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New York Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Leaders of Parallel Government Named in War-Torn Sudan
A coalition led by the paramilitary group fighting for power in Sudan's brutal civil war has announced the leadership for its self-declared parallel government, further tearing the fabric of an politically fraying nation. 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.
New York Times
16-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Sudanese Paramilitary Group Declares Parallel Government as 400,000 Flee Offensive
A Sudanese paramilitary group declared its own government on Wednesday, even as its fighters pressed an all-out offensive on a city in the western Darfur region that has sent hundreds of thousands of civilians fleeing from a famine-stricken camp. The announcement of a parallel government by the Rapid Support Forces, or R.S.F., stoked fears that Sudan's two-year civil war is rapidly pushing the country toward a potentially disastrous territorial split. The R.S.F. controls much of western and southern Sudan, while the military holds the north and east, including the capital Khartoum. Both sides have been accused of atrocities. The R.S.F. leader, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, gave few details about the composition of what he called his 'government of peace and unity,' other than to say it would include a wide range of ethnic groups reflecting 'the true face of Sudan.' Such calls for inclusivity echo longstanding demands by Sudanese pro democracy activists, who oppose the military's tightfisted grip on power. But as often in Sudan's brutal conflict, the R.S.F.'s high-minded rhetoric was at odds with the actions of its troops. The paramilitaries launched a large-scale offensive on Friday, storming the Zamzam camp in El Fasher, the last major city in Darfur that the R.S.F. does not control, as part of a broader assault. On Tuesday, the United Nations said that at least 300 people had been killed and as many as 400,000 others forced to flee the camp in a matter of days. Zamzam, which housed at least 500,000 people and where a famine was declared last August, is now largely empty, according to aid workers. They say that at least 30,000 people have fled to Tawila, 50 miles by road to the west — with many arriving dehydrated, malnourished and traumatized by the scenes they witnessed in the camp. 'They have nothing but the clothes they're wearing, nothing to eat, nothing to drink,' Marion Ramstein, an emergency field coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, said in an email. 'Many were in shock. They spoke of so many killings and corpses.' Doctors Without Borders closed its own operations in Zamzam in February, saying that shelling, attacks on ambulances and a tightening siege had made it impossible to work there. On Tuesday, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said the United States 'condemns in the strongest possible terms' the R.S.F.-led violence in El Fasher. But she declined to say whether the Trump administration would affirm the Biden administration's determination that the R.S.F. had committed genocide. The latest violence coincided with the second anniversary of the conflict, which started in April 2023 when fighting erupted between the Sudanese military and the R.S.F., a paramilitary group it once fostered. The war took a sharp turn in recent weeks when the army drove R.S.F. fighters out of the capital, Khartoum. Many fled to Darfur, where the R.S.F. has regrouped and is now redoubling its yearlong effort to capture El Fasher. Surging violence and poor communications have made it hard to get an accurate picture of the situation, but the estimate from the United Nations that nearly half a million people had been displaced in a matter of days was striking, even by the standards of the world's largest humanitarian crisis. The devastation has renewed focus on the role of the United Arab Emirates in the conflict. American and U.N. officials have accused it of supplying weapons, drones and other military assistance to the R.S.F. The Emirates has consistently denied providing any help to the R.S.F. Sudan's military-dominated government has brought a case against the Emirates, which opened last week at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, accusing it of complicity in genocide. The Emirates asked for the case to be thrown out. In Washington, members of Congress renewed calls for the United States to stop supplying weapons to the Emirates until it stops supporting the R.S.F. 'The U.A.E. should stop its materiel support to the R.S.F. now,' Rep. Sara Jacobs of California wrote Tuesday on social media. American officials have said that senior Emirati leaders were more candid about their role in Sudan, including tacit admissions of support to the R.S.F., during private talks with Biden administration officials last year. On Tuesday, hundreds of Sudanese massed outside the Emirati embassy in London to protest the alleged Emirati role in the war, in a demonstration that coincided with a major conference on Sudan hosted by the British government. The European Union and Britain pledged $830 million in additional aid at the London conference, although Sudanese officials criticized the presence of Emirati officials who continued to press their denials about supporting the R.S.F. In a statement, Lana Nusseibeh, assistant minister for political affairs at the Emirati foreign ministry, accused both sides in the war of atrocities, and said the U.A.E. was issuing 'an urgent call for peace.'
New York Times
21-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
In Sudan's Devastated Capital, a Climatic Battle Comes Into View
Sudanese military forces pushed toward the presidential palace in the battle-scarred capital, Khartoum, on Thursday, signaling a potential turning point in Sudan's devastating civil war, now approaching its third year. Video footage showed Sudanese troops about 500 yards east of the palace compound, which overlooks the river Nile, and is controlled by the Rapid Support Forces, or R.S.F., the army's powerful paramilitary rival. Capturing the palace would be a major symbolic victory for Sudan's army, which lost most of Khartoum to the R.S.F. in the early days of the war in April 2023. It would also significantly boost the military's six-month-old drive to push the paramilitaries out of the city entirely. Early on Thursday, the army launched a blistering ambush on an R.S.F. convoy south of the palace, video footage showed. For the rest of the day, gunfire and explosions could be heard across the capital. Nile River OMDURMAN NORTH KHARTOUM Sudanese Armed Forces (S.A.F.) Presidential palace KHARTOUM Rapid Support Forces (R.S.F.) White Nile River SUDAN Khartoum Nile River OMDURMAN NORTH KHARTOUM Sudanese Armed Forces (S.A.F.) Presidential palace KHARTOUM White Nile River Rapid Support Forces (R.S.F.) SUDAN Khartoum Note: Areas of control are as of March 19. Source: Thomas van Linge The R.S.F. leader, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, has vowed to stand his ground. 'Do not think that we will retreat from the palace,' he said last week in a video address from an undisclosed location. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
