Sudan's controversial gamble

Last month, Ali Rizkallah, a commander in the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, was welcomed to Sudan’s capital Khartoum and given a uniform and a rank in the armed forces he had spent about three years fighting.

The army-affiliated government hailed his defection — the latest in a series of high-level switches that have been reshaping Sudan's alliances and boosting the military in one of the deadliest conflicts of the century.

But many others have balked at the sight of Rizkallah and other former RSF figures feted in public, holding press conferences and sometimes literally embracing their former rivals. They fear that the defectors will evade justice for alleged crimes committed under their command.

'I CAN'T FORGIVE THEM,' SAYS DARFUR WOMAN

"These RSF soldiers, even if they seek God’s forgiveness, I can’t forgive them because of what I saw face to face," Halima Ismail, a woman in western Darfur, told Reuters. 

She described Rizkallah's forces firing in the air during an attack on a village where she was sheltering in 2024.

Sudan’s civil war is believed to have killed hundreds of thousands, displaced millions and spread famine and disease since the RSF and army fell out and began fighting in April 2023.

Some of the worst violence has occurred in Darfur, the RSF stronghold where Rizkallah – widely known as "al-Savannah" – served as a commander. The RSF was accused of atrocities during its assault on the city of al-Fashir last October, the subject of a Reuters documentary.

Another top North Darfur commander, al-Nour Guba, also defected to the military in April. In an interview with Reuters, Guba denied defecting to evade justice and said any former RSF commanders who committed crimes should be held accountable.

"If anyone from the Sudanese people has anything against us, I swear we are ready," he said.

Savannah, who did not respond to requests for comment, has said publicly he would hand himself over if accused of wrongdoing. Sudan’s military-affiliated government and the RSF, which has denied committing atrocities in Darfur, did not respond to requests for comment.  

CALLS FOR ACCOUNTABILITY

Ismail, now sheltering in the Darfur village of Tawila, said she had been forced to flee multiple times as the RSF raided villages around al-Fashir. She said she saw women raped in front of her and was whipped by RSF fighters.

"You can see the scars on my arms, all the way down my legs," she said.

During one assault by a unit under Rizkallah’s command, fighters fired weapons into the air, forcing her and her children to the ground, she said.

Resentment also runs high in the neighbouring Kordofan region. A trader in the town of al-Nuhud said he plans to file a private case against Rizkallah under Sudan’s sharia law system over what he said was the looting of peanuts and gum arabic from his warehouses by one of the commander's units.

"What happened is the responsibility of Savannah, the RSF, and the army that did not protect us," the trader said, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid being targeted.

Mohamed Salaheldin, a member of the executive board of Emergency Lawyers, an activist group, said such lawsuits were unlikely to gain traction amid wartime instability.

"This issue can’t be dealt with piecemeal — it needs transitional justice," he said.

This contrasts with the 243 cases tallied by Emergency Lawyers which have been brought to trial against alleged collaborators, on charges ranging from providing intelligence to cooking for RSF fighters during occupation. Some of these have led to death sentences, though no executions have been carried out. 

One young activist complained at seeing defectors "welcomed" and "honoured" while he himself had been harassed and detained by both RSF and army-aligned authorities as he did aid work in his Khartoum neighbourhood.   

"When I see an RSF vehicle driving in front of me now I can’t even lift my head to look them in the face, let alone live with them like they’re heroes," he said, speaking anonymously out of fear of further targeting. 

ARMY SEEN EXPLOITING DIVISIONS

By encouraging defections, the army is seeking to exploit ethnic splits within the RSF, said Emadeddin Badi, a senior fellow at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

Many senior RSF commanders belong to the Arab Rizeigat tribe, which has seen tensions between its different clans, especially following an RSF raid on the hometown of army-aligned Musa Hilal earlier this year.

Hilal belongs to the Mahamid clan, as does Savannah. In his interview with Reuters, Guba alluded to these dynamics, saying the RSF was "based on a racist, tribal" system specifically benefitting the family of RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The army hopes such tensions could replicate the success it had in the central state of El Gezira, where the defection of RSF-aligned militia commander Abuagla Keikal helped reverse its fortunes in 2024, Badi said.

"There’s a military rationale, but the social repercussions are probably underappreciated by the armed forces," he added.