A Sudanese court has issued death sentences against Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and fifteen other high-ranking commanders. …
… everything went dark. “In front of us there were injured people, blood, burnt cars, and smashed cars.” We have withheld the student’s real name for her safety in a city that is the latest flash-point in the three-year war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces …
Last month, Ali Rizkallah, a commander in the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, was welcomed to Sudan’s capital Khartoum and given a uniform and a rank in the armed forces he had spent about three years fighting. …
… Multiple reports have alleged that Addis Ababa has supported one of Sudan’s warring factions, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), although Ethiopia has repeatedly denied this. …
… A full-scale war broke out in April 2023 after long-simmering tensions between the Sudanese army and its rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces escalated. …
… Sudan has long accused the UAE of backing the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which have been fighting the Sudanese army in a three-year-old civil war that has devastated the country. …
The US Africa envoy has called on the UN Security Council to extend its arms embargo to all of Sudan to halt external military and financial support, citing escalating drone attacks by both the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Russia and China oppose the move, saying it would weaken Sudan's army's effectiveness, and a wider embargo would require a Security Council vote.
The US Africa envoy has called on the UN Security Council to extend its arms embargo to all of Sudan to halt external military and financial support, citing escalating drone attacks by both the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Russia and China oppose the move, saying it would weaken Sudan's army's effectiveness, and a wider embargo would require a Security Council vote.
A Sudanese court has issued death sentences against Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and fifteen other high-ranking commanders, finding them guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide related to the conflict in West Darfur. The proceedings, conducted in absentia, cited the June 2023 assassination of state governor Khamis Abbakar and deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure including residential areas, schools, and houses of worship.
El-Obeid, a city of 500,000 on the front line of Sudan's three-year civil war, endured 27 drone strikes in June and has been under siege-like conditions for 18 months, with UN human rights chief Volker Turk reporting at least 45 people killed and 41 injured in 15 strikes between 6 and 28 June, alongside summary executions, abductions, torture, and sexual violence affecting those fleeing the conflict.
UNICEF reported that the conflict between Sudan's military and the Rapid Support Forces has killed or wounded at least 330 children in the first six months of 2024, with drone strikes accounting for 60 per cent of casualties. Hostilities continue to intensify in Kordofan, Darfur, and Blue Nile regions, with attacks on schools, markets, and water and fuel stations displacing over 500,000 residents.
Sudan's military has accepted high-level defectors from the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, including commander Ali Rizkallah, reshaping alliances in the civil war; survivors in Darfur, where the RSF stronghold has been accused of atrocities, express anger over the integrations without accountability.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's Prosperity Party won 438 of 501 contested parliamentary seats in the general election, securing his return to power despite the poll being overshadowed by conflict, accusations of repression, and limited opposition participation. Although supporters see economic gains continuing, security experts fear internal divisions and insurgencies in the Amhara and Oromia regions could worsen.
A drone strike hit a crowded market in the town of Ghubaysh in West Kordofan province, Sudan on Tuesday morning, killing 28 people and wounding dozens more, according to the Emergency Lawyers rights group. The strike occurred during peak shopping hours in an area serving as an economic lifeline for thousands across the region amid the ongoing war that began in April 2023.
Sudan accused Ethiopia of launching drone strikes on Khartoum airport and other sites since March 1 and recalled its ambassador in response; Ethiopia denied the accusations. Sudan's military also accused the United Arab Emirates of supplying the drones, as it continues conflict with the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group.
The United Arab Emirates denied Sudan's allegations that Emirati drones launched from Ethiopia's Bahir Dar airport attacked Khartoum airport on Monday. Sudan has long accused the UAE of supporting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in the three-year civil war, which the UAE denies.
Sudan has recalled its ambassador to Ethiopia and accused Ethiopia and the UAE of launching drone attacks on critical infrastructure including Khartoum International Airport, claiming conclusive evidence links the strikes to Ethiopian airbases with UAE support. Ethiopia has denied the allegations as baseless.