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Al Jazeera
a day ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Sudan's competing authorities are beholden to militia leaders, say analysts
In June, the Sudanese Armed Forces appointed Prime Minister Kamil Idris to lead the civilian cabinet in Port Sudan, the wartime capital on the Red Sea coast. Idris wanted an overhaul, to appoint a team of technocrats to run the new government. But Gebreil Ibrahim and Mini Arko Minawi – leaders of two powerful armed groups from Darfur – refused to leave their posts, and army leader Abdelfattah al-Burhan overruled Idris to keep them there. 'Burhan's concession to Ibrahim and Minawi allows them to keep ministries that control [government] revenue,' said Suliman Baldo, the founder of the Sudan Transparency and Policy Tracker, a think tank. Al Jazeera sent written questions to army spokesperson Nabil Abdullah, asking him why al-Burhan overruled Idris. No response had been received by the time of publication. On the other side of the war is a coalition of armed groups that have, de facto, divided Sudan in half after more than two years of civil war. The Rapid Support Forces paramilitary, which is battling the army, has formed an alliance with smaller armed factions and declared its intention to form a parallel government that will ostensibly represent all of Sudan. The RSF-backed coalition has already unveiled its leadership council, on which the leaders of armed groups feature in prominent positions. Analysts told Al Jazeera that SAF and the RSF are trying to meet the demands of powerful militias in a bid to keep their respective battlefield alliances intact. In February, the RSF announced that it had formed an alliance with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), an armed group from the Nuba Mountains led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu. From the beginning of the war, it had remained neutral, shocking observers when it allied with the RSF to form a new alliance and parallel government, which they named Tasis (foundation). The SPLM-N governs large swaths of South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, and has been at war with the army – as well as the RSF, which used to be the army's ally before they turned their guns on each other – for 40 years. SPLM-N was born out of the SPLM, which emerged in the early 1980s to fight for southern independence and to end its marginalisation by the elites of northern and central Sudan. The Nuba – a group of about 50 communities from what was then central Sudan – was part of the SPLM. But when South Sudan seceded in 2011, Nuba fighters rebranded as SPLM-N and continued their rebellion against Khartoum, fighting and defeating the RSF, which was deployed to fight them by former President Omar al-Bashir in 2016. Nearly a decade later, on July 2, Tasis announced a 31-member senior leadership council, with Hemedti as its head and SPLM-N's al-Hilu as deputy. While the full list of the 31-member council is not yet public, it also includes Tahir al-Hajar, the head of the Darfur-based Sudan Liberation Gathering Forces (SLGF), according to an interview he gave Al Jazeera Mubasher. Tasis will soon roll out a government to help the RSF and its allies in their fight against the army, Kholood Khair, Sudan expert and founder of Confluence Advisory think tank, believes. The RSF wants to exploit the guise of a formal government to better profit from aid groups, buy sophisticated weapons such as fighter jets that can only be sold to states, and boost its stance in any future negotiations with the army, she explained. 'They do not want to go into any kind of mediation as a rebel group. They want to be seen as a government [to boost their legitimacy],' Khair said. Al Jazeera asked Tasis spokesman, Alaa Nugud, to respond to accusations that the alliance was simply formed to garner international legitimacy for armed groups on the ground. While he did not respond before publication, Tasis portrays itself as the cornerstone of a 'New Sudan' seeking to protect historically neglected and persecuted communities, even as the RSF stands accused of committing ethnic killings and genocide against sedentary communities known as 'non-Arabs' in Darfur. However, 'this is just a group formed out of war dynamics despite their entire narrative of it