SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Bloomberg - Notorious Sudanese Militia Poses as Savior in Coronavirus Fight
Bloomberg report that the Rapid Support Forces militia (RSF) is aiming to win Sudanese hearts and minds by “spearheading” Sudan’s coronavirus fight, in what the Atlantic Council’s Cameron Hudson labels as the RSF’s latest push “to reinvent themselves as defenders of the poor and downtrodden.”
Senior Sudan analyst at the International Crisis Group, Jonas Horner, says the moment “is particularly dangerous for Hamdok as the military - and particularly the RSF - may move to demonstrate their ability to deliver in the absence of broader government action,” with Hudson noting the RSF’s ability to draw on its discipline, organisation and resources “unlike [Prime Minister] Hamdok’s government.”
Horner called for Hamdok to spend his political capital on meeting Sudanese demands for leadership from the transitional government, with political cartoonist Khalid Albaih quoted to say that “the RSF has become one of the main obstacles to [Sudan’s] democratisation.”