The external factor in tailoring and reinforcing RSF’s coup in Sudan (1)

By; Mohammed Ahmed Adam

During his meeting with journalists a couple of days ago, President Al-Burhan revealed with facts and evidence, the scale of the external conspiracy on the Sudanese State and its resources; the ongoing stifling blockade on the imports of weapons and ammunition to ensure the defeat of the national army, eventually forcing it to negotiate a humiliating surrender. He equally took up the issue of the large-scale buying off of individuals, entities, organizations, and states alike, to ensure their support for the rebel militia.

Referring in particular to the recruitment of tens of thousands of mercenaries from over 17 countries, the chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council, further indicated that the conspiracy aims to prey on the State, wealth, and resources for the benefit of certain States, to dismantle its army and replace it with a savage criminal militia, wherever it sets foot on a village or city, the citizens escape for their lives, leaving behind all their wealth and belongings, seeking safety around their national army’s barracks and headquarters.

Arguably, one of the greatest successes achieved by Western intelligence services is that they were able to penetrate a paramilitary force, built by the Sudanese army in the first place, to enhance its military capabilities on the ground, as is the case in many countries, namely the Rapid Support Forces, and then redirects its rifles at its mother army and the civilians alike, as is the case now in the war that has been raging since nearly 15 months, in a true incarnation of the fourth-generation warfare theory.

It should be noted here that the formation of the RSF in Sudan was not an innovation or novelty from experiences known around the world. As a matter of fact, the use of paramilitary forces similar to the army in its internal organization, for special tasks in support of the national army, is a common case around the world, although the experience varies from one country to another.

For example, but not limited to, the Gendarmerie forces in Turkey, the Basij in Iran, the Republican National Guard in Portugal, The Central Security Forces in Egypt, the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq, and the Moroccan Auxiliary Forces in Morocco. Last but not least, the National Guard, which is made up of specific tribes known for their loyalty to the ruling family since the founding of the kingdom, has remained for fifty years an institution semi-independent of the security apparatus in Riyadh.

Two important events paved the way for the aforementioned success and the ensuing manipulation of the RSF for the service of the imperialistic plan in Sudan. As part of its efforts to open up relations with the European Union, the government of Sudan agreed in 2014, to work and coordinate with the European Union, in combating illegal immigration from Africa towards Europe (Khartoum Process). Khartoum’s substantial mistake in that respect was the unreserved tasking of the RSF, to be the only effective force in this mission. making the RSF, easy prey and target for the Western intelligence services, to manipulate and subjugate, in serving their sinister plans in Sudan in the way it is currently unfolding and developing.

In other words, knowing which side the bread is buttered, the Western intelligence taking advantage of the militia leader’s passion for power, the Khartoum Process in essence, was a camouflage to prepare this militia logistically and militarily, for future tasks; namely acting as a cat’s claw in the pre-planned goal of dismantling the Sudanese military establishment and the ensuing control of the country’s vast resources, with all the entailed barbarity and bestiality, that is currently unfolding before our eyes in Sudan.

The second stop, was granting the RSF free hand participation in the Decisive Storm operation (the Saudi-led coalition to fight the Houthis in Yemen), which provided the militia with further substantial financial resources, that enhanced its structural and organizational expansion within the Sudan, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Adding insult to injury, RSF is in essence, a purely family militia in its leadership ( Dagalo’s brothers), and ideologically tribalistic in nature, especially on its grassroots level, thereby devoid of conventional military and command hierarchies, in such a way that increasingly weakened or rather absent the control of the State.

The importance of the Decisive Storm operation is that it enabled the UAE Intelligence, in turn, to further penetrate the RSF, fueling its leadership’s ambitions not only for the monopolization of power in Sudan but also nurtured in particular the old-cherished dreams of El-Attawah purely Arab kingdom, in Sudan and beyond, in line with the Gulf Emirates. (here neighboring Chad should worry since it’s N ‘Djamena not Khartoum, proposed as capital for the future kingdom).

Worth mentioning here, Al-Attawah is known to be the mother tribe of the Militia’s Commander, which extends over Sudan’s borders deep into the African Sahel. Arguably that might explain the wide prevalence of the title Amir (Prince), attributed to Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the militia’s commander, amidst his fighters and mercenaries alike, in the Sudan and beyond.

That’s to say, the Decisive Storm was an important milestone in the recruitment of RSF for the UAE’s well-known expansionist schemes in Sudan and Africa, which is now an increasingly open secret, for the manipulation of the continent’s natural resources and ports. It constituted the starting point for a relationship that has crystallized and intensified in a way that turned the UAE today, into a barefaced and unmistakable regional sponsor of the notorious RSF militia both politically and militarily, and the main factor in flaring up the current war in Sudan.

In this context, Republican Congresswoman Sara Jacobs, the ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa led a coalition of 10 lawmakers, urging the United Arab Emirates to end its material support to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan, which is committing mass atrocities, including ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity – echoing the genocide in Darfur two decades ago.

In her letter to the Congress Sara wrote “Members of Congress are paying attention to the UAE’s actions in Sudan. Most importantly, we are concerned that the UAE is at odds with the efforts of Sudanese civilians, the region, and the broader international community to stop the fighting. Support to the RSF deepens the conflict, emboldens and abets human rights abuses, invites intervention from other regional players, and alienates the Sudanese people – who will not accept an RSF victory.”