At the UN on Thursday, Sudan’s army leader urged nations to put pressure on the paramilitary group he is battling and warned that months of conflict might spread to the area.
General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who has been Sudan’s de facto leader since a coup in 2021, made mention of the connections between the opposition Rapid Support Forces and Wagner, the Russian mercenary company that is subject to Western sanctions due to alleged abuses in Africa.
“The danger of this war is now a threat to regional and international peace and security as those rebels have sought the support of outlaws and terrorist groups from different countries in the region and the world,” Burhan said.
“This is like the spark of war, a war that will spill over to other countries in the region,” he said.
“Regional and international interference to support these groups is crystal clear by now. This means that this is the first spark that will burn the region, and will have a direct impact on regional and international peace and security.”
After a plot to combine the army and the Rapid Support Forces, under the direction of Burhan’s former deputy, General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, failed on April 15, war broke out.
According to the NGO Acled, conflict in Sudan has resulted in at least 7,500 deaths and five million displaced individuals, throwing a severe and catastrophic blow to efforts to democratize the country.
Burhan has been perceived as increasingly visiting the globe in an effort to bolster his authority.
He pleaded with world leaders to label the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, as a terrorist organization at the UN.
“They have committed all sorts of crimes that give grounds for such a designation,” he said.
“Those who have supported killing, burning, raping, forced displacement, looting, stealing, torture, trafficking of arms and drugs, bringing mercenaries or recruiting children — all such crimes necessitate accountability and punishment,” he said.
As a result of alleged violations, including the murder of the governor of West Darfur, the United States earlier this month placed sanctions on RSF commanders, including senior commander Abdelrahim Hamdan Daglo, the brother of the group’s leader.
But Burhan has also come under heavy fire from the US and other Western nations.
In 2021, following widespread protests that toppled longstanding tyrant Omar al-Bashir, Burhan and RSF leader Daglo removed the civilian leadership that had been a part of a transitional power-sharing agreement.
“We are still committed to our previous pledges to transfer power to the people of Sudan with great national consensus and consent,” he said.
“The armed forces would leave politics for once and for all.”
