The eruption of gunfire in Sudan’s capital on 15 April was not a complete surprise to Mohamed Eisa, a gastroenterologist living in Pittsburgh who had returned to Sudan to bury his father. He had seen pickup trucks full of armed men circling the streets of Khartoum, and was aware of the rivalry between the country’s military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group.
As open warfare erupted that Saturday, Eisa expected the combat would be brief. Africa’s third-largest country lies on the strategic Red Sea and shares borders with a number of states important to western powers like the United States and their allies in the Gulf and Europe – all players whom he expected to end the clash between the armed groups.