being a coalition of the marginalised,' said Hamid Khalafallah, an expert on Sudan and PhD candidate at the University of Manchester. On the Port Sudan government's side, Gebreil Ibrahim and Mini Arko Minawi lead the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Army – Mini Minawi (SLA-MM), respectively. The two armed groups mainly comprised sedentary farming 'non-Arab' communities from the vast western region of Darfur who came together to fight a rebellion against the central government in 2003. Their stated aim was to end the persecution and neglect of their communities, but like most of Sudan's armed groups, they ended up using their weapons to negotiate access to state coffers and prominent posts in government instead. 'What this whole war has shown is if you pick up a gun, then you can get power,' Khair said. 'The RSF are really the poster children for this model,' she added. The RSF in its current form was born during the Darfur war, which started in 2003, when al-Bashir tapped Mohamed Hamdan 'Hemedti' Dagalo and his feared 'Arab' Popular Defence Forces (Janjaweed) militia to crush the rebellion there. Al-Bashir rewarded Hemedti, who took part in countless atrocities against 'non-Arabs', by repackaging the Janjaweed into the RSF in 2013, with Hemedti at its head and a place with the army. As part of the state, Hemedti was able to consolidate control over lucrative gold mines, expand recruitment and lease out fighters to partake in regional wars for tens of millions of dollars. When al-Bashir was deposed by a popular uprising in April 2019, a wealthy, powerful Hemedti became al-Burhan's deputy in the Transitional Military Council. Tasis, as well as the army-backed government in Port Sudan, are beholden to armed actors, which means more local commanders could expand recruitment and acquire weapons, hoping to get strong enough to gain political power, analysts warn. Mohamed 'al-Jakomi' Seid Ahmed, an army-aligned commander from northern Sudan, made a statement a few weeks ago that hinted at his aspirations, Sudan Transparency and Policy Tracker's Baldo said. Al-Jakomi said that he would be training a whopping 50,000 men in Eritrea to protect Sudan's Northern State from possible incursion by the RSF. He confirmed his plan in an interview with Al Jazeera Mubasher. In addition, Baldo referenced Abu Aqla Keikel, whose force was instrumental in helping the army recapture the agricultural heartland of Gezira state three months after defecting from the RSF to the army in October 2024. Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Al Jazeera's reporting point to atrocities committed by Keikel's fighters, prompting the European Union to sanction him on July 18. Still, analysts say his power is growing and he may harbour ambitions to secure some form of political power. 'These are individuals who can hold the army hostage through their autonomous militias … as a way to secure seats around the cake when it is divided,' Baldo told Al Jazeera. To appease armed actors that they want to keep onside, the army-backed government will likely create new positions as rewards, Jawhara Kanu, an expert on Sudan's economy, said. 'The government will just have to keep swelling … with as many ministries as possible to reward as many people as possible,' she told Al Jazeera. However, neither Port Sudan nor Tasis will be able to hand out political posts forever, especially if the war continues and more powerful militias emerge. The army doesn't have enough revenue – a result of losing control of nearly half the country, which encompasses profitable gold mines and agricultural lands, according to Khair. She added that Hemedti and his family are unlikely to cede much of their private wealth to pay recruits. Throughout the war, the RSF incentivised its fighters by allowing them to plunder the cities and villages they attacked. But as loot runs dry, militias may resort to building their fiefdoms by setting up checkpoints to heavily tax people and goods passing through, warns Khair. 'The new predatory behaviour, supported by the state in RSF and army areas, will be checkpoints. And these checkpoints will mark one rebel leader's area from another,' she told Al Jazeera. 'In a decade's time, it may eventually be difficult to tell which militia is loyal to the army and which is loyal to the RSF,' Khair added.
