The paramilitaries accuse the Army of “atrocious crimes” and deny that they seek to create an independent state in Darfur
May 17. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The governor of the Sudanese state of Darfur, former rebel leader Minni Minawi, has called on the civilian population to take up arms to defend the regional capital, El Fasher, against the offensive by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), within the framework of the war unleashed in April 2023.
“We declare a general alert to defend the innocent lives and property of the citizens of El Fasher,” Minawi said on his account on the social network and worldly.”
Likewise, he stressed that “the leadership of the RSF has launched a warning to invade El Fasher and loot it from all directions”, after weeks of fighting in the city in the face of a siege laid by the paramilitaries on the Army forces that are in the city, capital of North Darfur and the entire region.
In response, the RSF has accused the Army and “allied terrorist militias linked to the former regime (of Omar Hasan al Bashir)” of “deliberately bombing Al Fasher”, within the framework of the accusations crossed between the parties regarding the clashes, that already leave dozens of civilian victims and damage to key infrastructure.
“Their heinous crimes and indiscriminate bombings have caused the daily deaths of numerous innocent civilians, including women and children, the displacement of thousands of civilians and extensive destruction of public and private property,” the RSF said in a statement shared on its website. count in X.
In this sense, he has accused Minawi of being “a mercenary full of hate” who “fosters discord and ruin in Darfur” and has stated that with his statements “he tries to distort the truth and play the victim.” “He shamelessly asks the people of Darfur to defend the interests of the oppressive former regime that terrorized the Sudanese people for more than three decades, especially in Darfur, while turning the country into a center of terrorism,” they denounced.
“The people of Darfur know well that this war was instigated by the former regime and its accomplices within the Armed Forces, in a ruthless attempt to regain power in Sudan,” said the RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, alias ‘ Hemedti’, who was one of the commanders of the ‘janjawid’ – an amalgamation of Arab militias made up mainly of tribes from the area – during the war in Darfur, in which they fought on the side of the Al Bashir regime, accused of war crimes.
The RSF, now declared a terrorist organization by Khartoum, has stressed that “Minawi is solely responsible for the tremendous human suffering throughout the country” and has denied that they seek to “divide Sudan and establish El Fasher as the capital of a new state.”
The city of El Fasher has been under siege by paramilitaries for weeks, while the Sudanese Army and a coalition of guerrillas led by a faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Minni Minawi are entrenched in several neighborhoods.
The war broke out on April 15, 2023 due to strong disagreements regarding the integration process of the paramilitary group – now declared a terrorist organization – within the Armed Forces, a situation that caused the definitive derailment of the transition opened in 2019 after the overthrow of the Omar Hasan al Bashir regime.
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