The RSF Militia's Relentless War in Sudan

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ast April, war broke out in Sudan between the Sudanese National Army and the Rapid Support Forces. Thousands have been killed and millions displaced, raising fears that the country could descend into full-scale war.

While there is a confluence of factors driving this war, such as the UAE backing the militias with military support and funding to secure its economic and political interests, on many occasions, the militias have proven that this is also their war to target and annihilate specific groups of different racial backgrounds.

The Rapid Support Forces were created in 2013 through the restructuring of the notorious Janjaweed militia to support the central government’s counterinsurgency operations in Darfur and South Kordofan.

In 2017, the Sudanese parliament passed a law legitimizing their activities, even though the militia has reportedly committed countless crimes and atrocities during the ongoing war, including killing protesters, unlawfully detaining citizens, and targeting hospitals, churches, and media facilities.

Looting homes

Most recently, during the storming of the city of Wad Madani, militiamen engaged in large-scale looting of homes and markets, as well as the UN World Food Programme’s warehouses which provide life-saving food and malnutrition assistance to 20,000 children and pregnant and lactating women.

As a result, tens of thousands were forced to leave the city to escape the ensuing hell with the militias trying to prevent their flight. In a serious development, the militias offered to protect villages in exchange for young people joining their ranks.

In many other cases, crimes and violations were motivated and committed on the basis of ethnicity.

In Darfur, the Rapid Support Forces and the Arab militias they support launched an attack against the African tribes, specifically the Masalit; innocent civilians were raped and buried in mass graves in Ardamata and El Geneina. Reports have documented that the victims were labeled “slaves” by the militia fighters.

The excessive use of force was deliberate, forcing the tribes to leave their territories, and amounted to ethnic cleansing. The militias’ campaign against the Masalit was led by six key commanders of the Arab-backed militias, who gave orders to carry out the attacks without mercy.

Executions

In a related heinous incident, the militia also kidnapped and executed the governor of West Darfur, who was a descendant of the Masalit tribe, after he publicly called for international protection of the Masalit people.

It was reported that when the militias stormed the town of Wad Madani, their fighters were heard saying that they were looking for “Zurga” (a name for those who come mainly from Black communities), used in this context as an act of humiliation.

Disturbingly, the RSF militia has also resorted to the use of rape as a tool of terror and punishment. In August 2023, a UN expert was quoted in a statement as being alarmed by the increasing number of rape cases in Darfur. The expert showed that some rape cases were racially and ethnically motivated, despite the Rapid Support Forces’ stated zero tolerance policy for sexual and gender-based violence.

Targeting groups from the north

This ethnic hatred does not appear to be limited to Darfur’s African tribes, which the militias have historically viewed as an inferior race: northern groups have also been targeted. In a viral social media video, one of the militia leaders threatened to extend the war to the north and kill northerners who belong to certain ethnic groups.

When it comes to the militias’ campaigns of repression and killing of non-Arab tribes, the phrase “history repeats itself” applies. For years, the militias have systematically targeted these local communities, committing crimes and massacres against them. In 2015, a Human Rights Watch report titled “Men with No Mercy” explained how militia soldiers, then acting at the behest of the central government during counterinsurgency operations, raped girls in groups, burned villages and livestock, and executed villagers.

The Rapid Support Forces’ militia’s tribal formation justifies these heinous actions, as most of the militia’s leadership and advisors come from a particular family or ethnic background, namely the Arab tribes of Darfur. For example, the militia is headed by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, with his brother serving as deputy head and chairman of the Al Junaid company, the militia’s main gold export arm. Dagalo’s brothers lead a team that wages his social media war. The militia’s top political advisor, who defends its criminal activities in the international media and tours Europe to legitimize its existence, also comes from the same background.

Submissive to the militia?

In fact, not all of the Arab tribes have been completely submissive to the militias. In some cases, there were internal divisions over the course of the expansion of the Rapid Support Forces militias into the homelands of the tribes west of Kordofan.

One of the worst and most serious consequences of the fascist calls of the militias is that the rebel groups, mainly drawn from the Black and African communities in Darfur, who have chosen to remain neutral since the outbreak of the war have declared their intention to join the national army and have consolidated their power in El-Fasher to defend it against the imminent attack of the militia. This development threatens to plunge the whole country into a full-scale civil war.

The Rapid Support Forces militia has worked relentlessly through its public relations campaign to convince the world that it’s a national force that wants to bring peace and democratic transformation to the entire country. Thus, in August 2023, the militia shared what it called a vision for a new state and the need to build the country on the pillar of justice and equal rights for all. They appointed a political committee tasked with coordinating with political parties and other stakeholders, recruiting senior commanders from different parts of the country; however, their influence on the decision-making process within the militia remains weak. Meanwhile the facts on the ground fully expose the falsehood of all these disinterested and patriotic claims.

The looming danger is that if the militia emerges victorious in this war, the whole of Sudan could be turned into a fascist state, and more and more genocides and massacres based on ethnicity will take place. The ongoing investigation by the International Criminal Court into the crimes committed by the militias in Darfur is a crucial step in the right direction and will help deter the militias from targeting local communities.

The international community should put more pressure on the UAE, which funds and supports the militias. Countries that invite representatives of the Rapid Support Forces militia to propagate their lies and deceptions should know that this is a step towards legitimizing a war militia and prolonging the devastating war in Sudan.