CAIRO, April 28. /TASS/. Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have denied accusations that their combatants shot at a Turkish airplane carrying out evacuations, the Al Hadath TV channel reported, citing an RSF spokesperson.

According to the news outlet, the RSF spokesperson blamed the incident on the country’s armed forces, which are vying with the RSF for power in the northeast African nation.

According to earlier reports, a Turkish aircraft that arrived in Sudan to evacuate foreign nationals came under fire while landing at the Wadi Seidna Air Base, located about 20 kilometers from the country’s capital of Khartoum. The Sudanese army said that the RSF was behind the incident. Turkey’s Defense Ministry confirmed the shooting incident, but refrained from placing the blame on any of the opposing factions. The ministry stated that there were no casualties.

The situation in Sudan escalated amid disagreements between the army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who also heads the ruling Sovereignty Council, and the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemedti), who is al-Burhan’s deputy on the council. The main points of contention between the two military organizations pertain to the timeline and methods for unifying the armed forces of Sudan, as well as who should be appointed as commander-in-chief of the army: a career military officer, which is al-Burhan’s preferred option, or an elected civilian president, as Dagalo insists. On April 15, armed clashes between the rival military factions erupted near a military base in Merowe and in the capital, Khartoum. According to the country’s health ministry, more than 600 people have been killed in the country since the conflict broke out.