The Commander of Sudan's Rapid Support Forces, Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, met today, Monday, with pro-democracy civilian politicians in Addis Ababa, his final stop on a foreign tour. Dagalo was welcomed by leaders in Uganda, Ethiopia, and Djibouti during this tour, which the army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, described as hostile actions.
The threat of further expansion by the Rapid Support Forces, which have taken control of central Sudan and most of its west, has sparked calls for civilians to take up arms, while observers have warned of an impending full-blown civil war. Resistance committees in the neighborhoods, which support democracy and oppose the army, have accused the Rapid Support Forces of killing hundreds of civilians and committing acts of kidnapping and looting in Wad Madani, the capital of Al-Jazira State, which they took over at the end of last month. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people have fled to Wad Madani coming from the northern capital, Khartoum. Civilians in villages in the state reported that troops from the Rapid Support Forces raided houses to steal vehicles and abduct women.
This pattern, which has recurred throughout the war, prompted the United States last month to state that the Rapid Support Forces had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as ethnic cleansing in West Darfur state. In a speech delivered at a meeting today, Dagalo apologized for the violations in Al-Jazira state and stated that the leadership of the Rapid Support Forces is working to capture "the outlaws."
He added, "We repeat our call to the regional and international community to look hopefully at our struggle and fight... considering the new future for Sudan after achieving peace." He reiterated calls for equality and democracy that have long been demanded by the civilian politicians he met on Monday.
In a late-night speech yesterday, Burhan stated that those who supported the Rapid Support Forces are complicit in its crimes. Referring to previous talks in Jeddah, Burhan said the path to ending the war would be the withdrawal of the Rapid Support Forces from Sudanese cities and Al-Jazira state and the return of stolen property.
Both leaders accepted an invitation to meet from the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) for East African countries, but no details about this meeting have been announced. The Sudanese Human Rights Observatory also accused the army of committing war crimes, citing a report released today stating that it killed 118 people in airstrikes on Nyala city in the west of the country in late December.
