{"id":241722,"date":"2025-02-18T19:36:22","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T19:36:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/18\/rsf-announces-plans-for-breakaway-government-in-sudan\/"},"modified":"2025-02-18T19:36:23","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T19:36:23","slug":"rsf-announces-plans-for-breakaway-government-in-sudan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/18\/rsf-announces-plans-for-breakaway-government-in-sudan\/","title":{"rendered":"RSF Announces Plans for Breakaway Government in Sudan"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/18\/multimedia\/18sudan-1-tlcj\/18sudan-1-tlcj-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"RSF Announces Plans for Breakaway Government in Sudan\" title=\"RSF Announces Plans for Breakaway Government in Sudan\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group battling for power in Sudan\u2019s ruinous civil war, took a step toward forming its own breakaway government on Tuesday when it hosted a lavish political event in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The group\u2019s deputy leader, Abdul Rahim Dagalo, who is under American sanctions, was greeted by hundreds of cheering people as he arrived at the elaborate event, held at a state-owned convention center in downtown Nairobi.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Dagalo did not speak at the event, and a promised charter meant to pave the way for a parallel government in R.S.F.-controlled areas was not signed. Officials said they needed another three days to negotiate the terms of the charter with Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, the leader of another Sudanese rebel faction, who sat beside Mr. Dagalo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The meeting was a moment of striking symbolism for the R.S.F., which only last month was formally accused of genocide by the United States, and comes against the backdrop of shifting battlefields in Sudan as well as a torrent of American foreign policy changes and evolving alliances in the region.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Sudan\u2019s army has scored a series of battlefield victories in recent months, pushing the R.S.F. out of key areas in Khartoum, the capital, and in central Sudan. The R.S.F. hopes to ends that losing streak, and bolster its claim to rule, by forging a government for the considerable swath of the country it holds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In an amphitheater bedecked with Sudanese flags, where cheering men in white turbans filled entire rows, speakers railed against the army and spoke of their desire to forge a \u201cnew Sudan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe need a new constitution and to draw up a new social contract that will resolve the perennial question of how Sudan is governed,\u201d said Mr. al-Hilu, who leads a faction of the Sudan People\u2019s Liberation Movement-North and has fought successive Sudanese governments for decades from his base in the Nuba Mountains, in southern Sudan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Other speakers lauded the R.S.F. as a pro-democracy movement and flashed images of Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, the group\u2019s leader, on a giant screen to loud cheers. Reports from Sudan, though, spoke of fresh atrocities by the group.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Activists and Sudanese officials accused R.S.F. fighters of killing over 200 people, including infants, during a brutal three-day assault on two villages in White Nile state, in the south of the country. Some were shot dead as they attempted to flee across the Nile River, according to Emergency Lawyers, a group that monitors the conflict.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In a statement, Sudan\u2019s foreign ministry put the death toll at 433.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Last week in the Darfur region of western Sudan, R.S.F. fighters stormed a famine-stricken camp in the besieged city of El Fasher in an assault that killed dozens of civilians, aid groups said. The top United Nations official in Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CNkwetaSalami\/status\/1889904455774249392\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">said she was \u201cshocked\u201d<\/a> by the violence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Emergency Lawyers also accused Sudan\u2019s army of \u201cbarbaric\u201d assaults on civilians, including killings and forced disappearances, as allied fighters hunt for R.S.F. collaborators in Khartoum.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">War broke out in April 2023 when Sudan\u2019s army and the R.S.F., whose leaders had seized power in a coup, began fighting in Khartoum. The war has torn asunder one of Africa\u2019s largest countries and led to suffering on a sweeping scale. Fighting has caused tens of thousands of deaths, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/data.unhcr.org\/en\/situations\/sudansituation\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">forced over 12 million people<\/a> from their homes and set off a rapidly spreading famine that is likely the world\u2019s worst in decades.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-5\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">President Trump\u2019s foreign aid freeze has deepened the pain. Hundreds of volunteer-run soup kitchens that were feeding over 800,000 people in Khartoum have closed in recent weeks as American funding dried up.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-6\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Monday, the U.N. appealed for $6 billion to respond to the crisis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Whether the R.S.F. plan to create its own government can succeed is uncertain, as even speakers at Tuesday\u2019s event acknowledged. Sudan has a long history of fragile peace deals that quickly \u201ccollapsed, then returned to war,\u201d Mr. al-Hilu told the crowd.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Still, the R.S.F. retains staunch financial and military support from its principal foreign backer, the United Arab Emirates, which appears determined to ensure that its Sudanese proxy does not lose the war, said several foreign officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive assessments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-7\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Feb. 8 the army chief of the Sudanese military, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, told political leaders in Port Sudan that he also intended to create a new government. It would be composed of \u201cindependent people\u201d and led by a new civilian prime minister, he said.<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"imageblock-wrapper\">\n<figure class=\"img-sz-small css-1189og3 e1g7ppur0\" aria-label=\"media\" role=\"group\"><figcaption data-testid=\"photoviewer-children-caption\" class=\"css-13ytnnu ewdxa0s0\"><span class=\"css-jevhma e13ogyst0\">Sudan\u2019s military chief Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan at an event in Port Sudan on Monday.<\/span><span class=\"css-14fe1uy e1z0qqy90\"><span class=\"css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0\">Credit&#8230;<\/span><span><span aria-hidden=\"false\">Agence France-Presse \u2014 Getty Images<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">If the R.S.F. charter does come to pass, however, it could mark a turning point in the war, hardening divisions and splitting the country into rival regions, much as Libya was divided after the ouster of Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi in 2011.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A portrait of President William Ruto of Kenya hung over the R.S.F. deputy leader, Mr. Dagalo, at the convention center on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That the R.S.F. was able to launch its political project at a state-owned convention center in Nairobi, reinforced suspicions among Sudanese officials that Kenya had effectively picked a side in the conflict.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/18\/world\/africa\/sudan-rsf-government.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group battling for power in Sudan\u2019s ruinous civil war, took a step toward forming its own breakaway government on Tuesday when it hosted a lavish political event in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. The group\u2019s deputy leader, Abdul Rahim Dagalo, who is under American sanctions, was greeted by hundreds of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":241723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/02\/18\/multimedia\/18sudan-1-tlcj\/18sudan-1-tlcj-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[460,1314,6604,170818,165662,137233,163203,3954,165660,3096,19662,171097,165661,1925,137131,165659,165844,4276],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241722"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241722"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241724,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241722\/revisions\/241724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}