Khartoum reception and public backlash
Last month a commander of the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, Ali Rizkallah, was formally welcomed in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, and presented with an army uniform and an official rank after roughly three years of fighting the armed forces. The military-affiliated government lauded the defection as a political and operational gain. The public ceremony and subsequent appearances by Rizkallah - widely known by the nom de guerre al-Savannah - have provoked anger among civilians and evacuees who say they suffered abuses at the hands of RSF units.
Survivors’ demands for accountability
Halima Ismail, a woman displaced to the Darfur village of Tawila, said she cannot accept Rizkallah’s reintegration. "These RSF soldiers, even if they seek God’s forgiveness, I can’t forgive them because of what I saw face to face," she said. Ismail recounted multiple displacements as her area around al-Fashir was raided, describing scenes of sexual violence and personal injury. She said fighters from a unit under Rizkallah’s command fired into the air during one assault, forcing her and her children to the ground, and that she still bears scars from being whipped by RSF fighters.
The civil war, which erupted after a breakdown between the RSF and the national army in April 2023, is widely reported to have produced catastrophic human costs, including hundreds of thousands of deaths, millions displaced and the spread of famine and disease. Some of the most severe violence has taken place in Darfur, the RSF heartland where Rizkallah served as a commander. The RSF has been accused of atrocities during its assault on the city of al-Fashir last October.
Defections, denials and legal uncertainty
Another senior RSF commander from North Darfur, al-Nour Guba, publicly shifted allegiance to the army in April. In an interview, Guba denied that his move was intended to avoid legal consequences and said that any former RSF commanders who had committed crimes should be held to account. He stated, "If anyone from the Sudanese people has anything against us, I swear we are ready." Rizkallah has said publicly that he would surrender himself if formally accused of wrongdoing, though he did not respond to requests for comment in relation to the events described.
The RSF, which has denied committing atrocities in Darfur, and the military-affiliated government did not provide comment in response to outreach seeking clarification on the defections and their legal or administrative rationale.
Local initiatives and the limits of wartime justice
In neighboring Kordofan, anger has also surfaced. A trader in the town of al-Nuhud said he intends to file a private case under Sudan’s sharia law system against Rizkallah over the alleged looting of peanuts and gum arabic from his warehouses by one of the commander’s units. The trader spoke on condition of anonymity, citing fears of retribution. Legal activists caution that individual filings may not be effective amid the instability of wartime.
Mohamed Salaheldin, an executive board member of Emergency Lawyers, an activist group, said that ad hoc lawsuits are unlikely to gain traction in the current environment. "This issue can’t be dealt with piecemeal - it needs transitional justice," he said. Emergency Lawyers has recorded 243 cases brought to trial against alleged collaborators, on charges ranging from providing intelligence to preparing food for RSF fighters during occupation.
Military strategy and social consequences
Analysts say the army is actively encouraging defections as a way to exploit internal divisions within the RSF. Emadeddin Badi, a senior fellow at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, observed that many senior RSF commanders are drawn from the Arab Rizeigat tribe, where tensions between clans have intensified following an RSF raid on the hometown of an army-aligned figure earlier this year. Badi noted that the army hopes to reproduce gains similar to those seen in El Gezira, where the defection of an RSF-aligned militia commander, Abuagla Keikal, helped shift control in 2024.
Badi added that while there is a clear military rationale for cultivating such splits, the social repercussions may be underestimated by the armed forces. In his remarks, North Darfur commander al-Nour Guba alluded to tribal dynamics inside the RSF, describing the movement as "based on a racist, tribal" system that disproportionately benefited the family of RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.
Implications for communities and governance
The visible integration of former RSF commanders into the national military structure is intensifying debates about accountability and the rule of law in Sudan. Survivors and local activists warn that rapid absorption of former fighters into official forces, combined with the chaos of civil conflict, could close off avenues for redress. At the same time, the military appears to be betting that encouraging high-level defections will erode the RSF’s cohesion and restore territorial control in contested areas.
Note: Quotations and claims in this article reflect statements made by interviewees and public figures involved in or commenting on the conflict as described above.