Latest news with #RSF-aligned
Arab News
06-04-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
Sudan activists sound alarm on ‘catastrophic' situation in besieged Darfur city
KHARTOUM: Civilians trapped in Sudan's El-Fasher city are facing 'catastrophic' conditions, activists warned on Sunday, with their situation rapidly deteriorating amid a months-long paramilitary siege. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have taken most of the vast Darfur region in their war against the regular army since April 2023, but El-Fasher in North Darfur remains the only regional state capital the RSF has not conquered. A local advocacy group, the Darfur General Coordination of Camps for the Displaced and Refugees, said in a statement that residents 'bear the brunt of artillery shelling' and live 'with the sounds of aircraft and their terrifying and deadly missiles, in addition to the daily suffering of hunger, disease and drought.' Life in El-Fasher and other areas of Darfur 'has come to a complete standstill,' the group said, with no food at markets and a 'complete halt' in humanitarian aid. There was a sharp rise in prices of basic commodities and 'a severe shortage in cash,' it added, warning of an 'unprecedented and catastrophic deterioration' in already dire conditions in and around El-Fasher. The RSF-aligned armed group Sudan Liberation Army called on Saturday for civilians in El-Fasher and the nearby displacement camps of Abu Shouk and Zamzan to leave, warning of an 'escalation of military operations.' Another RSF ally, the Gathering of Sudan Liberation Forces, said it was ready to 'provide safe corridors' for residents to leave and head to 'liberated areas' under paramilitary control. In late March, the RSF announced its fighters had seized Al-Malha, which lies at the foot of a mountainous region 200 kilometers (124 miles) northeast of El-Fasher. Al-Malha is one of the northernmost towns in the vast desert region between Sudan and Libya, where the RSF's critical resupply lines have come under increasing attack in recent months by army-allied groups. The war has created what the United Nations describes as the world's worst hunger and displacement crises. More than 12 million people have been uprooted, tens of thousands killed and a UN-backed assessment declared famine in parts of the country. According to UN estimates, around two million people face extreme food insecurity in North Darfur state, with 320,000 already suffering famine conditions. Zamzam is one of three displacement camps around El-Fasher hit by famine, which a UN-backed assessment says is expected to spread to five more areas including the state capital itself by May.
Al Jazeera
20-02-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
After splinter, can Sudan's anti-war coalition reinvent itself?
On February 10, Sudan's largest antiwar coalition, Taqaddum, finally splintered. The disagreement was over whether to participate in a new parallel government being set up by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), one of the belligerent parties in Sudan's nearly two-year war. Formed in October 2023, the Taqaddum coalition included armed movements, political parties and civil society activists and was headed by Abdalla Hamdok, the former prime minister overthrown by Sudan's army and the RSF in 2021. Now, Taqaddum has split into two. The members taking political positions in the RSF's parallel administration are now known as Taasis (Foundation). They are mostly armed movements, analysts told Al Jazeera, who wagered on turning their weapons into leadership roles in the new RSF government. 'Armed groups don't have a constituency, so they rely on a big, armed actor [like the RSF] as a guarantor for a political seat,' said Kholood Khair, founding director of the Confluence Advisory think tank. Traditional political leaders, including Hamdok, who chose not to join the RSF formed a smaller antiwar coalition called Somoud (Resilience), trying to preserve their neutrality and reputations, she said. 'Political parties don't need [a guarantor] and it would be political suicide for them to form a government with the RSF… they don't want to be seen as forming a government with genociders,' she added, referring to the United States' determination that the RSF committed genocide in Sudan's Darfur region. Tainted label Taqaddum was originally an antiwar coalition mediating an end to the conflict that had broken out between the RSF and the army in April 2023, following a dispute over how and when to integrate the former into the latter. The conflict has triggered the largest humanitarian crisis by most measures, with tens of thousands killed in armed conflict, famine declared in several regions and some 12 million people uprooted from their homes. Taqaddum was already struggling for relevance, with many of its civilian politicians perceived as being too close to the RSF during mediation talks – ostensibly aimed at ending the war and restarting a transition to democratic rule that the 2021 coup derailed. Taqaddum's reputation took a much bigger blow when it signed a Declaration of Principles (DoP) with the RSF in January 2024. The DoP allegedly aimed to restore service provisions in areas under RSF control and to ensure the group would respect basic laws of war. But the deal came days after the RSF captured Wad Madani, capital of Sudan's breadbasket Gezira state, where it committed atrocities including rape, looting and extrajudicial killings, according to local monitors. At the time, Taqaddum was seen by many as whitewashing RSF abuses by signing the DoP. The agreement had also caused many Western diplomats 'growing concern that parts of Taqaddum were RSF-aligned', said Alan Boswell, an expert on Sudan for the International Crisis Group. Hamid Khalafallah, a Sudan policy analyst and a PhD candidate at the University of Manchester, agreed that the signing exacerbated Taqaddum's legitimacy crisis. 