Head of Sudan’s army and Sovereign Council, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, escaped an assassination attempt on Wednesday July 31 in eastern Sudan. According to an army statement, two drones carried out an attack on a military base in Red Sea state, where General al-Burhan was taking part in a graduation ceremony.
The army estimates that five people were killed and several wounded, but General al-Burhan survived. He reappeared a little later to assert that “drones don’t scare the army”.
“We will continue the war as long as the enemy is in the homes of civilians and as long as they surround the cities”. “We will not surrender, we will not negotiate and we are not afraid of drones”, he declared.
The drone attack took place during a graduation ceremony at the Gibet military base, some 100 km from Port Sudan, the country’s administrative capital since the start of the war in Khartoum on April 15, 2023. The war pits the Sudanese army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, formerly allied to the army and led by Mohamed Hamdane Daglo.
Sudanese television, which was broadcasting the graduation event live, interrupted its transmission for around fifteen minutes. According to witnesses, General al-Burhan left the ceremony after the attack. A video later showed him in the town’s hospital, surrounded by Sudanese chanting slogans in his support. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.
On Wednesday, RSF legal adviser Mohamed al-Mukhtar told Reuters the attack was the “result of internal disagreements between Islamists”. Further details on the claim were not immediately available.