SUDAN has called on the international community to designate the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as a ‘terror group,’ accusing it of committing crimes against the state, citizens, and diplomatic missions in the country.
The call came in a written statement issued by the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, which urged the implementation of legal and judicial accountability measures in a timely manner.
The ministry accused the RSF of disregarding international law and violating the IGAD-proposed truce that took effect Thursday morning. The Sudanese army is committed to the cease-fire on humanitarian grounds, it said, but the RSF launched a sudden attack on several locations, including the military area in Bahri.
‘The rebel group’ was also accused of looting and pillaging the premises of diplomatic missions and international organisations and using hospitals and health centres as military headquarters. The RSF also expelled Sudanese people from their homes and used them as human shields, according to the ministry.
The RSF is a paramilitary group that has been at odds with the Sudanese army in recent months regarding the group’s integration into the armed forces, a key condition of Sudan’s transition agreement with political groups. The capital city, Khartoum, has been engulfed by violence for weeks as a result of fighting between the army and the RSF.
Earlier in the day, the Sudanese ministry condemned the recent assault on several diplomatic missions in Khartoum, including the Indian Embassy, Korean Embassy, Saudi Cultural Office, Swiss diplomats’ residence, and the consular division of the Turkish Embassy.
The transitional period, which began in August 2019 after the ouster of President Omar al-Bashir, is scheduled to end with elections in early 2024. However, the country has been without a functioning government since October 2021, when the military dismissed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok’s transitional government and declared a state of emergency.
