Deputy head of Sudan’s sovereign council General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo speaks during a press conference at Rapid Support Forces head quarter in Khartoum, Sudan February 19, 2023. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights , opens new tab

July 26 (Reuters) – A Sudanese coalition led by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces announced on Saturday the members of a parallel government, a move opposed by the army, its rival in a 27-month war that could drive the country further towards partition.

RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo was announced head of the presidential council, while Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, head of the SPLM-N, one of the country’s largest rebel groups, was made his deputy on a 15-member council.

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Mohamed Hassan al-Taishi, a civilian politician, was named prime minister, and regional governors were announced in a press conference from Nyala, the largest city in the Darfur region which the RSF controls most of.

The Sudanese army has pushed the paramilitaries out of the center of the country, while deadly fighting rages over the center-west Kordofan region and Darfur’s traditional capital of al-Fashir.

In February, the RSF and its allied politicians and rebel groups agreed to form a government for a secular “New Sudan,” aiming to challenge the army-led administration’s legitimacy and secure advanced arms imports . The government announced on Saturday includes governors for regions of the country firmly controlled by the army.

The military led by career army officer General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had condemned the idea of the RSF creating a parallel government and promised to keep fighting until it controls all of Sudan, which has for years been plagued by conflicts, coups, poverty and hunger.

Dagalo, a former militia leader and one of Sudan’s wealthiest people, known as Hemedti, was hit with sanctions by the U.S ., which accused him of genocide earlier this year.

Burhan was sanctioned in January by the U.S., which accused him of choosing war over negotiations to bring an end to the conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people.

The two men had previously shared power after veteran autocrat Omar al-Bashir’s ouster in 2019. However, a 2021 coup by the two forces ousted civilian politicians, sparking a war over troop integration during a planned transition to democracy.

The army has in recent weeks appointed a prime minister and permanent cabinet members for the first time since 2021.

The ongoing conflict has devastated Sudan, creating an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the country, with half the population facing spreading hunger and famine, according to the United Nations.

Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz and Nafisa Eltahir; Writing by Nafisa Eltahir and Jana Choukeir; Editing by Michael Georgy and Daniel Wallis

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Areas under the group’s control are mainly in the western region of Darfur.

CAIRO — A notorious paramilitary group and its allies in Sudan said they formed a parallel government in areas under the group’s control, which are located mainly in the western region of Darfur where allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity are being investigated.

The move, which was announced Saturday, was likely to deepen the crisis in Sudan, which plunged into chaos when tensions between the country’s military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, exploded into fighting in April 2023 in the capital, Khartoum and elsewhere in the country.

The RSF-led Tasis Alliance appointed Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the commander of the paramilitary group, as head of the sovereign council in the new administration. The 15-member council serves as head of the state.

The RSF grew out of the notorious Janjaweed militias, mobilized two decades ago by then-president Omar al-Bashir against populations that identify as Central or East African in Darfur. The Janjaweed were accused of mass killings, rapes and other atrocities.

In the current war, the RSF has been accused of numerous atrocities. The Biden administration slapped Dagalo with sanctions, saying the RSF and its proxies were committing genocide. The RSF has denied committing genocide.

The alliance spokesman Alaa al-Din Naqd announced the new administration in a video statement from the Darfur city of Nyala, which is controlled by the RFF and its allied Janjaweed.

Mohammed Hassan al-Taishi, a civilian politician who was a member of a military-civilian sovereign council that ruled Sudan following the 2019 overthrow of al-Bashir, was named as prime minister in the RSF-controlled government.

Rebel leader Abdelaziz al-Hilu, who commands the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) which is active in the southern Kodrofan region, was appointed as Dagalo’s deputy in the council. The SPLM-N is a breakaway faction of the SPLM, the ruling party of neighboring South Sudan.

The announcement came five months after the RSF and its allies signed a charter in February in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, with the aim of establishing a parallel government in RSF-controlled areas.

At the time, many countries, including the U.S., rejected the RSF efforts and condemned the signing by the paramilitary group and its allies of what they called “transitional constitution” in the Kenya-hosted conference.

The foreign ministry of the internationally recognized government in Khartoum condemned the announcement in a statement. It called it a “fake government” and urged the international community to not engage with the RSF-led administration.

The RSF-led move was likely to deepen the division in Sudan. Yasir Arman, a rebel leader, said the move is likely to prolong the conflict and divide Sudan between two rival administrations — similar to neighboring Libya.

A coalition led by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced on Saturday the formation of a parallel government, deepening concerns about further divisions in a nation gripped by over two years of civil war.

The alliance’s spokesperson, Alaa El Din Nugud, said in a televised statement broadcast via Telegram that, “The leadership body of the Sudan Founding Alliance has agreed to appoint Mohamed Hassan Al-Taishi as Prime Minister of the Peace Government.”