The Guardian
06-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Peter Everington obituary
My friend Peter Everington, who has died aged 90, was in his second year studying classics at Cambridge when the Suez crisis came to a head in October 1956. The perceived arrogance and deceit driving Britain's involvement in the invasion of Egypt shocked him deeply, and prompted him to rethink the direction of his life. Turning to his strong Christian faith, he felt a call to build bridges between Britain and the Arab world. This led him to switch his degree course to Arabic, and after graduation, in 1958, he became an English teacher in newly independent Sudan. Over an eight-year period, he worked in secondary schools in Port Sudan and Khartoum and at the Higher Teacher Training Institute in Omdurman, and he revisited the country many times subsequently. While teaching in Northern Ireland prior to Cambridge, Peter had become involved in a movement called Moral Re-Armament (MRA), later renamed Initiatives of Change, which encouraged conflict resolution. Peter attempted this kind of work in Sudan – divided between the Muslim north and the Christian south – by supporting figures on either side who wanted to bring peace to the wartorn country. One of these was Joseph Lagu, a guerrilla leader who later became vice-president of Sudan before going into exile in London. There, Peter and Lagu worked closely together from the mid-1980s onwards, supporting peacebuilding efforts. In 1996 Peter was awarded the Order of the Two Niles for services to Sudan. Born in Hendon, then in Middlesex, to Stella (nee Hilleary) and Jack Everington, a lawyer, Peter grew up in Radlett, Hertfordshire, and went to Marlborough college in Wiltshire. He did military service in Hong Kong, and a stint teaching at Mourne Grange preparatory school near Kilkeel in Northern Ireland before going to Pembroke College, Cambridge. Returning from Sudan to the UK in 1966, he decided to work full-time with MRA. In 1972, he married Jean Robertson, and they spent the first two and a half years of their marriage in Iran. Back in the UK from the mid-1970s, with the couple eventually settling in Acton, west London, Peter was involved over the next two decades in running a student exchange programme for the British-Arab Universities Association. In 2017, a Khartoum-based cultural organisation published, in English and Arabic, a memoir by Peter entitled Watch Your Step, Khawaja: A British Teacher in Sudan 1958-66. In recent years, Peter was a lay preacher at his local Anglican church, St Dunstan's. He also volunteered with Ealing and Acton Support Enterprise (Ease), a charity working with asylum seekers. A cricket lover, he was a member of the MCC. He is survived by Jean and their son, John.
Malay Mail
29-06-2025
- Politics
- Malay Mail
US slaps Sudan with sanctions over chemical attacks — here's what we know
PORT SUDAN, June 29 — The US State Department imposed sanctions on the Sudanese government Friday, accusing it of using chemical weapons last year in its war against rival paramilitaries. Since April 2023, the war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces has drawn widespread accusations of war crimes, with the US determining in January the RSF had committed genocide. Sanctions The State Department in May notified Congress of its determination that 'the Government of Sudan used chemical weapons in 2024', in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Khartoum ratified in 1999. Washington did not provide details on where or when the chemical attacks occurred. Sudan's army-aligned government immediately denied the US allegations, calling them 'baseless' and 'political blackmail'. Washington's sanctions, initially intended to go into effect on June 6, restrict US exports and financing. Urgent humanitarian aid will be exempted from the sanctions on Sudan, where nearly 25 million people are suffering dire food insecurity in the world's largest hunger crisis. History of accusations In January, the New York Times reported the Sudanese army had used chemical weapons at least twice in the war, citing four anonymous senior US officials. They said the chemical agent used, with the direct approval of army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, was chlorine. The army, which has been in control of Sudan for most of its post-independence history since 1956, has been accused of carrying out chemical attacks before. In 2016, an Amnesty International investigation accused the army — then allied with the RSF — of using chemical weapons on civilians in the western region of Darfur. Khartoum denied the accusations. In 1998, the US claimed the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum was producing chemical components for Al-Qaeda, before destroying the factory in a missile attack. Past sanctions Relations