Diplomatic Affairs analyst Ahmed Hashi smells a rat from the greenlight afforded to Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to launch a parallel government in Nairobi.
RSF, led by deputy leader, Abdul Rahim Dagalo, arrived in Kenya’s capital on Sunday to launch a “peace and unity” government.
Hashi believes allowing the group, led by individuals accused before the International Criminal Courts (ICC) for instigating deadly wars, will attract unbearable ramifications to Kenya’s diplomatic image and President William Ruto’s reputation.
“He (Ruto) is creating a firestorm. He is dilly-dallying with people who are being taken to the ICC, with a person who has been roundly criticized for massive human rights abuse in Sudan,” Hashi told Citizen TV on Wednesday.
Hashi added that inviting a crime-linked group will “bring international focus to Kenya and I think this is just a terrible move for our government”.
This lies on the backdrop of a plan to form a new Sudanese government by the Sudanese army after the recapture of Khartoum is completed.
Military sources intimated to Reuters on Sunday, a day after army head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said he would form a technocratic wartime government.
RSF which has said it would support the formation of a rival civilian administration, has retreated, overpowered by the army’s expanded air capacities and ground ranks swollen by allied militias.
The RSF controls most of the west of Sudan, and is engaged in an intense campaign to cement its control of the Darfur region by seizing the city of al-Fashir. Burhan ruled out a Ramadan ceasefire unless the RSF stopped that campaign.
The war erupted in April 2023 over disputes about the integration of the two forces after they worked together to oust civilians with whom they had shared power after the uprising that ousted autocrat Omar al-Bashir.
