Important Statement on the Danger Posed by Terrorist Militias to the Future of Sudan and to Regional and International Security

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Rapid Support Forces

Important Statement on the Danger Posed by Terrorist Militias to the Future of Sudan and to Regional and International Security

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is following with deep concern the rapid expansion of political Islamist terrorist groups in Sudan and the Red Sea, and their escalating use of civilian infrastructure and state institutions to continue a war they have no intention of ending peacefully. The core of Sudan’s crisis, as it has been for the past three decades, lies in the insistence of the terrorist Islamic Movement and its militias—foremost among them the so-called Sudanese Armed Forces, Iranian proxies, and other supporters of terrorism—on monopolizing power, controlling state institutions and resources, obstructing change, and dictating the fate of the Sudanese peoples through armed force.

The April 15, 2023 war, which destroyed what little remained of Sudan’s fragile stability, opened the country to the unchecked expansion of Islamist groups and Iranian-backed militias, and to the intensification of their terrorist activities, in the absence of an effective state and neutral national institutions. These groups, operating under the umbrella of the official military establishment, have employed warplanes, drones, and heavy artillery to bomb cities and villages, and to systematically target civilians in Darfur, Kordofan, Blue Nile, and Khartoum—acts that amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The terrorist Islamic Movement and its domestic and foreign militias now represent the greatest threat to Sudan’s unity, stability, and future. They also pose a direct threat to regional and international security by supporting transnational violent groups and fostering an environment ripe for extremism and instability in the Horn of Africa, the Sahel, and the Red Sea regions.

The Rapid Support Forces, while standing firmly with the aspirations of the oppressed, the marginalized, and the advocates of change seeking freedom, justice, and peace, reaffirms once again that Sudan’s stability and lasting peace cannot be achieved without ending Islamist hegemony, dismantling their military and security structures, and establishing a new, just, democratic state built on equal citizenship, good governance, and the rule of law.

The regional and international silence in the face of the growing threat posed by Islamist terrorists and Iranian proxies—who now exercise full control over the army and the hijacked civilian institutions in the areas under their domination—amounts to indirect complicity, encourages authoritarianism, undermines peace efforts, and constitutes a serious risk that could drag the region into further conflict and turmoil, threatening both regional and international security.

The Rapid Support Forces renews its firm call for a comprehensive peaceful solution that puts an end to Sudan’s historically unjust conditions, establishes a new state not dominated by any single faction or elites, and guarantees fair and equitable participation for historically marginalized regions, which represent the vast majority of the Sudanese peoples.

The continuation of this war—whose cost is borne solely by the Sudanese peoples—serves only the Islamists who have returned to power on the ruins of a fragmented and devastated nation. This is something the Rapid Support Forces will never allow to persist, nor will it permit Sudan to become a new destination for the Houthis as is the case in Yemen.
This war will end with the
 establishment of a bright tomorrow, in which the state will be built on new foundations, where no room for dictatorship, racism, discrimination or tyranny; a battle in which we reshape Sudan on the pillars of freedom, equality, justice and peace.