Hemedti: Sudan ‘Government of Peace and Unity’ to issue new currency and IDs

The commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Lt Gen Mohamed ‘Hemedti’ Dagalo, has proclaimed a parallel Government of Peace and Unity, “a broad civil alliance that represents the true face of Sudan”, that will issue new currency and identity documents. This follows the signing of the founding charter for a parallel Sudanese government in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on February 22 by the RSF, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North under the leadership of Abdelaziz El Hilu, 22 smaller rebel movements, and political and civil society. However, Sudan’s Foreign Minister, Ali Yusuf counters that “no civilian government can be formed in Sudan before the RSF is defeated”.

In a statement Telegram on Tuesday, to mark the second anniversary of the outbreak of the war, Hemedti says that the “Government of Peace and Unity” will issue new currency and identity documents “so that no Sudanese person is deprived of their rights,” and provide “basic services” including education, health, and justice “not just in areas under the control of the RSF and its allied movements, but throughout the country”.

Hemedti stresses: “This is not a warlord state, it is the government of the people,” he said, adding: “We are not building a parallel state. We are building this government not for one region or one people, but for every Sudanese person who feels forgotten, marginalised, and disenfranchised.”

‘No civilian govt before RSF defeat’

In a statement countering Hemedti’s remarks, Sudan’s Foreign Minister, Ali Yusuf asserts that “no civilian government can be formed in Sudan before the RSF is defeated. Al-Arabiya Al-Hadath quoted the minister as saying that “no more than three or four countries would recognise any government constituted by the RSF”.

‘Broad civil alliance’

In his Telegram statement, Hemedti asserts: “The Government of Peace and Unity is a broad civil alliance that represents the true face of Sudan, with all Sudanese civil and political forces, the Sudanese Revolutionary Front, civil society, humanitarian organisations, youth movements and resistance committees,” Hemedti says, adding that “we signed a political charter and a historic transitional constitution for a new Sudan.”

He stressed that the document includes a decentralised governance model that enables the regions to govern themselves with justice and a unified professional non-political army, formed from all regions of Sudan, that reflects population diversity in addition to equal rights for all, regardless of race, religion or language, and pointed out that the document also contains the separation of religion from state and ensuring religious freedom and neutrality of the state consisting of a presidential council of 15 members selected from all regions, “symbolising our voluntary unity”.

‘A dangerous step towards de facto partition’

Hemedti says that junta head Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan’s recent issuance of a new currency, and the holding of Sudanese certification exams limited to areas under his control, is “a dangerous step towards de facto partition”.

“We are not in this war because we like violence, but because every peaceful road was blocked by the army and its sponsors,” he says, noting that his forces “did not choose confrontation, and we continued every dialogue in Jeddah, Geneva and Manama, and we came with open hands, but we were rejected.”

“I dream of a free, democratic, pluralistic, and peaceful Sudan, whose strength lies not in arms but in the will for peace,” he said.

Hemedti stressed that the RSF “will never allow the army to take control of the whole country” and what he described as “the return of former tyranny”. He pointed out that after two years of war, “Sudan stands at a crossroads, either to allow the past to drag us back or to forge a new path forward.” He stressed that “the only solution that El Burhan proposes to political crises is the military solution and his only concept of governance is war.”

Hemedti described the current crisis as “not between armed parties but a painful legacy of a political system that has failed its people since independence in 1956,” adding that “every attempt by the people to shape their future has been met with bullets, arrests and deception.” He stressed that he would not allow “foreign powers to turn Sudan into a patch for regional conflicts and ambitions or competition for the Red Sea.”

Hemedti called on the African Union to “recognise the democratic will of the Sudanese people, and not to remain hostage to the coup plotters in Port Sudan.” He said he believes that the USA, under the Trump administration, is able to play a vital role in ending this war: “President Trump has talked about ending endless wars and Sudan should be one of them.”

Charter signed in Nairobi

As previously reported by Radio Dabanga, RSF, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North under the leadership of Abdelaziz El Hilu, 22 smaller rebel movements, and political and civil society groups signed the founding charter for a parallel Sudanese government in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi on February 22. The move has raised sharp criticism.