between the US and Sudan were strained for decades under the rule of Omar al-Bashir, who came to power in 1993 and whose Islamist-military rule was long accused of supporting terrorism. US sanctions imposed in the early 1990s were tightened in 2006 following accusations of genocide in the Darfur region, carried out on behalf of Khartoum by the RSF's predecessor militia, the Janjaweed. After a popular uprising ousted Bashir in 2019, the US removed Sudan from its list of state sponsors of terrorism and began to lift sanctions. Some were reintroduced following a 2021 coup, led by Burhan alongside his then-deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, before the allies' power struggle erupted into all-out war in April 2023. By January 2025, the US had imposed sanctions on both Burhan and Daglo, who is commonly known as Hemeti. Efforts at mediation, including by the Biden administration, have repeatedly failed to produce a ceasefire. Expected impact Sudanese civilians have long borne the brunt of sanctions on their country. Both Burhan and Hemeti's camps built considerable wealth while under a decades-long sanctions regime, finessing transnational financial networks while the country was left underdeveloped. Today, Africa's third largest country is suffering what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with over 10 million people internally displaced and famine already declared in parts of the country. The US was Sudan's largest donor in 2024, contributing 44.4 per cent of the UN's US$2 billion (RM8.46 billion) humanitarian response plan. Following US President Donald Trump's suspension of most foreign aid, the US has dropped its contribution by nearly 80 per cent. US exports were valued at US$56.6 million in 2024, according to data from the US Census Bureau. — AFP
Asharq Al-Awsat
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Hemedti Aide: Ready for Talks to End Sudan War if Seriousness Shown
A senior adviser to the commander of Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) said the group is open to serious negotiations with the government based in Port Sudan to end the country's devastating conflict, now in its third year, provided there is genuine political will from the other side. The remarks by Ezz El-Din Al-Safi, who is also a member of the RSF's negotiating team, come as international actors prepare to meet in Brussels on Thursday in a bid to lay the groundwork for a ceasefire. The talks are expected to include the European Union, African Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Bahrain. 'Negotiations could begin with confidence-building measures and credible arrangements,' Al-Safi told Asharq Al-Awsat. 'Dialogue remains the best path to ending a war that has no winners, only losers, both the people and the nation.' He said the RSF is ready to discuss the location, timing, and possible mediators for peace talks, but stressed that any engagement must be met with equal seriousness by Sudan's military-backed government. However, Al-Safi cautioned that his group would not accept talks that merely allow the opposing side to regroup and secure external support to resume fighting. 'We cannot enter into a dialogue that gives the other party time to reorganize and rearm,' he said, adding that the RSF remains 'at its strongest' on the battlefield. Sudan's army has conditioned any peace negotiations on the implementation of the Jeddah Declaration, a humanitarian agreement signed in May 2023. The deal, brokered by Saudi Arabia and the United States, has since been marred by mutual accusations of violations from both the military and the RSF. Meanwhile, the RSF is pushing ahead with plans to form a rival administration in areas under its control. Al-Safi, a senior adviser to RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, said the group is nearing the formation of what he called a 'government of unity and peace.' He added that over 90% of the preparations for the announcement have been completed. 'The delay in announcing the government is due to ongoing consultations among members of the Founding Sudan Alliance [Tasis], which supports this move,' Al-Safi told Asharq Al-Awsat. 'It's not because of internal disagreements, as some have suggested.' Asked about the planned capital of the parallel government, Al-Safi declined to name the city but suggested it would not be Khartoum. 'There are cities more beautiful than Khartoum,' he said. 'From a strategic perspective, I believe the capital should be temporary and capable of accommodating all institutions of government.' He only noted that the proposed city is located in territory controlled by the Tasis alliance. The RSF's moves come amid growing fears that the fragmentation of Sudan will deepen if parallel authorities are entrenched, further complicating efforts to reach a comprehensive peace.
