The April 15, 2023 war outbreak in Sudan between Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF), will remain unforgettable in Sudan’s contemporary political history. Many observers agree that Sudan after this war will not be like before. However, this war was not beyond speculations, and for years back, so many national and international observers believed that the confrontation between SAF and RSF was just around the corner, and it is a matter of time, for it to knock the front doors of Sudanese people.
Yet, there is a common consent that the triggering factor behind this blood-stained conflict was the dispute between SAF and RSF on the issue of military and security reform presented during the transitional government. Since then, it was obvious that SAFs top officers (who were under the influence of Islamists) were vigorously against the reform. However, whatever justifications can be presented as direct reasons for this dispute, but the deep archeology of the conflict in Sudan, shows that the recent war is in fact sliding back to – at least – the early of nineties, when the central government started arming Arab militias in Darfur against non- Arabs rebel groups (Julie Flint, 2009).
As a matter of fact, also, it was clear that the Arab militias evolved from a classical militia involved in a traditional type of conflict over resources within its local communities, to a large army involved into a large-scale type of conflict. However, this evolution wouldn’t happen without assistance and backup provided by the central government in Khartoum. The militia that well known in Darfur as “Jenjeweed”, which emerged in late eighties, transformed radically in 2013 into the well-equipped RSF. This transformation happened upon the direct support of the former president Omer al-Bashir, who in 2013 legalized the existence of the RSF as to be organizationally part of SAF, administratively connected to the National Security and Intelligence Service (NISS), while its orders under his direct control and capacity as the Higher Commander in Chief of SAF. After the fall down of al – Bashir in 2019, RSF leader became the deputy of the Sovereign Council following Gen. Abdelfatah al-Burhan. However, we can briefly point out reasons behind the fast-growing influence of RSF in the following: Download Full report Here
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