Delegates from Sudan's West Darfur State at the KICC in Nairobi on 18 February 18, 2025, ahead of the planned signing of the Government of Peace and Unity Charter.
A power struggle has erupted within Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) even as it emerged that over 400 people were killed on the day the representatives of the paramilitary force arrived in Kenya last week to unveil a parallel government.
The Sudan Tribune, a leading publication in Sudan, reports that the RSF delegates attending the controversial factional Sudan talks at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) in Nairobi have disagreed over the composition of a proposed Sovereign Council and who to head it.
The contest, the publication reports, is between RSF leader Mohamad Hamdan Dagalo alias Hemedti and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) North leader Abdul Aziz Al Hilu.
The publication notes that Al Hilu wants to head the council as he pushes for the "parallel government" to be hosted at Kauda city of South Kordofan which he, partially, controls.
But Mr Hemedti who leads RSF, the most powerful militia in the rebel alliance, rejected these demands, which forced the talks to be postponed indefinitely.
Sudan Tribune
“Sources involved in the meetings told Sudan Tribune that the SPLM and RSF disagreed over the presidency of the sovereign council,” the Sudan Tribune based and published in Paris, reports. Ideologically and historically, Al Hilu and Hemedti are two strange bedfellows.
While Al Hilu is a secularist, Hemedti is an Islamist and a racial supremacist who led the Janjawiid, accused of genocide against African tribes in Darfur, where Al Hilu traces his ancestry.
Al Hilu is a trained economist while Hemedti only has elementary basic education.
The Middle East Monitor and Middle East Eye publications quote Sudan's foreign ministry statement accusing RSF of launching “a brutal three-day attack killing 433 people in White Nile state as its leaders arrived in Kenya to announce a parallel peace and unity government."
“This horrific massacre confirms that the militia’s war is actually against the entire Sudanese people,” the Middle East Eye, based and published in London, quotes the foreign ministry statement.
The foreign ministry, according to the publications, goes on to describe the killing as “the worst atrocity” committed by RSF since “the genocide in Geneina and Ardamita” in August and November 2023.
The Middle East Monitor reports the foreign ministry saying that RSF resorted to “its usual tactic of retaliating against unarmed civilians in small villages and towns after suffering successive defeats by the Sudanese army.”
“There was no comment from the RSF on the accusation,” the publication says.
This came as city lawyer and International Relations expert Mr David Ochami faulted the Kenya Kwanza administration for hosting the RSF leadership in Nairobi.
“This invitation by the Kenyan administration of a much-discredited party to the Sudan civil war should not have happened at all,” said Mr Ochami.
Mr Ochami noted that it was a badly orchestrated attempt by Kenya to impose itself as a mediator “having been rejected by the ruling junta in Khartoum and discredited by the African Union.
Sudan's Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (left) and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces commander, General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo (left).
“It is coming at a time RSF is losing territory on the frontlines and has been rejected by most of the world because of its atrocious human rights record.”
“The invitation to Nairobi was orchestrated by the real power behind RSF to shore it up and parade the militia as a credible and viable part of future negotiations,” says Mr Ochami.
Al Hilu's involvement in the talks with RSF is peculiar because of his past in the then John Garang-led SPLM prior to the secession of South Sudan.
Al Hilu and other SPLM veterans like Malik Agar and Yasir Arman found themselves stranded in Sudan following the secession of South Sudan.
During the 1983 to 2012 civil war, Al Hilu distinguished himself as a successful commander and captured most of the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan, now in Sudan, for most of the war.
On the other hand, Malik Agar distinguished himself as a commander in Blue Nile, also in Sudan, during the civil war.
Following the secession of South Sudan the regime of Hassan Omar al Bashir resumed hostilities with SPLM North especially after al Hilu and Agar won the Governorship elections in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, respectively but Al Bashir nullified the elections.
According to Mr Ochami, the only internationally, recognized negotiations for Sudan are being held in Addis Ababa under the African Union (AU) and the Kenya Kwanza administration “should desist from trying to launch a parallel or competitive process to rescue RSF on behalf of RSF's foreign backers.”
“This blatant display of impunity by the Kenyan administration is not unexpected from a consistently, blundering regime but will have repercussions, if not immediate, then in due course. The array of armed groups invited at KICC are historically and ideologically, incapable of harmony hence the reported disagreement,” said Mr Ochami.
He argues that under the current circumstances, Kenya lacks the diplomatic clout, requisite neutral capability and knowledge to meaningfully mediate the Sudan crisis.
“Unless there's some undisclosed financial gain for some Kenyan officials, Kenya has no obvious dog in this fight and should stay away from the firestorm she is trying to sleepwalk into.”
