Sudan: Is a rival government splitting the country in two? – DW – 08/01/2025
War-torn Sudan appears one step closer to breaking up. Last weekend, a Sudanese coalition led by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced the establishment of a rival government in Darfur.
The announcement had been widely expected after the RSF — which holds nearly all of the Darfur region and parts of the south — and other armed groups had formed the Sudan Founding Alliance (TASIS) in March. At the time, the alliance said it would soon establish a "Government of Peace and Unity" in areas under its control.
But now, the newly formed "Transitional Peace Government" with RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo as president claims to have jurisdiction over all of Sudan.
In a statement, TASIS said it was committed "to build[ing] an inclusive homeland and a new, secular, democratic, decentralized, and voluntarily unified Sudan founded on the principles of freedom, justice, and equality."
Unsurprisingly, the internationally recognized government under the leadership of General Abdel-Fattah Burhan and Prime Minister Kamil al-Taib Idris — who control the capital, Khartoum, along with the north, east and center of the country — has swiftly rejected the rival administration as "artificial construct" and "illegitimate entity."
The African Union with its 55 member states also said it would not recognize a "so-called parallel government" in Sudan.
The AU pointed out that the establishment of the new government "has serious consequences on the peace efforts and the existential future of the country."
Similarly, the UN has warned that the existence of the new administration could deepen Sudan's fragmentation and complicate diplomatic efforts to end the war in Sudan.
The war began in April 2023 when Sudan's army chief Burhan and the RSF's Dagalo fell out over the inclusion of the RSF into the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF.
"By announcing a government structure, the RSF is attempting to force itself into international discussions not as a militia to be disarmed, but as a political stakeholder with parallel governing authority," said Amgad Fareid Eltayeb of the Sudanese think tank Fikra for Studies and Development.
"Behind this lies a carefully timed and deeply political maneuver with far-reaching consequences for the narrative battle over legitimacy, governance and international engagement in Sudan's catastrophic war," he told DW.
In his view, the announcement was clearly timed to precede a planned meeting of the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Representatives from those four countries had hoped to launch a political dialogue between Sudan's army and the paramilitary RSF in order to issue a joint statement calling for an end of the hostilities and for improved humanitarian access.
But that meeting, originally planned for late July, was canceled at short notice. A new date is yet to be determinedm with some diplomats suggesting it could be rescheduled for September.
"The UAE inserted a last-minute change to include no presence for both the army and the RSF in Sudan's future transitional process," a diplomatic source told the news agency AFP.
Amgad Fareid Eltayeb, who previously served as assistant chief of staff to the former Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and as political adviser to the UN special political mission in Sudan, believes the UAE "added the stipulation as camouflage to justify pro-RSF support as they are not genuine about democratic or civilian transition in Sudan."
Many other observers agree that the war in Sudan continues to be fueled by international actors.
"The mounting evidence of Emirati involvement in arming and financing the RSF has placed Abu Dhabi in an increasingly uncomfortable position," said Amgad Fareid Eltayeb.
The UAE have been widely accused of arming the RSF, although Abu Dhabi has denied such allegations. That's despite multiple reports from UN experts, diplomats, US politicians and international organizations.
Cairo, one of the fiercest supporters of the SAF, called the last-minute stipulation "totally unacceptable," according to the same source speaking to AFP.
The establishment of the rival administration in Darfur comes at a time of intensified fighting in central and south Sudan. None of this spells hope for an end to the war or any improvement for the world's largest humanitarian and displacement crisis.
According to this week's report by the UN Refugee Agency, "there are now 12.0 million forcibly displaced due to the outbreak of conflict in Sudan since April 2023, including 7.7 million internally and 4.1 million in neighbouring countries."
International bodies estimate that the death toll has surpassed 150,000 people.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
On Wednesday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs raised alarm over the rising toll of hunger, disease and displacement in various conflict-ridden parts of Sudan. Both sides of the war remain sanctioned for war crimes.
Earlier this year, the US accused the RSF under General Dagalo of committing genocide, as well as grave human rights violations. The SAF under General Burhan has been accused of deadly attacks against civilians and undermining the goal of a democratic transition.
"Both parties to the conflict are obliged to provide aid to population under their control, including allowing humanitarian access," Mohamed Osman, Sudan researcher in Human Rights Watch's Africa Division, told DW.
