Sudan war: Who’s who as US launches peace push

Members of Sudans armed forces take part in a military parade held on the occasion of Army Day in Port Sudan on 14 August 2024. (AFP)

The United States is spearheading peace talks aimed at ending the war in Sudan.Sudanese armed forces have stayed away from the talks, expressing dissatisfaction with the format chosen by Washington.However, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces is in Switzerland for the talks. US mediators launched a new bid Wednesday to broker an end to 16 months of fighting between Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

While an RSF delegation joined the talks in Switzerland, negotiators for the Sudanese armed forces stayed away, expressing dissatisfaction with the format chosen by Washington.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and forced millions from their homes. Both sides have been accused of war crimes.

Here are the war’s key players:

The protagonists

In 2021, Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan seized power in a coup alongside his deputy, Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, known as Hemeti.

The pair pushed civilian politicians out of a power-sharing agreement set up after the 2019 overthrow of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir.

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Less than two years later, on 15 April 2023, rivalry between the two erupted into full-fledged war, turning the capital Khartoum into a battleground.

For decades, Sudanese leaders had used paramilitaries to fight wars in the country’s far-flung regions – including Arab militias known as Janjaweed, which became the RSF in 2013.On Bashir’s orders, the Janjaweed mounted a scorched-earth campaign against non-Arab minorities suspected of supporting rebels in the western region of Darfur from 2003 which was widely regarded as genocide.

Internal powers 

Besides the army and the paramilitaries, “a third camp is increasingly significant in Darfur, made up of rebel groups aligned with neither Burhan nor Hemeti,” according to Jalel Harchaoui, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute.

Sudan’s many armed groups have adopted different strategies. Some, particularly in Darfur, have negotiated local truces between the army and RSF, while others have entered the fray in support of Burhan’s troops.

Within months of the war breaking out, civilians began taking up arms in what the army has lauded as a “popular resistance” movement to defend against RSF advances.

Former prime minister Abdalla Hamdok, ousted by Burhan and Hemeti in 2021, now heads a bloc of political parties known as Taqadum, which the army accuses of being a front for the RSF.

Taqadum politicians, in turn, claim some Islamists who held key positions in Bashir’s ousted regime – their political enemies for decades – are using the army to regain power.

Foreign involvement 

Both sides have secured outside support from competing foreign interests.

“From the start of the war, the United Arab Emirates has provided material, political, military and money-laundering support to the RSF,” Harchaoui told AFP.

In a January report, a UN panel of experts tasked with monitoring an arms embargo on Darfur found “credible” accusations that the UAE was funnelling “military support” to the RSF through neighbouring Chad.

Abu Dhabi has denied the allegations.

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Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno has “authorised logistical bases to support Hemeti,” but faces resistance from within his own ethnic group, the Zaghawa, who are among the non-Arab minorities who have been targeted by the RSF in neighbouring Darfur, Harchaoui said.

To the north, the military strongman of eastern Libya, Khalifa Haftar, has facilitated “generous deliveries” of fuel and weapons to the RSF on behalf of Abu Dhabi, he added.

Egypt, which is generally aligned with the UAE, has historically been the army’s strongest backer.

Though it cut back its support following a series of reverses for Burhan’s troops last year, analysts say Cairo still wields significant influence.

In October 2023, the army pivoted towards Iran, which “began supplying drones to Burhan” helping him push back against RSF advances, Harchaoui said.

Russia, which previously supported the RSF through its mercenary group Wagner, has recently switched sides too.

Moscow has for years had its sights on a Red Sea naval base near Port Sudan, the wartime headquarters of Burhan’s administration, a deal that has recently been put back on the table.

In late May, deputy army chief Yassir al-Atta confirmed a “military and economic collaboration” with Russia would include “the base, in exchange for the urgent supply of weapons and munitions”.

Turkey has also reportedly backed Burhan, while Saudi Arabia has played the role of mediator alongside the United States.

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