Sudan Sends Military Build-up in South Darfur

On Saturday, the Sudanese authorities announced that additional military build-up from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) arrived in South Darfur to maintain peace and restore stability after renewed tribal clashes.

According to the Sudanese News Agency, Acting head of South Darfur, Hamid Al-Tijani Hanoun, said, "The RSF forces that arrived in the southern areas represent a major push for the peace process and the protection of civilians."

During his meeting with the RSF forces in Nyala today, Hanoun added that "the coming period requires close and joint cooperation with peace partners for establishing peace.

Tribal clashes in Sudan’s Darfur region have killed at least 250 people and displaced more than 100,000 people since erupting earlier this month, the UN refugee agency said.

The violence in the provinces of West Darfur and South Darfur has posed a significant challenge to the country’s transitional government.

Among those displaced were some 3,500 people, mostly women and children, who fled into neighboring Chad, according to Boris Cheshirkov, a spokesman for the UNHCR said Friday.

The violence has been a major test for the Sudanese government’s ability to protect civilians in the war-torn region following the end of the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force’s mandate in Darfur this month.

Sudan is on a fragile path to democracy following a popular uprising led the military to overthrow strongman Omar al-Bashir in April 2019, after nearly three decades of rule. A joint military-civilian government is now in power.