"In most of Darfur where the RSF is in control and where they established their own parallel government, the RSF have shown little regard for human lives and have obstructed or looted aid deliveries," he added.
This observation is echoed by Amgad Fareid Eltayeb. "In areas under its sway, the RSF has not established order, justice or public services but has unleashed a reign of terror characterized by systematic sexual violence, massacres, looting and infrastructural devastation," he said.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
DW
6 days ago
- DW
A Sudanese city is starving: What can be done to help? – DW – 08/07/2025
The eastern Sudanese city of El Fasher has been under siege for almost a year. Fighters in the country's civil war have blocked all roads, putting around 300,000 inhabitants at risk of famine. Warnings have been coming for months. Last December, the global hunger monitor Integrated Food Security Phase Classification reported famine in two camps near the north-western Sudanese city of El Fasher, home to hundreds of thousands of displaced people. Even then, they warned Sudan's ongoing civil war could see famine spread into the city by May. The warning was prescient. El Fasher, the capital of the state of North Darfur, has now been under siege for over a year now. This week, the United Nations and a number of its agencies warned that approximately 300,000 people trapped inside the city face starvation. "WFP [the World Food Program] has not been able to deliver food assistance to El Fasher by road for over a year as all roads leading there are blocked," the UN aid program said in a statement. "The city is cut off from humanitarian access leaving the remaining population with little choice but to fend for survival with whatever limited supplies are left." Many residents are resorting to eating hay or animal fodder. Food that is available in the city costs significantly more than elsewhere in Sudan, making it unaffordable for most people. "What we really need now is for a humanitarian pause to be agreed upon so that we can safely transport urgent food and nutrition supplies into the city," Leni Kinzli, a WFP spokesperson based in Sudan, told DW. Sudan's civil war began in early 2023 when two rival military groups — the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) — started fighting for control. The SAF, with about 200,000 personnel and led by the country's de facto leader Abdel-Fattah Burhan, operates like a regular army. Burhan's government, based in Port Sudan on the Red Sea, is recognized as Sudan's government by the UN. The RSF, estimated to have 70,000 to 100,000 fighters and headed by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti. It functions more like a guerrilla force and includes the infamous Janjaweed militias, notorious for their brutality in Darfur in the early 2000s. Both sides have been accused of war crimes. El Fasher remains the only urban center in the Darfur region not controlled by the RSF. If the RSF wins here, they would control almost all of western Sudan. The SAF-aligned militias inside El Fasher, known as the Joint Forces, prevent a complete RSF victory. This is why the RSF has laid siege to the city since April 2024, digging trenches and regularly launching attacks on it. The situation worsened in April when the RSF attacked two camps near El Fasher sheltering over 500,000 displaced people. Many fled into the city or nearby towns. As the Joint Forces inside El Fasher lose ground, the RSF has tightened the siege in recent moments, said Shayna Lewis, senior adviser on Sudan for the US-based group PAEMA (Preventing and Ending Mass Atrocities). "The Rapid Support Forces have besieged the city for over a year at this point," she told DW in a televised interview. "But it's particularly in the past few months that they've tightened that blockade. Nothing is coming in and out. We used to have donkey carts that carried food into the city but now barely anything is able to even be smuggled in." Locals say the RSF aims to starve out SAF-allied forces. There are also reports that some of the forces inside the city are preventing civilians from leaving, using them as a protective buffer. "They attacked us; it was exhausting," Enaam Mohammed, a Sudanese woman who fled El Fasher for the nearby town of Tawila, told journalists this week. Tawila, around 40 kilometers (25 miles) away, has seen a massive influx of around 400,000 displaced people since April. Diseases like cholera and measles are now spreading there. "[They asked us] 'Where are the weapons? Where are the men?'" Mohammed continued, describing her experience with the RSF. "If they find someone with a mobile phone, they take it. If you have money, they take it. If you have a good, strong donkey, they take it." Mohammed says she also saw the RSF killing people and raping women. