Weeks after al-Bashir’s ouster, RSF forces led the storming of the protesters’ sit-in in central Khartoum, killing at least 120 people and raping dozens of women. Together, they also formed a bulwark against the pro-democracy movement. They mounted their first of two coups together. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo decided it was time for the president’s 30-year-rule to end. That changed when a popular protest movement against Bashir arose in 2019.

By keeping the two forces independent of each other, he also ensured that no one figure held enough power to overthrow him, For al-Bashir, the RSF and the regular military were both useful in suppressing dissent and bids for independence by minority communities around the country. It was Sudan’s strongman and former president, Omar al-Bashir, who created the RSF out of Darfur’s notorious Janjaweed militias in 2013. Neither the RSF nor the military responded to requests for comment. official, recounted how both sides made power grabs, shifted alliances and moved to protect their interests under international pressure for a transition to civilian government.Īll spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal or because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

They, along with political activists and a U.N. In interviews with The Associated Press, more than a dozen senior officers from Sudan’s military and the rival paramilitary known as the Rapid Support Forces described what led them to an all-out war. Their tenuous alliance ended in mid-April, when they turned their guns on each other, sparking a conflict that threatens to engulf African’s third largest country. Officers inside both forces say it was a long-building recipe for disaster. CAIRO (AP) - Over recent years, Sudan’s military and a separate armed force accumulated power, each suspicious of the other, even as they worked together against the country’s pro-democracy movement.

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