RSF :Yet Other Islamists there !!

Sudanhorizon – Azmi Abdul Razia

It is no longer a secret that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia was, on the outset, a making of the Salvation Regime. After all the RSF was initiated, entertained and developed under the auspices of the same persons it now labels as the “remnants” or the Islamists.

What could not be obscured is that the first, the second and, quite possible, the last ranks of the RSF were in fact filled by some of the most radical elements within the National Congress Party in Darfur and Kordufan States. This was as evident as Mohamed Hamdan Daglo (Himaiditti) himself stood out prominently as the gate keeper within the Salvation Regime in the days just prior to its demise, a regime described by the RSF political incubator as (the defunct regime). However, Daglo in a blink of an eye has decided, just like that, and without any rightful justification, that he would not go down with that regime. He decided to sell it out and to betray those who have brought him from his rural area to install him a decorated commander of the RSF.

Execute yourselves
The list of Islamists of the former regime within the RSF files and ranks contains well over five hundred people, including former leaders of the Popular Defense Forces, former ministers within the Federal Government, Governors of states, and members of Legislative Councils. Most of those figures, if not all of them, used to be members of the National Congress Party, including Himaiditti himself as well as his brother, Abdul Rahim Daglo, a matter that shows the absurdity of the war they lead against the Government, denial of the most recent past with no remorse, or a feeling of regret that should push them to at least self-destroy themselves in place of massacring other people.

The most prominent of  those personalities is Hasabo Mohamed Abdel Rahman, who held the highest positions in the past Government, and was Vice President of the former President Omar al-Bashir. One of the last positions he occupied was that of the Deputy Secretary- General of the Islamic Movement. But, alas, loyalty to the tribe, in the eyes of Hasabo, was greater than loyalty to the idea and the political group.
Therefore, he ended up in the embrace of the militia, which he empowered via acting from behind the scenes, as an advisor to Hemaidti. Some leaks indicated he was one of those who planned the coup against the Government, and he was covertly operating to spur the Rapid Support Forces into an alternative for the Sudanese Armed Forces. He recruited one of his sons within the RSF, to help protect the authority of the Dagalo family, with tribal leverage, especially since he had previously been an official in the Popular Security force, as cited by numerous press reports. He used his relationships and knowledge of state secrets to wove the plan to seize power, forcefully, but he did not succeed, and the cover of treason dropped leaving him in the open, thus prompting the Sudanese Islamic Movement, in April – after careful investigations – to revoke his membership from the organization. It accused him of “deviating from the principles and goals of the movement and joining the Rapid Support Forces Militia.”

With and against the remnants

As for Abdel-Rahim Dagalo, the second commander of the militia, he was one of the most powerful elements that stood in defense of the National Congress Party, and he rose a little within the ranks of the organizational work. He worked in the students sector in South Darfur State, as well as in the capital, Khartoum. And during the famous Islamists fallout, he was closer to the Popular Congress Party, led by late Dr. Hassan Al-Turabi. However, his aspiration for power prompted him to retract from that position, and then showed submission and expressed his loyalty and obedience to the ruling party. As for Adel Dagalo, the third brother of the rebel leader, his picture was still hanging on the walls of the Ministry of Tourism, showing him as Minister of State in the last of Bashir’s governments. That is if his forces, which forcefully occupied the ministries and civilian buildings, did not remove it to deceive people that the RSF militias were actually leading a war against the Islamists.

One could not hesitate to name the director of the militia’s investments, Al Goni Hamdan Daglo, as an authentic among the “remnants,” which he tried to evade from by accusing others. We have a history of his varied activities in student work in the state of South Darfur, just like Mahmoud Wad Ahmed, head of the National Union of Sudanese Youth in the 2017 session, which was the session before the fall of the Bashir regime. One should also not forget Al-Fatih Qurashi, the official spokesman for the militia, who was a student cadre at the University of West Kordufan, as well as the Deputy Secretary of the Organizations Secretariat of the National Congress, East Darfur State, before he was absorbed by RSF militias in 2019, along with Musa Khaddam, both on the recommendation by Hasabo Abdurrahman.

Faked Extremism
Quite close to this was the status of Ali Majok, advisor to the leader of the terrorist militia, who previously held the position of Minister of State in the Federal Government Bureau, as well as of Musa Khaddam, Hemaidti’s current advisor, who was appointed by the former Governor of Central Darfur State, the late Shartai Jaafar Abdel Hakam, as commissioner at the Head Office, in 2017. But he, Ali Majuk, Al-Fateh Qureshi, and Al-Basha Tabiq, have today become the loudest voices attacking the Islamists, in a way that seems strange, and is most likely aimed to bluffing out and of course to please their guardian and divert attention from their political past.

