Abdel Rahim, You Started in Merowe… and You Will End in Merowe
By Mohamed Widaa
A statement from the Resistance Committees of El Fasher declared:
“El Fasher and Northern Sudan will not be an easy prey for domination plots. Victory will come through the will of the people and their rejection of treason and betrayal. We will resist the Janjaweed’s influence and brutality everywhere. This land is ours—not gained through deals or mediation, but inherited through our blood and preserved by our resilience. Every stone remembers our martyrs, and every tree grew from our pain and patience. They want to uproot us, displace us, erase us from history. But they don’t know—we are the roots that cannot be pulled, the shade that never fades. This land is not a bargaining chip or a clause in an agreement—it is a covenant between us and it. We shall either live on it or die upon it. There is no third option. We are a great nation—its people are its army, and its army is the people… and the weak will break.”
Abdel Rahim seems to forget that he started his war in Northern Sudan, amassing over 200 combat vehicles in Merowe and besieging its airport since April 13, 2023. But they suffered a crushing defeat, lost the battle, and were driven out in disgrace, dragging behind them the shame of failure. That loss was a key reason the plan to convert Merowe Airport into a base for receiving reinforcements and equipment collapsed, undermining their strategy to take control of any area resisting their attempted coup.
On April 13, 2023, Rapid Support Forces (RSF) approached Merowe. The army command in Khartoum demanded they withdraw, but they refused. The Sudanese Armed Forces then issued a statement saying the RSF’s movements were unauthorized and lacked coordination, causing panic among civilians and escalating security risks and tension between the armed forces.
In response, the RSF released a statement late on April 13 claiming to be a national force carrying out legally sanctioned duties and asserting full coordination with the army and other official forces—but that was a lie. At the same time, large RSF forces were positioning themselves in the Sports City and in Soba. At dawn on April 15, they stormed the military base and Merowe Airport, only to be expelled once again—this time for good—on April 18, 2023.
The repeated defeats clearly drove Abdel Rahim to the brink. In a recorded video, he admitted:
“We were wrong. We didn’t know where the real battle was. Now we know—it’s in the North and the Nile River region.”
He said this after his militias were defeated in Sennar, Gezira, White Nile, and after the liberation of Khartoum and Khartoum State.
Abdel Rahim made serious strategic errors by his own admission. He thought the battle was in El Geneina, so he massacred its people, displaced them, murdered the governor, and mutilated his body. He then believed the fight was in Wad Al-Noura, where he committed a massacre killing 400 civilians. He assumed it was in El Fasher—but El Fasher taught him a lesson in courage and resilience.
He tried to hold onto Khartoum, but the capital spit him out in disgrace, after heroic battles in the Armored Corps, Ammunition Depots, Signals, Engineers, and Hatab, among others.
Now the second-in-command of the militia shamelessly admits he didn’t know where the battle was for two whole years. No one believes he’s right this time either. Abdel Rahim is blinded by hatred. He cannot see that the people of the North and Nile regions played a vital role in pushing back his forces and defeating him.
Come to Merowe—and you will find nothing but utter defeat. It will be your final battle. Or perhaps armies will march on you from every corner of Sudan—North, East, West, and South—wherever you hide.
Then, and only then, will you truly understand where the battle lies.
Until that moment, read the statement from the Resistance in El Fasher!