According to the statement, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo was selected as President of the Presidential Council, the highest sovereign authority in the new government, while leader of Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), Abdelaziz Adam Al-Hilu was appointed as Vice President of the Presidential Council.

The RSF secured 42 percent of the positions in the parallel government, while the SPLM-N received 33 percent.

The remaining 25 percent was shared among the other groups in the alliance.

Political analyst Abdul-Khaliq Mahjoub said, the announcement of a parallel government would further complicate Sudan’s political crisis.

“There are serious concerns that Sudan may face the spectre of division, given the existence of two governments. This reality worsens the political situation in the country.

“Having two governments entrenches geographic division. This could eventually lead to permanent partition, as seen in certain other countries,” he added.

The RSF signed a founding charter with various political and armed groups in February, setting the groundwork for the parallel government.

The RSF currently controls most of the Darfur region in western Sudan and parts of the Kordofan region.

Sudan remains gripped by a conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF, which erupted in April 2023. The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions, both internally and across borders.

Xinhua/Kamila

In June, the Sudanese Armed Forces appointed Prime Minister Kamil Idris to lead the civilian cabinet in Port Sudan, the wartime capital on the Red Sea coast.

Idris wanted an overhaul, to appoint a team of technocrats to run the new government.

But Gebreil Ibrahim and Mini Arko Minawi – leaders of two powerful armed groups from Darfur – refused to leave their posts, and army leader Abdelfattah al-Burhan overruled Idris to keep them there.

“Burhan’s concession to Ibrahim and Minawi allows them to keep ministries that control [government] revenue,” said Suliman Baldo, the founder of the Sudan Transparency and Policy Tracker, a think tank.

Al Jazeera sent written questions to army spokesperson Nabil Abdullah, asking him why al-Burhan overruled Idris. No response had been received by the time of publication.

On the other side of the war is a coalition of armed groups that have, de facto, divided Sudan in half after more than two years of civil war.

The Rapid Support Forces paramilitary, which is battling the army, has formed an alliance with smaller armed factions and declared its intention to form a parallel government that will ostensibly represent all of Sudan.

The RSF-backed coalition has already unveiled its leadership council, on which the leaders of armed groups feature in prominent positions.

Analysts told Al Jazeera that SAF and the RSF are trying to meet the demands of powerful militias in a bid to keep their respective battlefield alliances intact.

A future parallel government

In February, the RSF announced that it had formed an alliance with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), an armed group from the Nuba Mountains led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu.

From the beginning of the war, it had remained neutral, shocking observers when it allied with the RSF to form a new alliance and parallel government, which they named Tasis (foundation).

The SPLM-N governs large swaths of South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, and has been at war with the army – as well as the RSF, which used to be the army’s ally before they turned their guns on each other – for 40 years.

SPLM-N was born out of the SPLM, which emerged in the early 1980s to fight for southern independence and to end its marginalisation by the elites of northern and central Sudan.

The Nuba – a group of about 50 communities from what was then central Sudan – was part of the SPLM.

But when South Sudan seceded in 2011, Nuba fighters rebranded as SPLM-N and continued their rebellion against Khartoum, fighting and defeating the RSF, which was deployed to fight them by former President Omar al-Bashir in 2016.

Nearly a decade later, on July 2, Tasis announced a 31-member senior leadership council, with Hemedti as its head and SPLM-N’s al-Hilu as deputy.

SPLM-N’s Abdelaziz al-Hilu speaks in Juba, South Sudan, March 28, 2021 [Jok Solomun/Reuters]

While the full list of the 31-member council is not yet public, it also includes Tahir al-Hajar, the head of the Darfur-based Sudan Liberation Gathering Forces (SLGF), according to an interview he gave Al Jazeera Mubasher.

Tasis will soon roll out a government to help the RSF and its allies in their fight against the army, Kholood Khair, Sudan expert and founder of Confluence Advisory think tank, believes.

The RSF wants to exploit the guise of a formal government to better profit from aid groups, buy sophisticated weapons such as fighter jets that can only be sold to states, and boost its stance in any future negotiations with the army, she explained.

“They do not want to go into any kind of mediation as a rebel group. They want to be seen as a government [to boost their legitimacy],” Khair said.

Al Jazeera asked Tasis spokesman, Alaa Nugud, to respond to accusations that the alliance was simply formed to garner international legitimacy for armed groups on the ground.

While he did not respond before publication, Tasis portrays itself as the cornerstone of a “New Sudan” seeking to protect historically neglected and persecuted communities, even as the RSF stands accused of committing ethnic killings and genocide against sedentary communities known as “non-Arabs” in Darfur.

