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WASHINGTON - Four years after they joined hands to overthrow the decades-long rule of former dictator Omar al-Bashir, one of Sudan’s top military generals turned against the other in a violent power-grab that has brought the country’s hard-fought transition to democracy to its knees.

The Rapid Support Forces militia loyal to Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as “Hemedti,” launched an assault on the larger and better-equipped Sudanese Armed Forces under the command of his main rival and de facto head-of-state Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Saturday.

The attempted coup d’etat – Sudan’s third since 2019 – came as the rival generals had been in talks to unite Sudan’s various military factions before future elections to restore civilian governance.

A unified army under the authority of a civilian-led government would have ended some five decades of military rule in the country of 45 million people and paved the way for sorely needed foreign aid and loans.