Alakkode: Malayali security officer Albert Augustine (48) was shot dead in Sudan on Saturday evening after a stray bullet during a civil unrest hit him through his apartment window. Manorama News reported that the bullet was fired during a clash between the army and rival paramilitary force in the country.
An ex-army officer and a Kannur native, Albert was working with a private security firm in Sudan for the past six months.
His wife Saibella and younger daughter Mareeta were also in the apartment with him. They reached Sudan a few days ago for vacation. The family was supposed to leave for India in a few days.
Sudan military rivals fight for power, scores of combatants and 56 civilians killed
Sudan's army launched air strikes on a rival paramilitary force's base near the capital in a bid to reassert control over the country on Sunday after a power struggle erupted into clashes that killed dozens of fighters and 56 civilians.
The fighting that broke out on Saturday between army units loyal to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, led by deputy leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, is the first such outbreak since both joined forces to oust president Omar Hassan al-Bashir in 2019.
At the end of a day of heavy fighting, the army struck a base belonging to the government's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the city of Omdurman, which adjoins the capital Khartoum, eyewitnesses said late on Saturday.
Both the military and the RSF claimed they had control of Sudan's airport and other key installations in Khartoum, where fighting raged overnight.
In the early hours of Sunday, residents reported hearing gunfire and explosions from heavy artillery through the night. Al Arabiya television broadcast footage showing thick plume of smoke rising over some districts in Khartoum.
