Mercenaries and high-profile defectors abound in Sudan war
Key takeaways
- Human rights organizations accuse the UAE of supporting the RSF militia, which has seen a number of high-profile defections to the Sudanese Armed Forces.
- Al-Nour Al-Qubba is not the only defector: He was followed a few weeks later by high-ranking RSF commander, Ali Rizq Allah, also known as Al-Savannah.
- Since the war began in 2023, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has been trying to recruit defectors from the RSF into the SAF.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
Human rights organizations accuse the UAE of supporting the RSF militia, which has seen a number of high-profile defections to the Sudanese Armed Forces. Meanwhile, the civilian population continues to suffer.
https://p.dw.com/p/5FJENMillions have been displaced by the Sudanese civil war Image: Amr Abdallah Dalsh/REUTERSAdvertisement When Sudan's military leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan welcomed Al-Nour Ahmed Adam — also known as Al-Nour Al-Qubba and a former senior commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia — into the ranks of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) earlier this year, it was one of the most high-profile defections in the Sudanese civil war to date.
While the SAF controls the capital Khartoum, Port Sudan and large parts of the east and center of the country, its rival RSF holds vast areas in the west of the country, particularly in Darfur, including the city of El Fasher.