On Sunday, diplomats will gather in Khartoum to witness the signing of Sudan’s new constitutional declaration – a power-sharing agreement between protesters and the armed forces. Yet the international community cannot turn away in satisfaction: the country is not at peace, and the new administration will come to be judged on what happens miles from the capital, in the marginalised conflict zones of Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan.
Since the protests began in December, little attention has been given to the long-running conflicts in those regions, where non-Arab citizens have endured years of persecution by Khartoum-backed militia. Will the brutal but influential Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continue to ethnically cleanse African Sudanese, their atrocities largely unnoticed in the capital or by the international community? Their leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, is believed to be the most powerful military representative on the new transitional authority.
Niemat Ahmadi of the Darfur Women’s Action Group warns that unless decades of marginalisation are reversed and Hemedti’s RSF is reined in, there will be neither peace nor prosperity in the new Sudan. “The elites in Khartoum are still repeating the exclusive approach that has divided the people of Sudan for years and led to genocide in Darfur,” she says, arguing there must be justice and accountability.
