PREVIEW
Kenya may come under US pressure for perceived support of RSF administration
The Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF) new parallel government faces a tough task in persuading neighbours to recognise it amid a pushback by international organisations including the African Union.
The RSF announced the creation of a 15-member ‘government of peace and unity’ based in Darfur on 2 August, naming Mohamed Hassan al-Ta'ayshi as prime minister and RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo ‘Hemeti’ as head of a new presidential council.
The African Union’s Peace and Security Council has already urged governments not to recognise the regime which it said risks the ‘fragmentation of Sudan’. The United Arab Emirates, widely identified as the major financier and arms supplier to the RSF, is understood to back the move, having failed to engage the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) in negotiations.
The SAF led by Hemeti’s rival General Abdel Fattah al Burhan, has accused regional neighbour Kenya of ‘a blatant violation of Sudan’s the sovereignty’ following reports, unconfirmed by Nairobi, that the Ruto administration has recognised the RSF government.
Kenyan President William Ruto is seen as a close ally of Hemeti, and the original announcement of a parallel RSF administration was made at a Nairobi conference centre in March following at least one false start (AC Vol 66 No 5, Hemeti struggles to launch in Nairobi, again).
The SAF has also accused Kenya of supplying arms to the RSF, while United States Senator Jim Risch, a Republican, has demanded an investigation into links between the Ruto government and the RSF as part of a review of Kenya’s status as a major non-NATO ally of Washington (AC Vol 66 No 2, Washington’s sanctions block Hemeti’s war message).
In the meantime, Sudan’s recently appointed Prime Minister Kamil Idris continues to try to normalise government activities (Dispatches, 9/6/25, General Burhan’s premier tries to build new civilian government in Khartoum). On 7 August, he promised that the government would return from Port Sudan to the capital Khartoum in October, when the city’s international airport will also reopen to air traffic. Khartoum had been controlled by the RSF for most of the civil war that started in April 2023 before being largely recaptured by the SAF earlier this year.
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