Sudan’s RSF, accused of genocide, signs charter to form rival government

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which are accused of crimes against humanity committed during a 20-month conflict, have signed a charter with allies’ political and armed organizations to form a “government of peace and unity” (PRSF).

Although it was unclear whether the document was signed after midnight on Saturday or Sunday, the signing ceremony took place in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital.

The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) are making advances against the RSF in Khartoum and other locations, and the government is not anticipated to receive widespread support.

International human rights organizations and nations like the US accuse the RSF of carrying out ethnic cleansing and even genocide.

The charter, however, is a sign that the splintering of Sudan is cementing, as the RSF focuses on the western region of Darfur as it loses ground elsewhere.

According to the text of the charter, the signatories agreed that Sudan should be a “secular, democratic, non-centralised state” with a single national army, though it preserved the right of armed groups to continue to exist. After a disagreement over the timing of the RSF’s integration into the army, the conflict between the army and the RSF, which was once an allies, started.

The army-aligned government operating out of Port Sudan was accused of failing in the RSF-led charter, which stated that the government did not exist to divdivize the nation but rather to unify it and put an end to the war.

Abdelaziz al-Hilu, a powerful rebel leader from Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), who has long demanded that Sudan embrace secularism, is one of the signatories to the charter. He is one of the rebel leaders who controls large swathes of the state’s terrain and troops.

Abdel Rahim Dagalo, the brother of RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemedti ‘Dagalo, also signed. He was notably absent.

Al-Hadi Idris, a former official and head of an armed group, said the government’s formation would be announced from inside the country in the coming days.

The government won’t support rebel actions.

The rebel-aligned government said it would not accept the rebel group’s attempt to replicate the one created.

“We will not accept any other country recognising a so-called parallel government”, Sudan’s foreign minister Ali Youssef said on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Antonio Guterres, the head of the United Nations, a spokesman, warned that the move “could further fragment the nation” and “raise the risk of this crisis even worse.”

Sudan’s army claimed on Sunday that it had regained control of the city of el-Gitaina after destroying RSF units and opening the road to the city of el-Obeid, according to a statement released.

The Sudanese army is pushed back from central Sudan after the RSF seized most of Darfur and parts of the Kordofan region during the conflict.

The conflict has devastated the country, creating an “unprecedented” humanitarian crisis and driving half the population into hunger, with famine in multiple areas.

More than 20 000 people have been killed and more than 14 million have been displaced from their homes, according to the UN. 3. 2 million Sudanese people have emigrated to neighboring countries, according to estimates.

The US earlier this year imposed sanctions on the RSF’s Hemedti.

Following President Omar al-Bashir’s ouster in 2019, he had previously cooped up with the army and elected officials.