He Paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (FAR) and the sudanese army They accused each other of having attacked their respective units after weeks of tension between both parties, in what represents a serious climbing in the country and that has been described as “rebellion” by the Armed Forces.
The confrontation takes place just one day after the vice president of the Sudanese Sovereign Council and leader of the FAR, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, aka “Hemedti”express their willingness to seek a solution to the escalation of tension with the Armed Forces to avoid a “bloodshed”.
The tension broke out on the morning of this past Thursday, when the Army denounced the deployment of the FAR in Khartoum, which was carried out without the consent of the Armed Forces and generated “a wave of panic and fear among the citizens.”
These are some keys to understand how this conflict between the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group and the Sudanese Army came to be.
1. What are the FAR?
The Rapid Support Forces are a paramilitary force created by the former Islamist president Omar al-Bashir and that it depends on Sudanese Intelligence. Since its conversion in 2013, it has been led by Hemedti, who after the 2021 coup is vice president of the Sovereign Council and number two in the Army.
The FAR were born from the militias Janjaweed (Janjaweed), accused of committing mass murders and rapes in the conflict of Darfur (2003-2008) and after the overthrow of Al Bashir, in April 2019, it became a regular military force.
This group was also accused of murdering and kidnapping pro-democracy protesters during the so-called Sudanese revolution, which overthrew the former dictator’s regime after three decades in power.
2. Democratic transition in Sudan
Sudan is immersed in a democratic transition process with the aim of ending the political crisis unleashed after the coup d’état in October 2021, with which the military leader Abdelfatah al-Burhan -together with Hemedti- deposed the civilian transitional government that ran the country after the Sudanese revolution.
On January 8, the final phase of the political process began between the signatories of the “framework agreement”reached on December 5 between the military and civilians and which defined the steps to establish a civilian government to replace the current military one.
However, the signing of the definitive political agreement between the different parties involved in the transition process in Sudan, which was scheduled to be initialed on April 1, was postponed up to two times due to lack of consensus on the creation of a unified Army. with the FAR.
3. Attempt for a unified army
Al Burhan, also president of the Sudanese Sovereign Council -the highest government body after the coup- warned at the end of March that unifying the Army was one of the points of the framework agreement reached between the military and civilians to resolve the crisis in the country, a process that it would be “long and complicated”.
Under the agreement, the Sudanese Armed Forces will only be subject to a “civilian authority” with the aim of avoiding its politicization, while Hemedti affirmed that the reform of the military and security institutions “needs a modernization and updating of the legislation.”
To create a unified national Army with the integration of other paramilitary units, such as the Rapid Support Forces, they held a military and security reform workshop half a month ago, which also separates the Army from political life and economic, commercial activities and investment in the country.
However, tensions increased between the FAR and the Sudanese Armed Forces after holding this workshop due to disagreements between the two leaders, which represents the great obstacle due to which the long-awaited definitive agreement that completes the transition has not been signed and continues to be delayed.
The main problem for such integration is that the FAR is a group with tribal loyalties -the fighters come from the tribe riezigatfrom Chad-, in addition to the fact that during the years of conflict they have amassed great fortunes by seizing gold mines, Sudan’s main resource.
4. Origin of the conflict between the army and the FAR
The disagreements between the Sudanese Army and the FAR date back to 2019, when the latter were accused of being the visible arm of repression that ended the lives of hundreds of protesters who camped in front of the Army headquarters in protests that led to the fall of Al Bashir.
The opposition platform Forces for Freedom and Change then called for its dissolution and recalled that this group committed crimes against humanity in Darfur.
It was then that Hemedti affirmed that the eviction of that sit-in “was a trap and the objective was the FAR”, which according to the leader of this armed group were victims of officers of different ranks, although he did not formally accuse the Army.
The sum of these situations makes it difficult for the FAR to integrate effectively into the Sudanese National Army, despite the attempts and commitments announced by both Al Burhan and Hemedti.
(With information from EFE)
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Source-www.infobae.com