Blitz Bureau
KHARTOUM: Commander of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo announced on April 15 the formation of a “parallel government,” which, he said, will “represent a political charter and a historic transitional constitution for a new Sudan.”
The “parallel government” will introduce new currencies and issue national identity documents, Dagalo said in a televised speech b r o a d c a s t on Teleg r a m , c a l l i n g on the A frican Union to recognise the “parallel government.” The announcement coincides with the two-year anniversary of Sudan’s war, Xinhua news agency reported.
It also came almost two months after the RSF and its allied political and armed groups signed “a political charter” in Nairobi, Kenya, expressing intention to form a “parallel government” in Sudan. On March 13, the Sudanese Government, led by Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, who also serves as the head of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), suspended all imports from Kenya in response to the latter hosting the signing ceremony. Khartoum accused Nairobi of interfering, an allegation Kenya denied.
A piece published in Middle East Monitor had said then that the thinking behind the “parallel government” is to give the paramilitary RSF more options. A separate administration would allow it to control the financial system, and make it possible for the militia to procure arms “legitimately” and even deploy air defence systems.
Ammar Amoun, the head of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-North) delegation, was quoted as saying in the report that the fledgling government would be called a ‘New Sudan’. The new constitution would formally establish a federal, secular state split into eight regions. It provides for a Bill of rights, giving the regions the right to self-determination if the separation of religion and state are not met.
“(The Rapid Support Forces) are trying to achieve a victory politically that they cannot achieve militarily,” commented Cameron Hudson, a senior fellow in the Africa Programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. Despite the RSF’s ambitions, even a political “victory” for them is unlikely. Reuters pointed out. “Such a government, which has already drawn concerns from the UN, is not expected to receive widespread recognition.”
A lack of recognition from the international community would alienate a new government, making it unlikely to succeed. The UN Secretary General António Guterres had warned in March that the formation of the government could “increase the fragmentation of the country and risk making (the war) even worse.”
The conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and RSF, which erupted in April 2023 over tensions linked to a planned political transition, has killed tens of thousands, displaced over 15 million people, and left Sudan facing what the United Nations calls one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
