The Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Saturday announced that they are prepared to return a group of captured Egyptian soldiers who were conducting training exercises in northern Sudan. The RSF stated that they will cooperate in returning the soldiers who “surrendered without resistance” in Merowe, located between the Sudanese capital Khartoum and Sudan’s border with Egypt, amid fighting between the RSF and the Sudanese army.
The RSF captured the battalion of Egyptian soldiers on Saturday, releasing a video of the captured troops via social media. The official spokesperson for the Egyptian Armed Forces, Gharib Abdul Hafez Gharib, issued a statement shortly after stating the Egyptian troops were partaking in training with their counterparts in Sudan when they were captured. He confirmed that coordination with the RSF is underway to safely hand over the soldiers to the Egyptian government.
Fighting between Sudan’s military and the RSF broke out Saturday and has continued for three days, with a three-hour ceasefire agreed upon by both sides on Sunday. The weekend’s fighting follows rising tensions over the RSF’s integration into the Sudanese military. Violence between the two sides has increased in some densely-populated areas of Sudan, leading to civilian casualties and deaths.
Despite calls from international powers, including the United States and China, to end the violence, the fighting in Sudan continues.