Civilians: ‘RSF out of Sudan’s Kassala’

The residents and leaders of Sudan’s eastern Kassala state have renewed their demand for the withdrawal of the government’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia from the towns and villages of Kassala.

The civil appeal demands that the RSF militiamen return to their bases.

The renewed demand comes as RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan 'Hemeti', arrived in Kassala on a visit to inspect his forces in the state on Thursday.

Abdallah Mousa, a senior civilian leader in eastern Sudan told Radio Dabanga: “Since its deployment in Kassala state more than three months ago, the RSF have carried out killings and attacks against the residents". He added that “they have turned into a real nightmare provoking panic and fear in the state by harassing the residents inside the districts of the state on the pretext of commodity smuggling.”

He warned of the negative impact of the militia on the social fabric in eastern Sudan, pointing to the relative stability of the eastern states.

Mousa played down to Radio Dabanga the importance of the allegation that the RSF is deployed to combat commodity smuggling and human trafficking, pointing out that the government has special anti-smuggling forces that carry out its work professionally, while the RSF continue to harass residents while transporting goods for consumption home.

He ridiculed the reasons given by the government for the deployment of the rapid support militias in Kassala state in anticipation of an Egyptian attack on Sudan from Eritrean territory.

He said that recent developments in the Sudanese-Egyptian relations and the visit of Al Bashir to Cairo proved that this information was incorrect.

He said that the government aimed to spread these rumours and deploy the RSF troops to the state to cover up the economic crisis and an attempt to besiege the escalating popular protests.

Meeting

On Thursday the RSF commander welcomed the leaders of the native administration in Kassala, a and group of people of eastern Sudan joining the militia.

Hemeti stressed that the continued deployment of the RSF in eastern Sudan will be subject to the success of the experiment to be a nucleus in the region.