BBC News
16-06-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Sudan in danger of self-destructing as conflict and famine reign
Sudan's war is in strategic stalemate. Each side stakes its hopes on a new offensive, a new delivery of weapons, a new political alliance, but neither can gain a decisive losers are the Sudanese people. Every month there are more who are hungry, displaced, Sudan armed forces triumphantly announced the recapture of central Khartoum in broadcast pictures of its leader, Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, walking through the ruins of the capital's Republican Palace, which had been controlled by the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), since the earliest days of the war in April army deployed weapons newly acquired from Egypt, Turkey and other Middle Eastern countries including Qatar and Iran. But its offensive quickly stalled. The RSF, headed by Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as "Hemedti", responded with a devastating drone attack on Port Sudan, which is both the interim capital of the military government and also the main entry point for humanitarian were long-range sophisticated drones, which the army accuses the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of supplying - a charge the UAE rejects, along with well-documented reports that it has been backing the RSF during the 27-month conflict.A simple guide to Sudan's warFear, loss and hope in Sudan's ruined capital after army victoryBurhan and Hemedti - the two generals at the heart of the conflictThe RSF has also expanded operations to the south of struck a deal with Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, the veteran rebel commander of the Sudan People's Liberation Army-North, which controls the Nuba Mountains near the border with South forces combined may be able to make a push to the border with Ethiopia, hoping to open new supply the RSF has been besieging the capital of North Darfur, el-Fasher, which is defended by a coalition of Darfurian former rebels, known as the Joint Forces, allied with the of the fighters are ethnic Zaghawa, who have been in fierce conflict with the Arab groups that form the core of the RSF. Month after month of blockade, bombardment and ground attacks have created famine among the residents, with the people of the displaced camp of Zamzam RSF and its allied Arab militias have a terrifying record of massacre, rape and ethnic cleansing. Human rights organisations have accused it of genocide against the Massalit people of West communities in el-Fasher fear that if the Joint Forces are defeated, they will suffer savage reprisals at the hands of the pressure on el-Fasher is growing. Last week the RSF captured desert garrisons on the border with Libya held by the Joint military has accused forces loyal to Libyan strongman Gen Khalifa Haftar, who controls the east of the country and is also a reported beneficiary of Emirati support, of joining in the civilians, who six years ago managed the extraordinary feat of overthrowing the country's long-time leader Omar al-Bashir through non-violent protests, are in groupings are aligned with Burhan, with Hemedti, or trying to stake out a neutral position. They are all active on social media, polarised, acrimonious and neighbourhood committees that were the driving force of the civic revolution are clinging to life. Most have kept their political heads down, focusing instead on essential humanitarian activities. Known as "Emergency Response Rooms", aid workers recognise that they are the most efficient channel for life-saving many lost their funding when the administration of US President Donald Trump closed down USAID, and other donors have not stepped into the army and RSF both see any form of civic activism as a threat. They are cracking down, arresting, torturing and killing national aid workers and human rights is no credible peace UN's chief diplomat assigned to Sudan, former Algerian Prime Minister Ramtane Lamamra, formulated a peace plan that was premised on the assumption that the army would achieve a military that would be left to negotiate would be the disarmament of the RSF and the reconstruction of the country. That is totally has a big diplomatic advantage over Hemedti because the UN has recognised the military side as the government of Sudan, even when it did not control the national attempt to launch a parallel administration for the vast territories controlled by the RSF has gained little credibility. Foreign ministers at a conference in London in April, hosted by British Foreign Secretary David Lammy, failed to agree a path to peace. The conference chairs had to settle for a statement that covered familiar this occasion, as before, progress was blocked because Saudi Arabia and the UAE could not acknowledge that Sudan's war is an African problem that needs an Arab road to peace in Khartoum runs through Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Egypt, the big question is whether Burhan is able to distance himself from Sudan's Bashir, the Islamist movement was in power for 30 years, and established a formidable and well-funded organisation, that still Islamists mobilised combat brigades that were key to the army's recent victory in President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi supports Burhan and wants him to sideline the Islamists, but knows that he cannot push the Sudanese general too question takes on added salience with Israel's attack on Iran and the Islamists' fear that they are facing an irreversible other big question is whether the UAE will step back from supporting the RSF lost Khartoum, some hoped that Abu Dhabi might seek a compromise - but within weeks the RSF was deploying drones that appear to have come from the UAE is also facing strategic challenges, as it is an outlier in the Arab world in its alignment with wants to see Sudan divided. But the reality of the war points towards a de facto partition between bitterly opposed warring camps. Meanwhile, the world's largest and deepest humanitarian emergency worsens with no end in than half of Sudan's 45 million people are displaced. Nearly a million are in sides continue to restrict aid agencies' access to the starving. The UN's appeal for $4.2bn (£3bn) for essential aid was only 13.3% funded in late and among the Arab world's powerbrokers, Sudan is no-one's priority, an orphan in a region that is is a country where the multilateral organisations - the United Nations and the African Union - could still be can remind all of their commitments to human rights and human life, and that it is in no-one's interest to see Sudan's catastrophe continue to long-suffering Sudanese people surely deserve that quantum of de Waal is the executive director of the World Peace Foundation at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in the US. 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