For the RSF, the Sudanese parallel government provides a path to weapons and diplomatic clout

Politicians who support Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and paramilitary sources told Reuters that the RSF is forming a parallel government in an attempt to gain diplomatic legitimacy from its army-led competitor and facilitate access to cutting-edge weapons.

The action might essentially split Africa’s third largest country by territory and prolong a catastrophic war in which the paramilitary RSF has been losing ground recently.

Despite being compelled by the war to relocate to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, the army-led administration has maintained widespread international recognition since the struggle between the army and the RSF began in April 2023.

However, the RSF signed a political charter with armed groups and political parties in Kenya on Saturday in an attempt to contest that designation. Within weeks, a “Government of Peace and Unity” would be established inside Sudan, according to the signatories.

During negotiations in Nairobi last week, politicians and RSF officials declared that their government would take credibility away from an army that they claimed had rejected peace talks and instead used “divisive” tactics like airstrikes and aid blocks.

Al-Hadi Idris, the leader of an armed group supporting the proposed government, told Reuters, “We are the legitimate government, not a parallel government or a government in exile.”

Another supporter, politician Ibrahim al-Mirghani, stated that the new government would try to prevent the army from participating in the UN and other organizations.

“If you secure your country and stop the bloodshed, displacement, and terrorism … neighbors will recognize you,” he stated.

ARMY SUPPORT

Though it has been suspended from the African Union since the army and RSF together conducted a coup in 2021, upending a transition towards civilian rule, the government located in Port Sudan has foreign supporters, especially Egypt, and is a member of international organizations.

According to Jonas Horner, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, foreign governments saw the RSF’s proposed government as an attempt to manage the flow of humanitarian aid, get access to arms markets, and obtain influence at any future peace talks.

As both sides have acquired more sophisticated weapons from elsewhere, the RSF has received a steady stream of military assistance, including defenses. The Gulf state disputes the army’s accusation that the UAE is supplying guns to the RSF, which U.N. experts and U.S. senators have found plausible.

“Governments receive modern weapons, but militaries do not… We have the right to purchase planes and defensive systems, but the government must protect its citizens, even though peace is our top objective,” Idris stated.

When asked for response, the RSF, which has been outclassed by the army in the air for a long time, said it would have the power to import weapons to protect its people but disputed that it wanted a government to do so.

The army denies obstructing aid or attacking civilians, but it denounced the RSF’s charter as an effort to escalate the conflict when the paramilitary group was already losing ground.

The United States referred to the action as “unhelpful for the cause of peace and security in Sudan,” while the U.N. secretary-general’s office voiced worry, emphasizing “Sudan’s unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.”

In relation to the conflict, which has resulted in episodes of ethnically motivated murders, forced over 12 million people to flee their homes, and spread starvation and illness, the United States has imposed sanctions on leaders of both the army and the RSF.

“NEW SUDAN”

The RSF has been driven out of much of the capital and central Sudan in recent months by the army, which had previously struggled militarily. While fighting the army for control of the capital of North Darfur, al-Fashir, the RSF still controls the majority of the Darfur region.

While Abdelaziz al-Hilu’s SPLM-N rebel organization, the biggest to support the RSF, controls a considerable portion of South Kordofan, it also controls the majority of West Kordofan.

The SPLM-N’s support for the RSF, which has been charged with abuses in regions under its control, shocked observers.

However, the SPLM-N’s charter, which was signed over the weekend, outlines a federalist “New Sudan” with a secular, pluralist nation as its central concept.

After decades of tribal violence, SPLM-N leaders told Reuters that the pact was a path to peace because it would enable them to take on ideological rivals in the army, which has historically been influenced by Islamists.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, they added that the alliance will give them access to much-needed money, assistance, and weapon resupply.