Leaders of Parallel Government Named in War-Torn Sudan
As fighting in central and south Sudan intensifies, the Sudan Founding Alliance said Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, would head a 15-person government council that would include regional governors. A statement issued on Saturday named a Sudanese politician, Mohamed Hassan Othman al-Ta'ayshi, as prime minister.
The coalition said the formation of the council renewed its 'commitment to building an inclusive homeland and a new, secular, democratic, decentralized, and voluntarily unified Sudan founded on the principles of freedom, justice, and equality.'
When pressed, the spokesman for the coalition, Alaa Eldin Awad Naqd, said, 'We have six-month emergency plans in every service sector, and there are strategic plans in all sectors in the country.' He would not elaborate.
The next step for the parallel government, he said, will be the formation of a ministerial council.
Democracy activists in Sudan have long denounced the military's stranglehold on power, but the coalition's lofty language notwithstanding, fighters for the Rapid Support Forces, known as the R.S.F., have been accused of atrocities.
Rights groups, the United Nations and the United States have accused both sides of war crimes, but only the R.S.F. has been implicated in genocide. A 2023 outbreak of violence against the Masalit ethnic group by the R.S.F., whose fighters are predominantly ethnic Arabs, led to allegations of ethnic cleansing.
Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday condemned the coalition's announcement and called on other governments to avoid interacting with 'this illegitimate entity declared by the terrorist militia.'
Alan Boswell, the Horn of Africa director at the International Crisis Group, said the coalition's announcement would only deepen Sudan's division.
'R.S.F. appears to think this move will increase its own legitimacy and leverage,' he said. 'More likely, it will only make the war even harder to end and Sudan even harder to piece back together.'
The war grew out of a feud between opposing generals in April 2023 and has since killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and plunged much of the country into famine.
Though Sudanese forces drove the R.S.F. out of Khartoum in March, the paramilitary-led coalition has declared its own government in the areas it still holds.
Most of that territory is in the Kordofan and Darfur regions, with the exception of the embattled city of El Fasher, which is held by Sudan's Army. American officials have warned of ethnic slaughter if the R.S.F. is able to take over the city.
Abdalrahman Altayeb contributed reporting.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News24
3 hours ago
- News24
No evidence of Lesotho rebel army, says SAPS
SAPS says the country's intelligence structures have been investigating Lesotho's claims that there are illegal military camps on farms in South Africa. Lesotho Commissioner of Police Borotho Matsoso had said the country was working closely with South African officials to investigate the camps. SAPS said National Commissioner General Fannie Masemola had met with all nine provincial commissioners and Matsoso's claims were high on the agenda. The South African Police Service (SAPS) says the country's intelligence structures have been investigating Lesotho's claims that there are illegal military camps on farms in South Africa training a rebel army. But the Hawks have yet to find any evidence of this, GroundUp reports. This follows an extraordinary press briefing on 18 July by Lesotho's top security chiefs, who claimed that a rebel group known as Malata Naha is recruiting Basotho youth and providing military training in South Africa. On Saturday, SAPS issued a statement after GroundUp reported that the South African authorities were mum on the allegations. Previously, Lesotho Commissioner of Police Borotho Matsoso had said the country was working closely with South African officials to investigate the camps. The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), also known as the Hawks, through its Crimes Against the State (CATS) unit, has been roped in to investigate. Various searches have been undertaken by CATS at identified farms, and no such evidence has been found to date. SAPS said National Commissioner General Fannie Masemola had met with all nine provincial commissioners and Matsoso's claims were high on the agenda. SAPS noted that a preliminary report from its Crime Intelligence Division was reviewed. Intelligence structures have heightened operations to verify the allegations. In a further development, SAPS confirmed that Masemola has directly engaged with Matsoso. 'Both commissioners agreed that law enforcement intelligence structures from both countries are on the ground investigating the existence of such camps,' the statement read. Masemola said: 'The safety and security of all people living in South Africa is of paramount importance, and anyone found committing illegal acts will face the full might of the law.' The SAPS statement said South Africans are urged not to panic or worry as police from both countries remain on high alert and are working jointly to establish the facts on the ground.
