The lust for power pushes Sudan into further breakup

The unlikely journey of Sudan’s Gen Mohamed Dagalo from cattle trader to powerful warlord now battling the nation’s army is thanks to the Darfur native’s guile and a nation ruled for decades by power-hungry generals.

Better known by the nickname Hemedti, Gen Dagalo and his paramilitary Rapid Support Forces are a by-product of the Darfur war in the 2000s. The conflict left 300,000 dead and 2.5 million displaced. Its ramifications continue to shape Sudan’s politics to this day.

The roots of the general and his RSF are in the Arab Janjaweed militias, whose rise to the position of strength they have today is owed in large part to the support of former dictator Omar Al Bashir and the chaos and lawlessness that so often engulf the Afro-Arab nation of 44 million.

Now locked in a bitter, winner-take-all urban war against his former ally — army chief Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan — Gen Dagalo is looking for an outcome that would turn into reality his dream of becoming the country’s top soldier and the source of ultimate power.

A school dropout who never attended military college, Gen Dagalo owes his high rank to Al Bashir who bestowed it on him as a reward for his support in the Darfur war. The former dictator also legalized the RSF in 2013 and his parliament made it a part of the armed forces, albeit with a high degree of autonomy, in 2017.

The RSF’s record of systematic abuse of Darfur civilians and its participation in the deadly break-up in June 2019 of a sit-in protest outside the armed forces’ headquarters — at least 100 were killed and thousands were wounded — make his acceptance by the Sudanese people virtually impossible.