Sudan RSF chief Hemedti foreign trips end isolation
FRIDAY DECEMBER 29 2023
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni meets Sudan’s RSF leader Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo at Rwakitura in Kiruhura District, Uganda on December 27, 2023. PHOTO | PPUADVERTISEMENT
By MAWAHIB ABDALLATIF
Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo ‘Hemedti’ this week emerged from isolation to make the first public trips out of the country ostensibly seeking to undercut his nemesis in the war, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
On Thursday, Hemedti arrived in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, the second station of a rare foreign tour and his first appearance outside Sudan since war broke out between the RSF and the Sudanese army in mid-April.
He had earlier on Wednesday met Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in Entebbe to “brief” him on the war.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said he had received Hemedti and his delegation “to discuss peace and stability in Sudan.”
While Hemedti’s tours appear like his own push to rival Burhan’s recent trips, they also put to rest rumours that appeared online about his health, and whether indeed he was alive.
But to the army leadership including Burhan and members of the Muslim Brotherhood organisation loyal to former President Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted in April 2019, his trips are seen as countering their desire to have the RSF commander isolated.
Hemedti, sources say, has agreed to meet with Burhan one-on-one on January 3 having failed to show up at a meeting planned for Thursday this week in Djibouti.
Read: Sudan warring chiefs fail to meet
As such, his shuttle diplomacy also presents an image of a man confident of winning the war on the ground, and hence an important person at the table.
Burhan, in his trips, had sought to isolate Hemedti and his RSF, even though evidence now shows that both sides have committed brutality against civilians. RSF though was recently indicted by Washington of committing war crimes including ethnic cleansing in Sudan.
Hemedti had initially been accused of being close to Kenyan President William Ruto, the reason Burhan rejected Ruto’s mediation role under the regional bloc, Igad. But touring Uganda and Ethiopia, two other countries the Sudan Armed forces say have been leaning to Hemedti’s side, even if they deny it, may now show that he has his networks to fix such high-profile sessions.
It may also explain why there is little consensus among local and international parties influencing events in Sudan, on how to achieve peace.
Nine months
Meanwhile, Sudan’s war is entering its ninth month with various peace bids failing to achieve, at least, a ceasefire. The RSF has been announcing victories, including the recent taking control of most areas of Gezira State, south of Khartoum, and its capital, Wad Madani.
One problem that arises is whether ‘winners’ on the ground can sign a peace deal, or if losers will remain united under one leader or splinter.
The Sudanese army has not been sharing its data on achievements or losses and its senior commanders relocated to the city of Port Sudan, some 1,000 kilometres from Khartoum.
The RSF has claimed control of all major cities on the road linking the capital to the borderlines of Gezira state and the depth of Sennar state in the south, more than 300 kilometres away.
The war between the Sudanese army and paramilitary group has led to 12,000 deaths, devastated the capital Khartoum, forced some seven million people to flee their homes and sparked waves of ethnic killings in the Darfur region. At least 1.4 million are refugees in neighbouring countries of Chad, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt.