Sudan Paramilitary Leader Warns of Further Conflict Escalation

The leader of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has declared his troops are ready for a long-term conflict with the national army, suggesting the potential for decades of warfare while noting RSF units remain positioned near the military-controlled capital.

“We do not want this war to continue,” stated RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, addressing soldiers at an undisclosed location late Wednesday. Nevertheless, Daglo warned, “if they (the army) want it to go on for 40 years, it will continue until they are uprooted.”

Daglo’s comments surfaced a day after Sudan’s military-aligned government alleged Ethiopia and the UAE had been conducting drone strikes from Ethiopian territory since March. These purported attacks targeted several regions, including a recent assault on Khartoum and its airport on Monday.

The UAE was accused of supplying arms to the RSF but has denied the charges, as has Ethiopia, which also rejected claims of hosting RSF and UAE forces. Both nations have refuted involvement in the strikes, which remain unverifiable by AFP.

According to Daglo, despite being mostly removed by the army last year, certain RSF forces have not vacated Khartoum and maintain positions around Omdurman, situated across the Nile from central Khartoum. The city, seeing relative peace since military control was regained, has experienced several attacks recently.

On Saturday, a drone strike resulted in the deaths of five civilians in a vehicle in southern Omdurman. Another attack last week caused damage to a hospital. The U.N. reports that over 1.8 million displaced individuals have returned to the city since it was retaken, facing poor infrastructure and scarce resources like electricity and water.

Drone assaults by both factions have intensified, claiming nearly 700 civilian lives since January, according to the U.N. The ongoing conflict, now entering its fourth year, has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and displaced millions, contributing to what the United Nations calls the largest global displacement and hunger crises.

International peace efforts, including those by the United States, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt—collectively known as the Quad—have stalled, failing to establish a humanitarian ceasefire between the opposing forces.

Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has repeatedly committed to fighting until triumph, insisting that the conflict will only end if the RSF lays down their arms. Battlefronts extend beyond the capital, with significant clashes in southern Kordofan and the Blue Nile state near Ethiopia.