However, “this is just a group formed out of war dynamics despite their entire narrative of it being a coalition of the marginalised,” said Hamid Khalafallah, an expert on Sudan and PhD candidate at the University of Manchester.

‘Poster children’

On the Port Sudan government’s side, Gebreil Ibrahim and Mini Arko Minawi lead the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Army – Mini Minawi (SLA-MM), respectively.

The two armed groups mainly comprised sedentary farming “non-Arab” communities from the vast western region of Darfur who came together to fight a rebellion against the central government in 2003.

Their stated aim was to end the persecution and neglect of their communities, but like most of Sudan’s armed groups, they ended up using their weapons to negotiate access to state coffers and prominent posts in government instead.

“What this whole war has shown is if you pick up a gun, then you can get power,” Khair said.

“The RSF are really the poster children for this model,” she added.

The RSF in its current form was born during the Darfur war, which started in 2003, when al-Bashir tapped Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo and his feared “Arab” Popular Defence Forces (Janjaweed) militia to crush the rebellion there.

Al-Bashir rewarded Hemedti, who took part in countless atrocities against “non-Arabs”, by repackaging the Janjaweed into the RSF in 2013, with Hemedti at its head and a place with the army.

As part of the state, Hemedti was able to consolidate control over lucrative gold mines, expand recruitment and lease out fighters to partake in regional wars for tens of millions of dollars.

Soldiers from the RSF in the East Nile province on June 22, 2019 [Hussein Malla/AP]

When al-Bashir was deposed by a popular uprising in April 2019, a wealthy, powerful Hemedti became al-Burhan’s deputy in the Transitional Military Council.

A militia state with a war economy?

Tasis, as well as the army-backed government in Port Sudan, are beholden to armed actors, which means more local commanders could expand recruitment and acquire weapons, hoping to get strong enough to gain political power, analysts warn.

Mohamed “al-Jakomi” Seid Ahmed, an army-aligned commander from northern Sudan, made a statement a few weeks ago that hinted at his aspirations, Sudan Transparency and Policy Tracker’s Baldo said.

Al-Jakomi said that he would be training a whopping 50,000 men in Eritrea to protect Sudan’s Northern State from possible incursion by the RSF. He confirmed his plan in an interview with Al Jazeera Mubasher.

In addition, Baldo referenced Abu Aqla Keikel, whose force was instrumental in helping the army recapture the agricultural heartland of Gezira state three months after defecting from the RSF to the army in October 2024.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Al Jazeera’s reporting point to atrocities committed by Keikel’s fighters, prompting the European Union to sanction him on July 18.

Still, analysts say his power is growing and he may harbour ambitions to secure some form of political power.

“These are individuals who can hold the army hostage through their autonomous militias … as a way to secure seats around the cake when it is divided,” Baldo told Al Jazeera.

The war has displaced millions of Sudanese people [File: Marwan Mohamed/EPA]

To appease armed actors that they want to keep onside, the army-backed government will likely create new positions as rewards, Jawhara Kanu, an expert on Sudan’s economy, said.

“The government will just have to keep swelling … with as many ministries as possible to reward as many people as possible,” she told Al Jazeera.

However, neither Port Sudan nor Tasis will be able to hand out political posts forever, especially if the war continues and more powerful militias emerge.

The army doesn’t have enough revenue – a result of losing control of nearly half the country, which encompasses profitable gold mines and agricultural lands, according to Khair.

She added that Hemedti and his family are unlikely to cede much of their private wealth to pay recruits. Throughout the war, the RSF incentivised its fighters by allowing them to plunder the cities and villages they attacked.

But as loot runs dry, militias may resort to building their fiefdoms by setting up checkpoints to heavily tax people and goods passing through, warns Khair.

“The new predatory behaviour, supported by the state in RSF and army areas, will be checkpoints. And these checkpoints will mark one rebel leader’s area from another,” she told Al Jazeera.

“In a decade’s time, it may eventually be difficult to tell which militia is loyal to the army and which is loyal to the RSF,” Khair added.

A coalition led by the paramilitary group fighting for power in Sudan’s brutal civil war has announced the leadership for its self-declared parallel government, further tearing the fabric of a fraying nation.

As fighting in central and south Sudan intensifies, the Sudan Founding Alliance said Gen. Mohamed Hamdan, leader of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, would head a 15-person government council that would include regional governors. A statement issued on Saturday named a Sudanese politician, Mohamed Hassan Othman al-Ta’ayshi, as prime minister.

The coalition said the formation of the council renewed its “commitment to building an inclusive homeland and a new, secular, democratic, decentralized, and voluntarily unified Sudan founded on the principles of freedom, justice, and equality.”

When pressed, the spokesman for the coalition, Alaa Eldin Awad Naqd, said, “We have six-month emergency plans in every service sector, and there are strategic plans in all sectors in the country.” He would not elaborate.