The head of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has told his fighters they are now “unshackled” to battle the country’s national army.
Daglo’s message to his troops—who face accusations of committing genocide—comes a day after losing control of a key strategic highway connecting the capital, Khartoum, to El-Obeid, the largest city in the Kordofan region. The RSF commander delivered the statement via a video message.
For weeks, the United Nations has warned that RSF fighters could unleash mass killings in Kordofan as they move to encircle El-Obeid ahead of an anticipated major assault.
Aid workers estimate that since April 2023, the war between Daglo’s forces and army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has claimed more than 200,000 lives, triggering the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis.
