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

Date: 2023

## The fact

On 15 April 2023 fighting erupted in Khartoum between Rapid Support Forces units loyal to Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo and Sudanese Armed Forces units loyal to [Abdel Fattah al-Burhan](/people/abdel-fattah-al-burhan). Reuters recorded doctors’ groups and contested first-shot claims. [Hemedti](/people/hemedti) called Burhan a criminal.

## Context

Abdel Fattah al-Burhan is live. Tensions had risen over RSF integration into SAF.

15 April outbreak; 16 April claims of sites seized. Stored as one 15 April 2023 Fact. Keep RSF–SAF fighting erupts in Khartoum under Hemedti’s RSF command on 2023-04-15 separate from neighbouring Hemedti instruments.

The commander of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces can order a sit-in dispersal, move columns into Khartoum, and impose a siege. He does not write Human Rights Watch reports, OHCHR El Fasher notes, or IPC famine classifications.

## Evidence and sources

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

## Significance

The path is the owned RSF-war driver: a completed capital war under the RSF commander.

## What is established and what is not

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

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 Burhan 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 RSF–SAF fighting erupts in Khartoum under Hemedti’s RSF command, not a later speech about RSF–SAF fighting erupts in Khartoum under Hemedti’s RSF command.

Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. RSF–SAF fighting erupts in Khartoum under Hemedti’s RSF 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 RSF–SAF fighting erupts in Khartoum under Hemedti’s RSF command into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to He commanded RSF on 15 April 2023. Sharing the outbreak with Burhan 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

- Hemedti: https://factrail.ai/people/hemedti

## Drivers

- Civic Space: https://factrail.ai/drivers/civic-space
- Hemedti RSF war: https://factrail.ai/drivers/hemedti-rsf-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-hemedti-war-2023