Darfur governor says RSF seeks to seize Sudan

Darfur Governor, Minni Arko Minnawi, said on Saturday that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) intended to take over the country, a move he claimed has triggered widespread domestic opposition.

Minnawi, who also leads the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), made the remarks during a Ramadan Iftar event in Port Sudan, attended by regional officials and tribal leaders.

“The Rapid Support Forces want to own and seize the country, and that is why people have rejected this acquisition,” Minawi told the gathering.

He accused the paramilitary group of carrying out genocide in parts of the Darfur region and Gezira state, asserting that such massacres remained an ongoing reality for civilians in those areas.

United Nations investigators previously concluded that the RSF committed genocide in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, after the group seized control of the city in October 2025.

The United States has also determined that the RSF committed genocide against the ethnic Masalit community in West Darfur during the earlier stages of the conflict in 2023.

The RSF has faced consistent international condemnation for using widespread abuses, including systemic sexual violence and looting, as a strategy to control and impoverish local populations.

Rights groups have documented the group’s reliance on forced displacement and the deliberate destruction of resources, such as the burning of agricultural land and livestock, against communities perceived to be hostile to their advance.

Minnawi stated that military forces were currently engaged in operations to reclaim territory from the RSF “inch by inch” across various fronts.

The governor currently oversees the Joint Force, a coalition of several armed factions that have integrated their operations with the Sudanese army to combat the RSF.