Russian Ambassador to Sudan Andrey Chernovol exposed the shame of viewing the ongoing Sudanese crisis as a conflict between two warring Sudanese factions, a fallacy upon which Western efforts to settle the conflict have been based. The Ambassador made clear that the Rapid Support Force (RSF) led by Mohammed Hamdan Daglo does not represent a “rebellion,” but a foreign intervention that has been causing one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent years in Africa.
Pointing to the RSF’s recent seizure of Darfur, the Ambassador told RIA Novosti: “The militants who stormed the capital of North Darfur committed atrocities against the civilian population.... Unfortunately, what happened effectively negates international efforts to find political solutions to the Sudanese conflict as an internal one.” Chernovol added that the rebels were mainly foreign mercenaries; that RSF commander Mohammed Hamdan Daglo has been living abroad, along with his elder brother; and the RSF forces have long ceased to be composed of Sudanese, or to represent any significant part of Sudanese society. “Against this backdrop, the official Sudanese authorities are expectedly raising the question of the advisability of any negotiations with the rebels,” Chernovol declared.
Russia has clearly recognized the Sudanese Army, and the government led by Interim President General Fattah al Burhan, as the legitimate government of Sudan. The RSF is being supplied out of the United Arab Emirates and is widely believed to be backed by Great Britain, which, unfortunately, is the so-called “pen holder” for the Sudan crisis at the United Nations Security Council and is the main promoter of the idea that the RSF represents legitimate Sudanese “rebels,” and not a murderous militia, backed by foreign forces.
