CAIRO (Reuters) – Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces shared a video on Saturday that they said showed Egyptian troops who had “surrendered” to them in Merowe, northern Sudan.
This occurred as clashes erupted between the RSF, Sudan’s main paramilitary group, and the army on Saturday.
There was no clear explanation for the presence of Egyptian troops in Merowe on Saturday, but Egyptian and Sudanese troops have periodically staged joint military exercises in the north of the country in the wake of diplomatic tensions with Ethiopia.
The video showed a number of men dressed in army fatigues crouched on the ground and speaking to members of the RSF in an Egyptian Arabic dialect to troops in RSF uniforms.
Reuters could not immediately verify the footage and Egyptian authorities did not immediately make any public comment on the matter.
The fighting between the paramilitary group and the army broke out in the capital on Saturday morning, and has extended to several parts of the country including Merowe.
A mobilisation of RSF forces towards the Merowe military airport on Wednesday was the spark for an army statement on Thursday that described recent RSF moves as illegal and said it went beyond the force’s duties, bringing long-bubbling disagreements to the surface.
(Reporting by Nafisa Eltahir, Alaa Swilam and Omar Abdelrazek; Writing by Nadine Awadalla in Dubai; Editing by Aidan Lewis and Frances Kerry)