'There was an issue of Taqaddum cosying up with the RSF or being slightly more in line with the RSF because the RSF kept saying what Taqaddum wanted to hear and the army was quite resistant [to peace talks],' Khalafallah told Al Jazeera. New start? Analysts told Al Jazeera that the splinter may be a 'blessing in disguise' since it allows members of Somoud to distance themselves from the RSF, 'reinvent themselves', and better connect with Sudanese civilians. Boswell believes Somoud is now less tainted than Taqaddum but also noticeably smaller as a coalition and predicts the West will 'wait and see' before deciding whether to consider Somoud a neutral actor. He also believes that, at best, Somoud may be part of a broader civilian unity government, where most officials are aligned with one of the two warring parties as part of a power-sharing agreement to end the war. Khalafallah said Somoud should do more outreach to local organisations and activist groups and ensure its rhetoric is not disconnected from the realities of Sudanese civilians on the ground. 'They can acknowledge that people have better experiences when [the army] recaptures territory and that there is support for the army,' Khalafallah told Al Jazeera, stressing that Somoud could preserve its neutrality as such an acknowledgement would not contradict their call for the army and RSF to quickly end this war. Somoud spokesperson Bakry Elmedni, associate professor at the School of Business, Public Administration and Information Sciences at Long Island University, says Somoud has always done outreach and believes any criticism that Taqaddum was too close to the RSF was part of an army-backed smear campaign against the antiwar coalition. He claims the army helped write the DoP and was invited to the signing but refused to attend, instead exploiting the DoP to frame Taqaddum as a coalition that 'sympathises or supports' RSF. 'We knew from day one the accusations [against Taqaddum] were part of a political campaign… Everyone knew they were lies,' he told Al Jazeera. 'However, it did affect the impression of Taqaddum, but to tell you frankly, I don't believe there was any evidence to suggest Taqaddum was supporting the RSF.' Many civilians across the country despise the RSF and welcome the army's recapture of territory, saying the army brings some form of stability. However, the army has also been accused of committing a wave of reprisal killings against perceived RSF sympathisers. Attacks are often across ethnic lines or against activists and local relief workers, say human rights groups, UN monitors and activists on the ground.
Reuters
14-02-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Sudan's RSF attacks famine-stricken camp as battle lines harden
CAIRO/DUBAI, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Sudan's Rapid Support Forces have attacked the famine-stricken Zamzam displacement camp, residents and medics say, as the paramilitary tries to tighten its grip on its Darfur stronghold while losing ground to the army in the capital, Khartoum. The latest fighting has hardened battle lines between the two forces in a conflict that threatens to splinter Sudan after plunging half the population into hunger and displacing more than one-fifth since April 2023. This week, as it attempts to consolidate its territory, the RSF has staged multiple attacks on Zamzam residents, according to three people at the camp. Medical aid agency MSF has confirmed seven deaths from the violence, while residents say dozens may have been killed. Medics are unable to perform surgery inside Zamzam, and travel to al-Fashir's Saudi hospital, a frequent RSF target, has become impossible, MSF said. Reuters verified a video showing RSF forces inside Zamzam earlier this week, stamping on a rival flag as a building burned in the background. Zamzam is located near al-Fashir, capital of North Darfur and the army's last remaining foothold in the wider Darfur region. The RSF, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, says Zamzam is a base for the Joint Forces, former rebel groups now fighting alongside the army. The Joint Forces said in a statement on Thursday that they were not present in the camp. The Sudanese government said the army, Joint Forces, and other volunteers were able to push the RSF back from Zamzam on Wednesday. ARSON ATTACKS Nearly 22 months after war erupted from a power struggle between the two factions, the RSF controls almost all of Darfur in Sudan's west, and much of the neighbouring Kordofan region. The army controls Sudan's north and east and has recently made major gains in Khartoum. The announcement of a parallel, RSF-aligned government could come next week, political sources said. The RSF has targetted Zamzam with artillery for months, causing some people to dig holes for shelter, according to one resident and a video shared by activists. "Inside the neighbourhoods, they terrorise, steal, and kill ... people hide in these holes when they are firing and when they are raiding, because there is nowhere else to flee," the resident told Reuters. The RSF has also continued raids and arson attacks on villages surrounding al-Fashir in recent weeks, according to the Yale School of Public Health's Humanitarian Research Lab. The Yale Lab found that over half the structures in Zamzam's main market were destroyed in a manner consistent with arson attacks, executive director Nathaniel Raymond told Reuters. A video shared by army-aligned Darfur governor Minni Minnawi showed stalls burned to ash and vegetables strewn on the ground. Arson was also detected on residences along the northern entrance to the camp, said Raymond. Tens of thousands have been displaced, many seeking refuge in Zamzam and increasing the camp's population to up to one million people, according to the International Organisation for Migration. ESCAPE ROUTES 'BLOCKED' Sudan's top U.N. official Clementine Nkweta-Salami said on Thursday she was "shocked by the attacks on Zamzam IDP camp and the blockages of escape routes." Across Darfur RSF forces have restricted aid efforts, now also hit by freezes on USAID, according to U.N. and other aid workers. MSF, one of few humanitarian groups operating in the area, had to stop a nutrition programme for 6,000 malnourished children as attacks on Zamzam raised prices there, the aid group's North Darfur coordinator Marion Ramstein said. A global hunger monitor determined in August that Zamzam was experiencing famine. In December, it confirmed famine in two other camps in al-Fashir. Earlier this month, MSF said it found that the proportion of the camp's children who were malnourished had risen to 34%, a similar level to Tawila, a nearby town to which many have fled from RSF attacks.
