Khartoum, Sudan – The Sudanese people and the international community have long feared this moment, and now it has become a reality. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) under General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, better known as Hemeti, are engaged in fierce street battles in cities across Sudan.
The SAF and RSF, which had maintained a tenuous alliance since the military coup in October 2021, have turned on each other, plunging Sudan into a state of chaos and violence. The two military entities, with different sources of power, income, and regional support, are now at war, and the civilian population is caught in the crossfire, seeking shelter from SAF’s jet fighters and RSF’s artillery shells and anti-aircraft guns.
Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, is a city of ghosts, with its already fragile infrastructure crumbling further. Gangs roam the streets with impunity, adding to the sense of lawlessness and insecurity. Hemeti, the leader of RSF, has vowed to hunt down Burhan, the leader of SAF, “like a dog,” while Burhan has stated that “every war ends in negotiation, even if the opponent is defeated.”
This conflict has its roots in the wave of protests that swept across Sudan almost a decade ago in September 2013, triggered by the then-president Omar al-Bashir’s announcement of the end of fuel subsidies and other austerity measures. The security forces responded with brutal violence, resulting in the deaths of over 270 people, including children, and the arrest and detention of hundreds more, many of whom were subjected to torture, particularly those from the Darfur region in western Sudan.
In response to growing resistance to his regime, Bashir established the Rapid Support Forces in 2013 as a paramilitary group under the auspices of the intelligence services. The RSF was made up of fighters and leaders who had previously been part of the Janjaweed, a notorious militia group that had been accused of ethnic cleansing and war crimes in Darfur from 2003 onwards. Hemeti, whose family hails from Chad, was appointed as the head of RSF and became a key figure in Bashir’s government, using the group to crush dissent and smuggling gold out of Darfur.
After years of popular protests, Bashir was forced out of power in 2019, with Hemeti and Burhan playing pivotal roles in his removal. However, the change in leadership heightened divisions between SAF and RSF, as Burhan became the head of SAF but not the head of state, and RSF started to assert its independence as a parallel force with its own income stream and foreign policy.
The alliance between SAF and RSF had been largely maintained in the name of preventing the return of democracy, which both entities saw as a threat to their power and interests. However, with the recent outbreak of fighting between SAF and RSF on the streets of Sudanese cities, it appears that this alliance has fractured, leading to further instability and violence in the country.
The situation in Sudan is dire, with the civilian population once again bearing the brunt of the conflict. The international community has called for an end to the violence and a return to peaceful negotiations to resolve the crisis. As Sudan plunges deeper into turmoil, the future remains uncertain for its people, who are desperately hoping for an end to the fighting and a path towards stability and democracy.