Perhaps it was surprising that Major General Essam El-Din Fadil, the official in charge of Negative Phenomena in the rebel militia, was not far from the organizational incubator, before the social incubator swept him away, as he had recently maintained his winged seat in the Nomads Union in the National Congress.
As for Major General Hassan Mahjoub, Director of the Office of the rebel commander, he was not far from the Salvation Regime. He was an officer in the Sudanese Armed Forces, seconded to work in the ranks of the militia. Before that, he was head of the National Congress party in North Darfur state, and attached to the Head office, while Abashar Jibril, Director of Abdel Rahim Daglo’s office, served in several organizational positions, including the head of the National Congress Party, the former Commissioner of Lagawa locality, and a member of the leadership office of the National Congress Party in West Kordufan state. And the list also includes dozens of supervisors, mayors, and native administration leaders.

The Rapid Support Advisor Al-Basha Tabeek, who appears frequently on satellite channels screens, and who, with his faked extremism, tries to divert attention away from his previous political identity. He was the leader of the Popular Defense Forces in Darfur, and a member of the National Congress Party, and remained active in the corridors of the former ruling party, to the point that he participated in most of the “Green March processions”, which took place against the Forces of Freedom and Change and the Framework Agreement, calling for the expulsion of Volcker (head of  UNITAMS) and adherence to national sovereignty. As for Ali Dakhro, he is a member of the National Islamic Students and the official responsible for the student sector in Omdurman locality. He also worked for the General Union of Sudanese Students. The same applies to the mobilization officer for the rebel Rapid Support militia, Ibrahim Babiker, and also Ibrahim Mudalal.

The relationship with  the Popular Congress
As for the Popular Congress party some of its membership immersed in the same stagnant pool of the militia, including Hafez Kabir and Al-Rabi’ Abdel Moneim, both active in the Rapid Support media, along with Colonel Hassan Al-Turabi, the commander in charge of the Al-Muqrin area within ​​the Rapid Support militia. His father named him after the late sheikh Dr Hassan Abdullah Al-Turabi, but alas he failed to live up to that expectation, as he chose to submit to the whims of the Dagalo family and serve the plan to break up Sudan. And it might appear that the past Secretariat General of the Popular Congress Party was closer to the political line of the Rapid Support Forces, as it adopted the Framework Agreement and adhered with the line of Tagadum, the incubator of the Janjaweed.  That Secretariat’s voice has remained shy indeed in condemning atrocities committed by the Militias in Darfur and in Gazira states, contrary to the attitude of General Secretariat that was elected by the Shura Council as headed by Dr Al Amin Mahmoud which positioned the war in its correct context.

Money and political ambitions
While money played a role in buying the loyalty of Fares Al-Nour, Hemedti’s advisor, a member of the negotiating delegation, and the head of the Mujaddidun Organization, which was sponsored by former Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, the political rivalry  between Al-Mak Abu Shotal and Malek Agar, over the representation of the Blue Nile in power, prompted the former to jump on board Hemedti’s dilapidated ship, perhaps joining his archrival, Malik Agar, who became Vice-president of the Sovereign Council, and he – Abu Shotal – after his defection from the SPLM-North sector, joined the National Congress until the moment the war broke out in the Blue Nile, and was in the leadership office, at the state level and in the central Shura Council as well, and as an advisor to the governor of Khartoum within the national Congress Party quota.
The Rapid Support militia did not limit itself to recruiting men only, but it also trapped many women, including Hayat Jadallah, Secretary of the Women’s Secretariat of the National Congress and the Popular Defense Coordinator in Umm Rawaba locality, and she is currently the Secretary of the Women’s Secretariat of the rebel Rapid Support militia in the same locality. The same applies to Rahma, collector for the Rapid Support militia in Shikan locality. She was a member of the secretariat of the National Congress and the Islamic Movement in Shikan locality, and others who were lured in by the Rapid Support trap.
It seems that the components of the Rapid Support are mainly governed by blood relations, intermarriage, and tribal affiliation, and after that the other sectors are distributed among the victims of money and those with personal grievances, with no intellectual convictions, or a pure national cause that brought together all these names that raise banners and repeat slogans that are at odd with their political career, and this necessarily leads them into contradictions that seem confusing at some times. Well at all times!

The Islamic Movement, as well as the National Congress Party, have officially opted to stand with the armed forces and to defend the national institutions. The movement called on its membership to engage in the battle of dignity in defense of the country and its sovereignty. Its committed membership did not fall behind, and it did not care about the rebellion of cited groups and their siding with the terrorist militia, as that is something that applies to them individually, as is the case, and it means the blood affiliation supersedes  the intellectual and ideological alliance, specifically this was a fall back to tribalism , that stripped them from their strong woven dresses and they no longer have the opportunity to wash their hands of the crimes of the terrorist militia, after they lost their membership in the political organization, and at the same time, the designation of the remnants remained stuck to their backs just like their assuming high positions in what they now call the State of 1956.  The matter, it seems, is not related to fighting the Islamists. Rather, it is evidence of the weakness of intellectual motivation, or that the belonging to the Islamic movement was not, initially, sincere, but rather was merely a ladder to be part of the power. These were the points of weakness, manipulatively used by the planners of the UAE project in Sudan.