RSF take control of Central Reserve Police HQ in Khartoum, ‘hundreds of soldiers killed’

KHARTOUM – June 27, 2023

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Fighting in Khartoum and Khartoum North led to civilian deaths yesterday. The army confirmed that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) managed to take control of the Central Reserve Police headquarters on Sunday. The RSF claim to have killed hundreds of army officers in the attack.

The Sudanese air force launched air strikes on areas in east and central Khartoum and Sharg El Nil (East Nile) in Khartoum North (Khartoum Bahri) yesterday. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) responded with anti-aircraft missiles from the ground. The attacks resulted in several civilian deaths.

El Haj Yousef East Emergency Room in Sharg El Nil reported several deaths and injuries among people living in the densely populated, poor neighbourhoods of north-eastern Khartoum.

A number of houses collapsed as a result of the shelling.

Eyewitnesses also reported smoke plumes rising from residential areas in the eastern parts of the capital.

 CRP headquarters

The Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) acknowledged that the RSF took control of the headquarters of the Central Reserve Police* (CRP), also called Central Reserve Forces, in Khartoum on Sunday. They consider the move a violation of international laws and the norms of war.

The spokesperson for the SAF said in a statement yesterday that the RSF seized one of the police stations in Khartoum after attacking it for three consecutive days. He stressed that police facilities around the world are considered service facilities “unrelated to military operations”.

The RSF had announced their control of the CRP base and the Awad Khojali training camp on Sunday already and said that they seized dozens of tanks and armoured vehicles. The RSF said in a statement that they captured and killed of hundreds of army officers and armed supporters of the regime of ousted dictator Omar Al Bashir.

RSF soldiers claim to have seized 27 tanks, 75 armoured personnel carriers, and 160 Land Cruiser vehicles, on top of various ammunition and military and engineering equipment.  

“We had hoped that the Central Reserve Police would distance themselves from this conflict,” the militia said on social media.

The force, however, has reportedly been deployed by Army Commander Abdelfattah El Burhan since April 29 “to maintain security” in Khartoum, after most of the regular police forces fled their posts after the war erupted on April 15.

Yet, many Sudanese say that El Burhan deployed the Central Reserve Police in the capital only because the army lacks manpower at frontline units. They refer to the mobilisation of former army officers and soldiers in an announcement of the Sudanese Ministry of Defence on n May 26. Only a few have reportedly responded to the call so far.

The press office of the CRP did not issue any statement on the developments.

Strategic importance

Retired Police Lt Col El Tayeb Osman El Samani told Radio Dabanga said that the fight for control over the CRP base left a large number of combatants from both sides dead.

The CRP represents “the primary support for the armed forces as it is a disciplined, organised, highly trained force that is fluent in dealing with civilian areas. It is considered a reserve for the armed forces,” he told Radio Dabanga yesterday. 

The participation of the Central Reserve Police in a joint force with the Sudanese army in the Soug El Arabi (Arab market) in late April made the RSF consider the CRP a legitimate goal, he said.

Osman also pointed to the strategic importance of the location of the CRP headquarters at the southern entrances to Khartoum.

“The RSF’s seizure of the CRP main site cuts off the supply lines to the army corps in El Shajara [in eastern Khartoum],” he explained.

“Moreover, the CRP site in southern Khartoum also served as the headquarters of the minister of interior affairs and the chief of the police forces since April 15. So, there is also a symbolic dimension to the action of the RSF.”

‘There is also a symbolic dimension to the action of the RSF’

The retired colonel said that the CRP armament ranges from heavy to light weaponry. “They are well trained in tactical fights in the streets and residential neighbourhoods,” he stated.

“The presence of tanks at the main base of the CRP, if the information published by the RSF regarding the capture of 27 tanks is correct, can be considered normal in case of war.”

* On March 21 last year, the USA sanctioned the Central Reserve Police (CRP), also called the Central Reserve Forces, for serious human rights abuses. The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) listed the excessively violent repression of peaceful pro-democracy protests in Sudan by the CRP forces as the main reason. The militia, infamous in Darfur for their human rights abuses during the war in Darfur, is popularly known as Abu Teira or Tira (those of the bird), as each member wears a patch on his uniform containing an image of a bird. The Arabic text reads: ‘Central Reserve – The Police in Service of the People’.