The Embassy of Pakistan in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum was hit by bullets on Wednesday, the mission said, as intense fighting between the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continued into the fifth day.
Fighting erupted across Khartoum and at other sites in Sudan last weekend in a battle between two powerful rival military factions, engulfing the capital in warfare for the first time and raising the risk of a nationwide civil conflict.
“Everyone at the Embassy is safe after a few bullets grazed the Embassy wall this afternoon,” the embassy said on Twitter. “We remain committed to serving the Pakistani community in Sudan.”
In a separate statement to the media, the embassy said its building was hit by three bullets amid clashes between the Sudanese army and Rapid Support Forces, calling this a violation of the Vienna Convention under which host governments are responsible for providing security to diplomatic missions.
“We urge the two parties to exercise constraint and request the government of Sudan to immediately deploy security personnel for the protection and security of Embassy of Pakistan,” the embassy added,
The embassy advised all Pakistanis to stay home. Around a thousand Pakistanis live in Khartoum.
Tension had been building for months between Sudan’s army and the RSF, which together toppled a civilian government in an October 2021 coup.
The friction was brought to a head by an internationally-backed plan to launch a new transition with civilian parties. A final deal was due to be signed earlier in April, on the fourth anniversary of the overthrow of long-ruling autocrat Omar Al-Bashir in a popular uprising.
Both the army and the RSF were required to cede power under the plan and two issues proved particularly contentious: one was the timetable for the RSF to be integrated into the regular armed forces, and the second was when the army would be formally placed under civilian oversight.
When fighting broke out on April 15, both sides blamed the other for provoking the violence. The army accused the RSF of illegal mobilization in preceding days and the RSF, as it moved on key strategic sites in Khartoum, said the army had tried to seize full power in a plot with Bashir loyalists.
The protagonists in the power struggle are General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, head of the army and leader of Sudan’s ruling council since 2019, and his deputy on the council, RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti.
As the plan for a new transition developed, Hemedti aligned himself more closely with civilian parties from a coalition, the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC), that shared power with the military between Bashir’s overthrow and the 2021 coup.
Diplomats and analysts said this was part of a strategy by Hemedti to transform himself into a statesman. Both the FFC and Hemedti, who grew wealthy through gold mining and other ventures, stressed the need to sideline Islamist-leaning Bashir loyalists and veterans who had regained a foothold following the coup and have deep roots in the army.
Along with some pro-army rebel factions that benefited from a 2020 peace deal, the Bashir loyalists opposed the deal for a new transition.
The popular uprising had raised hopes that Sudan and its population of 46 million could emerge from decades of autocracy, internal conflict and economic isolation under Bashir.
The current fighting could not only destroy those hopes but destabilize a volatile region bordering the Sahel, the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa.
