Musa Hilal: ‘End of Sudan war near – RSF at its weakest’

Musa Hilal, head of Sudan’s the Revolutionary Awakening Council, has asserted that “the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are at their weakest point despite external support from the UAE, Libya, and Chad. He accused the Rapid Support Forces of being “a tool for other parties”, indicating that “the war is at its end”.

Addressing a crowd of his supporters in his stronghold of Misteriya, North Darfur, Hilal alleges in the video clip published yesterday that a member of the RSF threatened to liquidate him. He also referred to threats to attack Misteriya if the handover of El Fasher is completed. He added: “We will not attack anyone, but we will defend ourselves and we will confront any attack, whether it is from the RSF or from any party outside the law.”

Hilal confirmed that his fighters (part of the Sudanese Joint Force*) “are part of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) under authority of the Ministry of Defence, and he declared his pride in belonging to the SAF.

“The war is coming to an end,” he asserted, congratulated the Sudanese people and the army on the victories, and called on his forces “to be fully alert and prepared”. He also called on families not to allow their children to respond to RSF mobilisations.

He added, “The militias brought from abroad will not affect the Sudanese. Sudan is protected by its armed forces.”

Background

Hilal has been opposing the RSF since the era of the Al Bashir regime, when he refused government orders to include his forces in the RSF. This which developed into clashes between his forces and the RSF, which ended with his arrest in November 2017, along with a number of leaders and soldiers.

Hilal was held, together with a number of his relatives and followers, in a raid on his stronghold in Misteriya, North Darfur, in November 2017. He was immediately transferred to a prison in Khartoum. His trial secretly began on April 30, 2018.

Hilal was released in March 2021 after more than four years in detention. After the war broke out, the RSF made attempts to recruit him into their ranks or ensure his neutrality during the ongoing war before he came out publicly earlier announcing his alignment with the army.

Hilal is accused numerous atrocities committed in Darfur against civilians after the conflict erupted in 2003. With full government backing, his militiamen, popularly called janjaweed, targeted villages of African Darfuris. They rarely came near forces of the rebel movements.

In 2008, the militia leader was appointed as Presidential Assistant for Federal Affairs. Six years later however, he announced his defection from the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), returned to Darfur and established the RAC.

The RAC consists of Hilal’s militiamen and a number of North Darfur native administration leaders. RAC commanders took control of the Jebel Amer gold mining area in July 2015. According to a UN Security Council report in April 2016, Hilal and his henchmen were profiting from vast gold sales in Darfur.

Sources claim that RSF commander Lt Gen Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemeti’ was behind the arrest of Hilal in 2017, and took over the operation of the mines.

Renewed clashes

As previously reported by Radio Dabanga, heavy clashes erupted around the North Darfur capital El Fasher on Saturday, as RSF forces launched an attack on the southwestern, southeastern, and northeastern fronts. The Sudanese Joint Force* claim they repelled the assault, inflicting heavy losses and seizing military vehicles. The SAF’s Sixth Infantry Division confirmed that warplanes were deployed to counter the RSF offensive.

Radio Dabanga has approached the RSF for comment.

*The Sudanese Joint Force is made up of fighters of the Sudan Liberation Movement faction headed by Darfur Governor Minni Minawi (SLM-MM), the JEM faction led by Finance Minister Jibril Ibrahim (JEM-JI), and several small rebel groups. These movements formed the Darfur Joint Force in June 2022 as agreed in the 2020 Juba Peace Agreement, to protect the people of Darfur. They renounced their neutrality in November last year and are now fighting against the RSF alongside the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).