An agreement on a "peace and unity government" has been reached between RSF and several other groups opposing the current military regime.
The agreement was signed in Nairobi, Kenya's capital, and the alternative government is intended to have power over the parts of Sudan controlled by different rebel groups.
Form a new army
For Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the agreement was signed by Abd al-Rahim Dagalo, brother of militia leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who did not attend for unknown reasons. Another party is a branch of the rebel movement SPLM-N, which controls areas in southern Sudan.
The agreement describes the establishment of a "secular, democratic state-building based on freedom, equality, and justice" that will include all religions and ethnic groups. It is also stated that the groups will form a new and unified army.
Quick response
The response came quickly from Sudan's army, which is fighting against RSF's forces.
We will not accept any country recognizing the so-called parallel government, said Sudan's Foreign Minister Ali Youssef, who belongs to the army side.
The military regime in Khartum has also been critical of Kenya's role as host country for the resistance groups' meeting. Sudan's ambassador has been recalled from Nairobi in response.
Sudan has essentially been divided in two: the army controls areas in the north and east, and RSF with coordinated groups controls areas in the west and south. Fighting has been going on for a long time over the capital Khartum, where RSF has control over, among other things, the presidential palace, but where the army has launched a counteroffensive.
The war in Sudan broke out in April 2023, when a split occurred within a military junta that had taken power a few years after the fall of long-time dictator Omar al-Bashir.
On one side stands General Abd al-Fattah al-Burhan, who commands the army, and on the other, his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who leads the RSF militia.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the war. More than 12 million people have been displaced.
Both parties have repeatedly been accused of war crimes.
RSF has its origins in the notorious janjawid militias, which were sent out under al-Bashir's rule to spread terror and quell the uprising in Darfur in western Sudan in the early 2000s.