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Currently the conflict is at what analysts have described as a "strategic stalemate." Alongside other smaller groups, the RSF controls much of western Sudan, while the SAF controls the east. Earlier in July, the RSF set up their own civilian government, effectively splitting Sudan in two. There is no credible peace process and heavy fighting is ongoing in other parts of Sudan too. "Both parties view the conflict through a zero-sum lens," analysts at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) wrote earlier this year. "The victory of one side is entirely dependent on the defeat of the other." Neither side wants to negotiate, observers say. Exacerbating that is foreign backing for the different fighting groups. In July, the US postponed a meeting about Sudan that would have brought together Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. The Saudis and Egyptians are thought to support the SAF and the UAE, the RSF — all deny providing military aid to Sudanese groups. The meeting is now planned for September. This week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called SAF leader Burhan to ask for a week-long ceasefire that would allow aid into El Fasher. Burhan agreed but the RSF has yet to consent. The impact of the war also goes well beyond the besieged city of El Fasher, the WFP's Kinzli pointed out. The UN regularly calls what is happening in Sudan the world's largest humanitarian crisis. Aid agencies estimate that around 12 million people of Sudan's 46-million-strong population have been displaced by the conflict and that around 150,000 people have died as a result of it. There are famine conditions and infectious diseases in other parts of the country too. "What we need from the international community is two things," Kinzli said. "One, of course, is funding — because the scale of needs in Sudan is just so high. We're looking at 25 million people who face acute hunger and that's a moderate estimate. The resources we have available are just not able to meet that level of need." The second thing aid agencies like the WFP would like to see is "increased attention and engagement" with Sudan from the international community, she argues. "Primarily to help bring an end to this conflict by bringing all parties to the table, but also to join us in our calls for unfettered humanitarian access," she says. "What needs to happen in Sudan is that the flow of aid needs to be larger than the flow of weapons," Kinzli concluded. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Int'l Business Times
7 days ago
- Int'l Business Times
Sudan Says Army Destroys Emirati Aircraft, Killing 40 Mercenaries
Sudan's air force has destroyed an Emirati aircraft carrying Colombian mercenaries as it landed at a paramilitary-controlled airport in Darfur, killing at least 40 people, the army-aligned state TV said Wednesday. A military source, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said the UAE plane "was bombed and completely destroyed" at Darfur's Nyala airport, which has recently come under repeated air strikes by the Sudanese army, at war with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) since April 2023. There was no immediate comment from the RSF or from the United Arab Emirates. State TV said the aircraft had taken off from an airbase in the Gulf, carrying dozens of foreign fighters and military equipment intended for the RSF, which controls nearly all of Darfur. The army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has long accused the UAE of supplying advanced weaponry, including drones, to the RSF via Nyala airport. Abu Dhabi has denied the accusations, despite numerous reports from UN experts, US political officials and international organisations. Satellite images released by Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab have shown multiple Chinese-made long-range drones at the airport of the South Darfur state capital. In June, three witnesses told AFP that a cargo plane was bombed shortly after landing at Nyala airport. On Monday, Sudan's army-aligned government accused the UAE of recruiting and funding Colombian mercenaries to fight for the RSF, claiming it has documents proving that. Reports of Colombian fighters in Darfur date back to late 2024 and have been confirmed by UN experts. This week, the Joint Forces -- a pro-army coalition in the vast western region of Darfur -- reported over 80 Colombian mercenaries fighting on the RSF's side in El-Fasher, the last Darfur state capital still under army control. Several were reportedly killed in drone and artillery operations during the RSF's latest offensive, the coalition said. The army also released video footage it said was of "foreign mercenaries believed to be from Colombia". AFP was not able to verify the videos. In December, Sudan said Colombia's foreign ministry had expressed regret "for the participation of some of its citizens in the war". Colombian mercenaries, many former soldiers and guerrillas, have appeared in other global conflicts and were previously hired by the UAE for operations in Yemen and the Gulf. Sudan's war, now in its third year, has killed tens of thousands, displaced 13 million and plunged the nation into the world's worst hunger and displacement crisis.
