# SAF–RSF fighting erupts in Khartoum under Burhan’s army command

Date: 2023

## The fact

On 15 April 2023 fighting erupted in Khartoum between Sudanese Armed Forces units loyal to [Abdel Fattah al-Burhan](/people/abdel-fattah-al-burhan) and Rapid Support Forces units loyal to Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. Reuters recorded doctors’ groups and contested first-shot claims; mediators said neither general attended a 10 a.m. meeting. Burhan told Al Jazeera the RSF should withdraw troops from Khartoum. Hemedti called him a criminal.

## Context

Tensions had risen over RSF integration into SAF after the 2021 coup partnership. Hemedti is unresolved and is a later WAVE F TARGET. IPC famine products and the later RSF siege of El Fasher are neighbouring. They are not a unique size here and are not ukraine-war.

15 April outbreak; 16 April air strikes; BBC/Reuters same-day products. Stored as one 15 April 2023 Fact. Keep SAF–RSF fighting erupts in Khartoum under Burhan’s army command on 2023-04-15 separate from neighbouring Burhan instruments.

The Chairman of Sudan’s Sovereignty Council and commander-in-chief of the Sudanese Armed Forces can dissolve a cabinet on television, order air strikes, and refuse to dissolve SAF. He does not write Human Rights Watch briefing notes, IPC famine classifications, or Reuters first-shot reconstructions.

## Evidence and sources

Reuters carries the official instrument or communique. BBC News records the same dated act independently.

## Significance

The path is the owned SAF-civil-war driver: a completed capital war under the army chief who had dissolved the civilian cabinet in 2021.

## What is established and what is not

Established: Fighting between SAF and RSF erupted in Khartoum on 15 April 2023. Burhan commanded SAF. First-shot claims are contested.

Not established: A unique first-shot integer, a unique later death census, or that Hemedti is a minted Person row.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

Sharing the outbreak with Hemedti is not a reason to drop the date from his file.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies SAF–RSF fighting erupts in Khartoum under Burhan’s army command, not a later speech about SAF–RSF fighting erupts in Khartoum under Burhan’s army command.

Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. SAF–RSF fighting erupts in Khartoum under Burhan’s army command on 2023-04-15 is not a licence to treat every later Reuters communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor instrument exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average SAF–RSF fighting erupts in Khartoum under Burhan’s army command into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to He commanded SAF on 15 April 2023. Sharing the outbreak with Hemedti is not a reason to drop the date from his file. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series.

## People

- Abdel Fattah al-Burhan: https://factrail.ai/people/abdel-fattah-al-burhan

## Drivers

- Civic Space: https://factrail.ai/drivers/civic-space
- Burhan SAF civil war: https://factrail.ai/drivers/burhan-saf-civil-war

## Sources

- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-65284945
- https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/heavy-gunfire-heard-south-sudanese-capital-khartoum-witnesses-2023-04-15/

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/sd-burhan-war-2023