Egyptian soldiers in Sudan handed from Rapid Support Forces custody to Red Cross with UAE mediation

Twenty-seven Egyptian Armed Forces personnel were handed over by the Rapid Support Forces on Thursday to workers from the International Committee of the Red Cross. 

The soldiers had spent five days in the custody of the RSF, as the militia clashed with the Sudanese Armed Forces in violent armed combat laying waste to Sudan’s capital and other cities across the country and killing over 200 civilians so far. 

Footage of the Egyptian soldiers in a hostage-like situation at Merowe Air Base, taken by RSF forces when conflict broke out on Saturday and held for several days, was published online by the militia. 

The images prompted outcry and concern for the soldiers’ safety, while rumors spread regarding the reason for their presence in the country, where suspicion is quick to arise regarding intervention from Cairo, which once exercised colonial rule over its southern neighbor. 

The RSF’s treatment of the Egyptian military force, said a Sudanese security source speaking to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity, could function to strengthen the position of RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo among the Sudanese public, political parties and parties in Sudan who are upset with Cairo, especially armed groups who are not on strong terms with Egypt, and to turn public sentiment against Sudanese Armed Forces General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

Yet during five days of confusion and uncertainty regarding the status and well-being of the soldiers, officials from all sides were clear in stating that the soldiers were in Sudan for standard joint training exercises, which began in Sudan in early April, even as long-standing tensions between the leaders of the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF militia simmered. 

"To the people and leadership of Egypt," said the RSF on Saturday as violent clashes erupted across the country, "[Egyptian] nationals are safe and secure" and the RSF is ready to "hand them over to their leadership whenever the security situation calms down." “The Egyptian battalion is not considered an enemy,” said Hemedti, “and surrendered without resistance.”

During the ensuing days, and as the RSF retreated from the Merowe Air Base, Cairo coordinated with the Sudanese Armed Forces and other groups in Sudan, as well as with Gulf states, according to sources familiar with relations between Cairo and Khartoum who said the Gulf states would be able to supply support given their considerable influence in Sudan since the overthrow of former President Omar al-Bashir.

Thursday’s delivery of the 27 personnel to the ICRC on Thursday was mediated by the United Arab Emirates, said the Egyptian Foreign Ministry and the RSF, while the Emirates stated later that it had succeeded in mediating the safeguarding of the Egyptian soldiers in Sudan, held by the RSF, and their delivery to the Egyptian Embassy in Khartoum.

From the embassy, the Egyptian soldiers will be returned home as soon as conditions are sufficiently stable for the transfer to be undertaken safely, said the Egyptian Armed Forces, describing the force as the remainder of a larger Egyptian deployment in Sudan. 

Other Egyptian personnel were flown back home from an air base in Sudan on military flights to Cairo on Wednesday evening, the Armed Forces continued.

A corresponding statement from the Sudanese Armed Forces released at dawn on Wednesday described 177 members of the Egyptian Air Force leaving Sudan’s Dongola Airport for Egypt. 

The 177 personnel, said the Sudanese Armed Forces, were in Merowe when violent clashes broke out in the city, but were a distinct force from what it said were 28 Egyptian soldiers.

The RSF later said they had handed 27 Egyptian soldiers to the ICRC on Thursday in compliance with international laws and norms, affirming that the troops were held at the Merowe Air Basr from April 15 to 20 and assuring that they were in excellent health at the moment they were handed over with all their belongings. The RSF thanked President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, as well as the efforts of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

The clashes erupting in the Sudanese capital and across the country are the outcome of escalating tensions, which have brewed as the military has tussled with the paramilitary group over particulars of the country’s governance after the two sides acted together to overthrow the transitional government in a 2021 coup.

A 24-hour ceasefire truce that began at nightfall on Wednesday, and was intended to bring calm to residential areas nationwide that have been ravaged by six days of continual clashes between Sudan’s warring commanders, was ruptured by Thursday morning by ongoing fighting in peripheral areas of the capital.

As residents continue to flee Khartoum, where the provision of power, water and medical supplies is unreliable, an uptick in violence has ripped through other Sudanese cities including Obeid and Darfur.