Sudan Enters a Dark Tunnel
Okaz, Saudi Arabia, April 19
Violent clashes between the Sudanese Army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have led to dozens of casualties, affecting almost all parts of Sudan. To understand the current events, we must look back to 2013 when then-Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir issued a decision to form the RSF. His intention was to rely on the Janjaweed militias’ successful military experience in Darfur to create a parallel army that would prevent a possible army-led coup against him. As such, the RSF has never been affiliated with the country’s regular armed forces and remains a separate entity. For the past four years, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the leader of the Sudanese Armed Forces, and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, the head of the RSF, have been in an alliance. However, those in the know and observers of the situation in Sudan were aware that the rift between the army and RSF was inevitable. Having two armies and two leaders is incompatible with the proper governance of a state. Furthermore, army leaders declared without ambiguity that the survival of the RSF was unsustainable and that it must be subject to the army. During the Sudanese transitional phase, tensions and political differences were rampant, until political forces in line with the military establishment reached the so-called Framework Agreement in December. This agreement called for the integration of the RSF into the Sudanese Army on a mutually agreed timeline. The bone-breaking conflict currently ravaging Sudan shows no signs of abating, and both sides seem determined to keep fighting. The nature of the conflict—with small, mobile groups skilled in urban warfare—makes a resolution difficult to envision in the near future. Yet, it is the Sudanese people who will suffer the most, as the sound of gunfire drowns out the voice of reason. In these trying days, we pray to God that He may guide Sudanese leaders to the negotiations table, thereby sparing their country and people a long journey down a dark tunnel. —Rami Al-Khalifa Al-Ali (translated by Asaf Zilberfarb)
