Hameidti leads a parallel government in Sudan, while a landslide devastates the town of Tersin.
By Mohamed Ahmed Al-Kasalawi from Kassala (Sudan)
The landslide in the town of Tersin took the Sudanese conflict out of anonymity for a few days. This agricultural village where its few inhabitants dedicated themselves to the cultivation of lemon and orange trees was located at the foot of Yebel Marra, the largest mountain in the country and the only area that is not controlled by any of the armies that are vying for power in Sudan: the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). The former fundamentally dominate the west of the country (regions of Darfur and part of Kordofan) while the latter control the center and the east.
In general, the 12 million Sudanese displaced by the conflict flee from the regions reached by the RSF to areas controlled by the SAF. The former have become famous for burning towns, looting everything they can find, raping women and kidnapping young people who refuse to join their troops. Without any shame for such behavior or fear of criminal consequences, they broadcast these outrages through social networks.
Some towns in western Sudan hold out under SAF control despite RSF attacks. The case of Al Fashir stands out, surrounded by the latter since October 2023. Many of the people who managed to escape at the beginning of the siege took refuge in Jebel Marra, beyond the reach of the two factions. The mountain range is controlled by the Abdel Wahid Al-Nour Sudan Liberation Movement, which has refused to support either of the two contenders. Tersin, at the foot of the mountain, which had a population of close to 200 people before the war, had seen its population increase significantly due to the arrival of displaced people. All of them, except one survivor, have died due to the landslide. For other reasons, a good part of the 200,000 besieged inhabitants of Al Fashir could also suffer the same fate. The United Nations has appealed in vain to the RSF to let the civilian population leave or allow the arrival of humanitarian aid.
A parallel government
As fighting continues, especially in the western regions of Kordofan and Al Fashir, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hameidti, the leader of the RSF, was sworn in as head of a parallel government on August 30 before the chief justice of the Supreme Court in the city of Nyala. While Al Fashir is the capital of the northernmost state of the five that make up the Darfur region, Nyala is the southernmost. With this decision, it has become the capital of the so-called New Sudan that Hameidti and his allies claim to bring. They refer to their cabinet as the Government of Peace, but the term raises a smile when one observes the methodology used for this purpose.
The conquest of Al Fashir is very important for the RSF, as it would facilitate the circulation of weapons and soldiers from Libya. In this way, a Nyala-Al Fashir-Libya axis would be created that would allow thinking about the expansion of its territory towards the city of El Obeid, capital of the state of North Kordofan and gateway to the White Nile valley. The consolidation of the aforementioned axis would also facilitate attacks towards the Nile Valley, in the north of the country.
Al-Burhan’s new strategy
The Government of Sudan and the head of the SAF, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, are aware that they face an enemy supported by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which supplies weapons and mercenaries to the RSF through Libya and other channels (see MN 710, pp. 20-25). The UAE benefits from the gold that both sides export to buy the weapons that allow them to confront the enemy and that enters international markets through Dubai. The UAE has become the new colonizer of the African continent through million-dollar investments and support for allied armies that serve its strategic interests. On the other hand, the Emirati Government has become a fundamental ally for the United States and, in the Middle East, for Israel. In the case of the former, the UAE has paid billion-dollar bills for projects related to artificial intelligence and weapons procurement. The UAE presents itself as an ally of the West and enemy of Islamic fundamentalisms.
In mid-August, the president of the Transitional Sovereignty Council of the Republic of Sudan, whom the United Nations recognizes as head of state, Al-Burhan, traveled to Geneva to meet with the United States advisor on African affairs, Massad Boulos. Days after the meeting, the general reformed the leadership of the Army and the intelligence services, replacing the military personnel most closely related to the Islamic Movement. The decision, linked by most analysts to the meeting held with Boulos, was allegedly responded to on August 22 with an attempted coup d’état that may have been promoted by leaders of the aforementioned movement.
Al-Burhan is supposedly trying to curb UAE support for the RSF by opening a new relationship with the United States, but at the same time, he needs all the groups that are against Hameidti’s side, including the Islamists.
A war of atrocities
The latest report to the UN Human Rights Council published by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission details the war crimes and human rights violations perpetrated by all parties to the conflict. The document, titled A war of atrocities, concludes that both the SAF and RSF have directed large-scale attacks against civilians and vital infrastructure, including medical centres, constituting serious violations of international law.
It describes how the RSF and its allies have been noted for their brutality and committed a wide range of war crimes: mass massacres, systematic sexual violence, use of ethnic terror, attacks on medical infrastructure and forced displacement. But the SAF and related forces are not fought either, although with a lower degree of systematicity and scale.
A breath of hope
Despite the conflict, there are notes of hope. The Sudanese Ministry of Education managed to organize the first Selectivity exam session since the start of the war in December 2024. On September 6, the Ministry of Universities announced the results of the admission process for new students in the country’s universities among those who had taken the aforementioned exam. The rehabilitation of schools and universities is a sign of the country’s effort to look forward with optimism despite the war, which began in April 2023.
