Sudan parallel government offers route to diplomatic leverage and arms for RSF

By Khalid Abdelaziz

A parallel government being set up by Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) aims to grab diplomatic legitimacy from its army-led rival and ease access to advanced weaponry, politicians who back it and paramilitary sources told Reuters.

The move could prolong a devastating war in which the paramilitary RSF has recently been losing ground, and effectively splinter Africa's third largest country by area.

Since conflict between the army and the RSF erupted in April 2023, the army-led government has retained wide international recognition, despite being forced by the fighting to move to Port Sudan on the Red Sea.

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But in a bid to challenge that status, the RSF on Saturday signed a political charter in Kenya with political parties and armed groups. The signatories said a "Government of Peace and Unity" would be formed within weeks from inside Sudan.

Politicians and RSF officials participating in talks in Nairobi last week said their government would seize legitimacy from an army they said had pursued "divisive" tactics including air strikes and aid blockages while rejecting peace talks.

"We are not a parallel government and we are not a government in exile, we are the legitimate government," al-Hadi Idris, head of an armed faction backing the planned government, told Reuters.

Politician Ibrahim al-Mirghani, another backer, said the new government would go to the United Nations and other forums to block the army's participation.

"If you secure your country and stop the bloodshed, displacement, and terrorism ... neighbours will recognise you," he said.

MILITARY SUPPORT

The Port Sudan-based government has foreign backers including Egypt and membership of international bodies, though it has been suspended from the African Union since the army and RSF jointly led a coup in 2021, upending a transition towards civilian rule.

Foreign states view the RSF's planned government as an effort to control the flow of humanitarian aid, access arms markets, and gain leverage at any future peace negotiations, said Jonas Horner, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

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The RSF has received a stream of military support, including drones and air defences, as both sides have obtained more advanced weaponry from abroad. The army has accused the UAE of sending arms to the RSF, a charge U.N. experts and U.S. lawmakers have found credible but the Gulf state denies.

"Militias are not given advanced weapons but governments are ... Our priority is peace but the government must defend its citizens and we have the right to acquire aircraft and defence systems," Idris said.

Asked for comment, the RSF, long overpowered by the army in the air, denied it wanted a government in order to import weapons but said it would have the authority to do so to defend its population.

The army, which denies blocking aid or targeting civilians, condemned the RSF's charter as an attempt to expand the war at a time when the paramilitary force was on the back foot.

The U.N. secretary-general's office expressed concern, stressing "Sudan's unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity", while the U.S. called the move "unhelpful for the cause of peace and security in Sudan".

The U.S. has placed sanctions on leaders from both the army and the RSF in connection with the war, which has led to bouts of ethnically charged killings, displaced more than 12 million people, and spread famine and disease.

'NEW SUDAN'

In recent months the army, previously struggling militarily, has pushed the RSF out of much of the capital and central Sudan. The RSF retains control of most of the Darfur region, battling the army for control of the North Darfur, capital al-Fashir.

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It also controls most of West Kordofan, while much of South Kordofan is controlled by Abdelaziz al-Hilu's SPLM-N rebel group, the largest to align itself with the RSF.

Observers were surprised to see the SPLM-N side with the RSF, which has been accused of abuses in areas under the group's control.

But the SPLM-N's goal of a secular, pluralist country is a core theme in the charter signed over the weekend, which describes a federalist "New Sudan".

SPLM-N leaders told Reuters that the alliance was a route to peace after decades of tribal attacks, allowing them to confront ideological foes in the army, which has long harboured Islamist influence.

They also said, speaking on condition of anonymity, that the alliance would provide access to much needed funds, aid, and resupply of weapons.