DW
01-08-2025
- DW
Sudan: Is a rival government splitting the country in two? – DW – 08/01/2025
The new rival "Government of Peace and Unity" in Darfur has not been internationally recognized. But observers fear it could bring more civil war, humanitarian suffering and even split the country in two. War-torn Sudan appears one step closer to breaking up. Last weekend, a Sudanese coalition led by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced the establishment of a rival government in Darfur. The announcement had been widely expected after the RSF — which holds nearly all of the Darfur region and parts of the south — and other armed groups had formed the Sudan Founding Alliance (TASIS) in March. At the time, the alliance said it would soon establish a "Government of Peace and Unity" in areas under its control. But now, the newly formed "Transitional Peace Government" with RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo as president claims to have jurisdiction over all of Sudan. In a statement, TASIS said it was committed "to build[ing] an inclusive homeland and a new, secular, democratic, decentralized, and voluntarily unified Sudan founded on the principles of freedom, justice, and equality." Unsurprisingly, the internationally recognized government under the leadership of General Abdel-Fattah Burhan and Prime Minister Kamil al-Taib Idris — who control the capital, Khartoum, along with the north, east and center of the country — has swiftly rejected the rival administration as "artificial construct" and "illegitimate entity." The African Union with its 55 member states also said it would not recognize a "so-called parallel government" in Sudan. The AU pointed out that the establishment of the new government "has serious consequences on the peace efforts and the existential future of the country." Similarly, the UN has warned that the existence of the new administration could deepen Sudan's fragmentation and complicate diplomatic efforts to end the war in Sudan. The war began in April 2023 when Sudan's army chief Burhan and the RSF's Dagalo fell out over the inclusion of the RSF into the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF. "By announcing a government structure, the RSF is attempting to force itself into international discussions not as a militia to be disarmed, but as a political stakeholder with parallel governing authority," said Amgad Fareid Eltayeb of the Sudanese think tank Fikra for Studies and Development. "Behind this lies a carefully timed and deeply political maneuver with far-reaching consequences for the narrative battle over legitimacy, governance and international engagement in Sudan's catastrophic war," he told DW. In his view, the announcement was clearly timed to precede a planned meeting of the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Representatives from those four countries had hoped to launch a political dialogue between Sudan's army and the paramilitary RSF in order to issue a joint statement calling for an end of the hostilities and for improved humanitarian access. But that meeting, originally planned for late July, was canceled at short notice. A new date is yet to be determinedm with some diplomats suggesting it could be rescheduled for September. "The UAE inserted a last-minute change to include no presence for both the army and the RSF in Sudan's future transitional process," a diplomatic source told the news agency AFP. Amgad Fareid Eltayeb, who previously served as assistant chief of staff to the former Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and as political adviser to the UN special political mission in Sudan, believes the UAE "added the stipulation as camouflage to justify pro-RSF support as they are not genuine about democratic or civilian transition in Sudan." Many other observers agree that the war in Sudan continues to be fueled by international actors. "The mounting evidence of Emirati involvement in arming and financing the RSF has placed Abu Dhabi in an increasingly uncomfortable position," said Amgad Fareid Eltayeb. The UAE have been widely accused of arming the RSF, although Abu Dhabi has denied such allegations. That's despite multiple reports from UN experts, diplomats, US politicians and international organizations. Cairo, one of the fiercest supporters of the SAF, called the last-minute stipulation "totally unacceptable," according to the same source speaking to AFP. The establishment of the rival administration in Darfur comes at a time of intensified fighting in central and south Sudan. None of this spells hope for an end to the war or any improvement for the world's largest humanitarian and displacement crisis. According to this week's report by the UN Refugee Agency, "there are now 12.0 million forcibly displaced due to the outbreak of conflict in Sudan since April 2023, including 7.7 million internally and 4.1 million in neighbouring countries." International bodies estimate that the death toll has surpassed 150,000 people. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video On Wednesday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs raised alarm over the rising toll of hunger, disease and displacement in various conflict-ridden parts of Sudan. Both sides of the war remain sanctioned for war crimes. Earlier this year, the US accused the RSF under General Dagalo of committing genocide, as well as grave human rights violations. The SAF under General Burhan has been accused of deadly attacks against civilians and undermining the goal of a democratic transition. "Both parties to the conflict are obliged to provide aid to population under their control, including allowing humanitarian access," Mohamed Osman, Sudan researcher in Human Rights Watch's Africa Division, told DW. "In most of Darfur where the RSF is in control and where they established their own parallel government, the RSF have shown little regard for human lives and have obstructed or looted aid deliveries," he added. This observation is echoed by Amgad Fareid Eltayeb. "In areas under its sway, the RSF has not established order, justice or public services but has unleashed a reign of terror characterized by systematic sexual violence, massacres, looting and infrastructural devastation," he said. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