News24
7 hours ago
- News24
SA must prioritise appointment of US ambassador
Supplied (X) On Tuesday, the US House foreign affairs committee voted 34-16 to send the US-South Africa Bilateral Relations Review Act to the full House of Representatives, where it must still undergo processes long before it becomes law. The measure would need to pass both the House and the Senate before it could be signed into law. The proposed law is one of several sanctions that South Africa has suffered since President Donald Trump took office. He has stopped funds provided to South Africa through USAid, hampering a lot of developmental work in the country. He has announced that he will impose a 30% import tariff on goods from this country. He has even threatened an additional 10% tariff due to the fact that South Africa is a member of the Brics bloc of developing nations. Trump has overall sought to punish South Africa in every possible way. This new bill proposes a full review of the bilateral relationship between the two countries, and to identify South African government officials and ANC leaders eligible for the imposition of sanctions. It plans to sanction ANC leaders under America's Global Magnitsky Act, which imposes financial and visa restrictions on individuals deemed guilty of human rights abuses or corruption. But the irony is that South Africa is being punished for merely being critical of Israel and taking that country to the International Court of Justice for its genocidal actions against Palestinians. This step is almost an obligation for a country that went through apartheid and cannot keep silent while the Israel government kills and starves Palestinians. The majority of the sponsors of the bill are known to be recipients of donations from Israel lobby groups. So, it is almost a price that we should be proud to pay. There are other ancillary motivations added for the envisaged sanctions, but South Africa's Middle East policy is the primary one. However, the real disturbing observation of this situation is that South Africa is absolutely missing in these debates. It is not enough to be right, you have to convince the role players why our position is correct. At the moment, South Africa is a spectator while it is the subject of punitive measures and debates in the US. A while ago president Cyril Ramaphosa announced that businessman Mcebisi Jonas would be an envoy to the country to meet the relevant stakeholders and make South Africa's case. It is now evident that Jonas was not even allowed to start on this journey. The US had already expelled SA ambassador Ebrahim Rasool for remarks he had made against the US. Now more than ever, we need South Africa to expedite the appointment of an ambassador to try and influence these disturbing developments. It is a moot point whether the ambassador would be able (on their own) to arrest these punitive measures, but the appointment of an ambassador is the only official way to make our voice heard and to influence discourse. The department of internal relations and co-operation (Dirco) and the president need to take this up as an urgent matter. We know that the world is dealing with a maverick US president and administration, but we can do better than throw our hands up in despair.
Los Angeles Times
9 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Sudan paramilitaries announce a parallel government, deepening the country's crisis
CAIRO — A notorious paramilitary group and its allies in Sudan have formed a parallel government in areas under the group's control, which are mainly in the western region of Darfur where allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity are being investigated. The move, which was announced Saturday, is likely to deepen the crisis in Sudan, which plunged into chaos when tensions between the country's military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, exploded into fighting in 2023 in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country. The RSF-led Tasis Alliance appointed Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the commander of the paramilitary group, as head of the sovereign council in the rival administration. The 15-member council serves as head of the state, it declared. The RSF grew out of the notorious janjaweed militias, mobilized two decades ago by then-President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir against populations that identify as Central or East African in Darfur. The janjaweed were accused of mass killings, rapes and other atrocities. In the current war, the RSF too has been accused of numerous atrocities. The Biden administration imposed sanctions on Dagalo, saying the RSF and its proxies were committing genocide, a charge the group has denied. Alliance spokesman Alaa al-Din Naqd announced the new administration in a video statement from the Darfur city of Nyala, which is controlled by the RSF and its allied janjaweed. Mohammed Hassan Taishi, a civilian politician who was a member of a military-civilian sovereign council that ruled Sudan after the 2019 overthrow of Bashir, was named prime minister in the RSF-controlled government. Rebel leader Abdelaziz al-Hilu, who commands the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North, or SPLM-N, which is active in the southern Kodrofan region, was appointed as Dagalo's deputy in the council. The SPLM-N is a breakaway faction of the SPLM, the ruling party of neighboring South Sudan. The announcement came five months after the RSF and its allies signed a charter in February in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, with the aim of establishing a parallel government in RSF-controlled areas. At the time, many countries, including the United States, rejected the RSF efforts and condemned the signing at the Nairobi conference of what the paramilitary group and its allies called a 'transitional constitution.' The Foreign Ministry of Sudan's internationally recognized government in Khartoum condemned the announcement of a parallel government. It issued a statement calling it a 'fake government' and urged the international community to not engage with the RSF-led administration. The RSF-led move was likely to deepen the division in Sudan. Yasir Arman, a rebel leader, said the move is likely to prolong the conflict and divide Sudan between two rival administrations — similar to neighboring Libya. Magdy writes for the Associated Press.
