatians - it remind me of my childhood and began my love of dogs
Word of advice: By being patient, good things will come and by staying positive you’ll have the will to continue to love what you're doing
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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Sarfraz Ahmed (captain), Fakhar Zaman, Ahmed Shahzad, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Mohammed Hafeez, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Mohammed Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Amir Yamin, Mohammed Amir (subject to fitness clearance), Rumman Raees, Usman Shinwari, Umar Amin
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The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
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- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
WandaVision
Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany
Directed by: Matt Shakman
Rating: Four stars
Where to buy art books in the UAE
There are a number of speciality art bookshops in the UAE.
In Dubai, The Lighthouse at Dubai Design District has a wonderfully curated selection of art and design books. Alserkal Avenue runs a pop-up shop at their A4 space, and host the art-book fair Fully Booked during Art Week in March. The Third Line, also in Alserkal Avenue, has a strong book-publishing arm and sells copies at its gallery. Kinokuniya, at Dubai Mall, has some good offerings within its broad selection, and you never know what you will find at the House of Prose in Jumeirah. Finally, all of Gulf Photo Plus’s photo books are available for sale at their show.
In Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi has a beautiful selection of catalogues and art books, and Magrudy’s – across the Emirates, but particularly at their NYU Abu Dhabi site – has a great selection in art, fiction and cultural theory.
In Sharjah, the Sharjah Art Museum sells catalogues and art books at its museum shop, and the Sharjah Art Foundation has a bookshop that offers reads on art, theory and cultural history.
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
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