The Rapid Support: The Jerry-cane carriers and the spoils-seekers (1-2)

Abdallah Ali Ibrahim

Sudanese Journalist Othman Fadlallah raised an issue related to the nature of the Rapid Support Forces and their structure, which was rarely touched our discourse. The value of Fadlallah’s stirring of the issue is that he is one of those who cannot be accused of being biased against these forces. He is a supporter for the Stop the War Now and he often blames the Armed Forces for declining to offer peace a chance.
Fadlallah argued that the situation in the war was about to reached the point of unruly situation. He cited to the army its shortcomings in this respect, but said that the evidence of this chaos is most evident within the “Rapid Support.” The composition of these forces, according to him, is different today from April 15, the day the war broke out in Sudan. It was a semi-regular force with a law, but in our day it has ended up in an alliance of six militias, and even accompanied a mobilized group known as “Umm Bagha or Jerry-can carriers” who do fight just for the spoils.
“Umm Bagha” is what the group of Janjaweed is called, who were known for tying empty plastic bags with only pebbles inside to the saddles of their horses while attacking villagers to terrorize them. Among the “Rapid Support” forces today are other searchers of the spoils mobilized by them, known as “Al-Kasaba- the Earners” (plural of “kasib” Arabic for Earn), about whom the “Ayin” network wrote a recent story entitled “Spoil Seekers: Looters and Rapid Support.”
According to Fadlallah, the “Rapid Support” is no longer a unified army, but rather military groups that the “Support” leaders want to coordinate. However, “all indicators suggest the possibility of them disintegrating and turning into gangs attacking cities for the sake of plundering and plundering, in light of the apparent weakness of the security and military services.”
Fadlallah’s sources indicate that “Support” leaders are aware of this negative development and are seeking to avoid its consequences by signing a peace agreement with the armed forces and urging their militia leaders to be disciplined. Among the measures to control its forces, the “Rapid Support” refrained from arming “Umm Bagha” or “Al-Kasaba” because they are unstable forces and do not have the capacity to form a military unit.
This failure, which Fadlallah pointed out to within the “Rapid Support”, was strongly criticized by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken in a statement dated December 6th. He said that while the Armed Forces committed war crimes, we find that the “Rapid Support” committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. It, along with allied militias, terrorized women via sexual violence, attacked their homes, kidnapped them from the streets, or targeted those trying to flee to safety across the border.
The American official added that this echoes the genocide that occurred two decades ago in Darfur. They pursued civilians from the Masalit tribe this time as well, leaving them to die in the streets, and setting fire to their homes, claiming that there was no place for them in Sudan. Blinken warned that if the parties to the war were not deterred, the flow of money and weapons to them would be subject to monitoring and halting.
It seemed that the “Rapid Support” saw the bad consequences of the unruly elements against it, so it came up with a strategy other than the one with which such accusations were made at the beginning of its reign. It returned the crimes of plunder and rape to the unruly among its ranks who were subject to disciplinary measures, or to the armed forces whose intelligence was putting on RSF fatigue and spreading chaos all over the place, or to the convicts who were released from the prisons that were no capable of keeping the convicts under control after the outbreak of war.
This new strategy found its expression in two plans: the first was to present the “Rapid Support” as an entity concerned with human rights and not just a defender of human rights violations. They took advantage of the advent of the celebrations marking the International Human Rights Day to celebrate the occasion and confirm RSF commitment to its meanings. The “Support” affirmed its firm position on respecting “human rights and working to promote, develop and protect them” in compliance with the rules of international humanitarian law. Rather, it used the occasion as a platform to disdain its opponent who was violating human rights. It condemned the war waged by the army commanders and their extremist allies in the National Congress Party of the defunct Salvation regime.
The Rapid Support’s awareness of the evils of its own unruly element prompted it, on the other hand, to express its regret for the incidents of tribal violence that took place in the city of Dilling and its environs in South Kordufan State a week ago. The RSF mourned the loss of lives as a result of this violence, the destruction of property, and the tribal polarization that was not what everyone expected at this critical stage in the war against the forces of darkness, that is, the remnants of the old regime behind the army. These are the forces that, in RSF words, practiced tribal sedition for 30 years of their rule in the country.
The “Support” strongly condemned the tribal violence in and around Dilling, and stressed that it stands at the equal distance from the tribal components. It appealed to the native administration leaders in the region to give those who are lurking about their security and stability the opportunity to “achieve political gains that they were unable to achieve in the field of war that they ignited in Khartoum.” The “Support” renewed its commitment to establishing a state of citizenship without discrimination in a country distinguished by its diversity, which they want to be a factor of strength, wealth and stability.
To be continued