عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Sudan’s Foreign Ministry Calls on UN to Criminalize Dealing with RSF

Commander of the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces, Mohamed Dagalo, shakes hands with UN envoy Ramtane Lamamra on Thursday in Uganda (Dagalo's X account)
Commander of the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces, Mohamed Dagalo, shakes hands with UN envoy Ramtane Lamamra on Thursday in Uganda (Dagalo's X account)
TT
TT

Sudan’s Foreign Ministry Calls on UN to Criminalize Dealing with RSF

Commander of the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces, Mohamed Dagalo, shakes hands with UN envoy Ramtane Lamamra on Thursday in Uganda (Dagalo's X account)
Commander of the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces, Mohamed Dagalo, shakes hands with UN envoy Ramtane Lamamra on Thursday in Uganda (Dagalo's X account)

 The Sudanese Foreign Ministry has urged the international community to criminalize dealing with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, and to designate the “militia” group as "terrorist."

The Ministry said in a statement that it followed with interest the latest report of the UN observers on the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1591 regarding Darfur and the war waged by the rebel militia, referring to the RSF and its supporters against the Sudanese people.

It quoted the UN report as saying that the number of "between 10,000 and 15,000 people were killed in one city in Sudan's West Darfur region last year in ethnic violence," including women, children, and the elderly.

It considered that the continued supply of advanced weapons provided and facilitated by specific countries, named by the UN observers, and arriving on flights several times a week, in violation of the relevant Security Council resolutions, enabled the rebel militia to expand its military operations and commit atrocities against civilians.

The Ministry also called on the Security Council to assume its responsibility towards the countries that fuel the war in Sudan by providing the militia with weapons and political and media support, saying they should be considered perpetrators of the aggression punishable by international criminal justice.

A report issued by the UN experts accused the RSF group of using large-scale proceeds from gold mining to fund its devastating war against the nation's army.

The report prepared by United Nations investigators and published by Bloomberg on Sunday claimed that Rapid Support receives supplies from a regional country via Chad.

"Violence by the RSF and allied militias may have killed as many as 15,000 people in one city in the Darfur region in 2023," said the UN report, a figure exceeding the UN's previous toll for the nine-month conflict.

The report traced the root of the RSF to the "Janjaweed militias" formed by the Sudanese government under former President Omar al-Bashir to crush a rebellion in Darfur.

The UN experts believe the group benefited from a complex web of financing and new military supply lines across eastern Chad, Libya, and South Sudan and now controls most of Darffur.

The experts said financial networks set up by the RSF before and during the conflict enabled it to acquire weapons, fund media campaigns, pay salaries, and buy backing from political and armed groups.

The experts also noted in their report that since July, the RSF deployed heavy and advanced weapons, including "drones, howitzers, multiple-rocket launchers and anti-aircraft weapons such as MANPADS.

They added, "The new firepower had a major impact on the balance of forces in Darfur and the wider country."

Meanwhile, a landmine killed ten civilians in the Nile River state of North Sudan.

A medical source at a hospital in Shendi city in River Nile state told AFP that "10 civilians were killed as a result of a mine explosion on a bus" on Saturday.

When the blast happened, the bus was transporting passengers from al-Jazira state to Shendi.

It is believed to be the first incident since the outbreak of battles between the army and the RSF in the country.

According to social media activists last week, the Sudanese army warned the Shendi residents to be careful and avoid areas with barricades that include highly sensitive landmines equipped with long-range explosives.

However, the army has not issued an official statement in this regard.

The conflict in Sudan caused the displacement of about 7.5 million people inside and outside the country, according to the UN.

Most Viewed

 
 
Arab World

Israel’s Retaliatory Responses to Houthis Must Begin by Drawing Intelligence Plan

A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)
A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)
TT
TT

Israel’s Retaliatory Responses to Houthis Must Begin by Drawing Intelligence Plan

A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)
A person inspects damage at the site where a projectile fired from Yemen landed in Tel Aviv on December 21, 2024 (EPA)

Israel is considering options to respond to repeated attacks fired from Yemen in the past few days, the latest of which was a Houthi missile strike that injured more than a dozen people in Tel Aviv.
But military experts say Israel should first consider an intelligence plan for confronting the new front after it faced significant difficulties in both defending against and responding to the Houthi attacks.
On Saturday morning, Houthis launched a missile that triggered sirens throughout central Israel at 3:44 am. It was the second attack since Thursday.
Israel's military said the projectile landed in Tel Aviv's southern Jaffa area, adding that attempts to intercept a missile from Yemen failed.
“The incident is still being thoroughly investigated,” the army said, adding that following initial investigations by the Israeli Air Force and Home Front Command, “some of the conclusions have already been implemented, both regarding interception and early warning.”
Israeli military experts say the recent Houthi attacks have revealed serious security gaps in Israel's air defense systems.
“The pressing question now is why none of the other of Israel’s air defense layers managed to intercept the warhead,” wrote Yedioth Ahronoth's Ron Ben-Yishai. “The likely explanation is the late detection and the flat trajectory, which prevented the operation of all available defense apparatus.”
He said these incidents might expose a critical vulnerability in the army’s air defense system protecting Israel’s civilian and military home front.
According to Ben-Yishai, two main reasons might explain Saturday’s interception failure.
The first is that the missile was launched in a “flattened” ballistic trajectory, possibly from an unexpected direction.
As a result, Israeli defenses may not have identified it in time, leading to its late discovery and insufficient time for interceptors to operate.
He said the second, and more likely scenario is that Iran has developed a maneuverable warhead.
Such a warhead separates from the missile during the final third of its trajectory and maneuvers mid-flight—executing pre-programmed course changes—to hit its designated target, he wrote.
And while Israel has launched initial investigations into the failure of Israeli defense systems to intercept the missiles, it is now examining the nature, date and location of its response.
When Houthis launched their first missile attack on Israel last Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned them, saying, “The Houthis will learn the hard way.”
But Israeli political analyst Avi Ashkenazi wrote in the Maariv newspaper that Israel should look at reality with open eyes and say out loud that it cannot deal with the Houthi threat from Yemen, and has failed to face them.
Last Thursday, 14 Israeli Air Force fighter jets, alongside refuelers and spy planes, flew some 2,000 kilometers and dropped over 60 munitions on Houthi “military targets” along Yemen’s western coast and near the capital Sanaa.
The targets included fuel and oil depots, two power stations, and eight tugboats used at the Houthi-controlled ports.
But the Maariv newspaper warned about the increasing involvement of Iran in supporting the Houthi forces.
“Iran has invested more in the Houthis in recent weeks following the collapse of the Shiite axis, making the Houthi movement a leader of this axis,” the newspaper noted.
Underscoring the failures of Israel’s air defense systems, Maariv said the “Arrow” missile defense system, Israel's main line of defense against ballistic missiles, had failed four times in a row to intercept missiles, including three launched from Yemen and one from Lebanon.
Yedioth Ahronoth's Ben-Yishai also warned that the threat posed by maneuvering warheads on Iran's heavy, long-range missiles would become existential for Israel should Iran succeed in developing nuclear warheads for these missiles.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Channel 12 said that in recent months, the Middle East has changed beyond recognition.
The channel said that for the first time in more than half a century, a direct and threat-free air corridor has been opened to Iran through the Middle East. Israel will benefit from this corridor to launch almost daily attacks on the border crossings between Syria and Lebanon, it said.
Channel 12 also reported that according to the Israeli military, the new threat-free corridor will help Israel launch a future attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
“From Israel's perspective, the fall of the Assad regime and the collapse of the Iranian ring of fire are changing the balance of power in the Middle East,” the report added.