Attack on Sudanese paramilitaries in West Kordofan leaves one dead

A member of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia was killed and others were wounded in West Kordofan on Sunday, when the vehicle they were riding in was ambushed.

In a press statement on Monday, the West Kordofan government reported that a group of armed men intercepted an RSF* vehicle that was on its way from the North Darfur capital El Fasher to Khartoum. Three militiamen were injured.

According to the statement, the RSF vehicle managed to escape the attack, but the gunmen pursued the car until it was stopped near Um Semeima. They shot at the vehicle, killing one of the injured paramilitaries.

The other RSF members fled. The fate of two of them remains unknown.

The West Kordofan government strongly condemned the incident and pledged to bring the perpetrators to justice.

* Officially, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), set up by the ousted Al Bashir regime in 2013, was integrated into the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) two years ago. In the August 2019 Constitutional Charter it was agreed that both the army and the RSF will fall under the command of the “Supreme Commander of the Sudan Armed Forces”. At the same time however, the militia stayed a force unto intself, commanded by Mohamed Dagalo ‘Hemeti’, Vice-President of Sudan’s Sovereignty Council.

In the Juba Peace Agreement of October 2020, the Sudanese government and a number of rebel movements agreed to form “a single national professional army with a new unified military doctrine [..] making the Armed Forces, the Rapid Support Forces, other security services and the armed struggle forces of Darfur Track a single unified regular force that serves the supreme interests of State of Sudan”.

In June this year, Hemeti publicly refused the integration of his forces into the Sudanese army. Later that month, Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok announced a national initiative to solve the economic and political crises in the country, and to reform the military institutions in the country, including the integration of the RSF militia into “a unified national army”.