Rapid Support Forces (RSF)

Force in Play

Losing senior commanders to defections

Major General Siddiq Ander announced Friday that he was leaving Sudan's Rapid Support Forces. In video obtained by Al Jazeera, he said the paramilitary is run as a family business by relatives of its leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

Updated 1 hour ago

Rule Changes

Half of the sanctioned commanders are RSF officers

Britain froze the assets and banned the travel of 15 Sudanese commanders on 26 October 2026, a year after El Fasher fell to the Rapid Support Forces. The Foreign Office has not said whether any of them holds money in Britain.

Updated 2 days ago

Force in Play

Controls Nyala, base of the Sudan Founding Alliance administration; blames the army for the market strike and demands an independent inquiry

More than 100 people were killed in a drone strike on the Tangooj night market in Nyala on October 26, according to the Emergency Lawyers rights group, and the administration that runs the city has since put the toll at 188 dead and 356 wounded. Neither count has been independently verified.

Updated 3 days ago

Force in Play

Controls most of Darfur; a rights group blamed it for the October 19 strike near Khartoum's airport that killed three children

A drone hit Amiet Market in Abyei, a border area disputed by Sudan and South Sudan, on October 19. Abyei's caretaker information minister put the death toll at 153 and blamed the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). The UN peacekeeping force, UNISFA, has counted at least 80 dead and is still verifying. Khartoum denied army involvement. On Monday evening, October 26, a drone struck Tanqong Market in Nyala, South Darfur. Al Jazeera, citing AFP, reported at least 21 killed and 40 injured. Radio Tamazuj, citing local officials, reported 102 killed and 113 injured.

Updated 4 days ago

Force in Play

Fighting the SAF; diplomats say fuel bound for its forces moves through Abyei

A drone strike on Amiet market in Abyei killed at least 153 people, Abyei's information minister said, more than double the first toll of 73 as fires kept burning. UN peacekeepers said they could confirm at least 80 deaths and were still checking, with others missing.

Updated 5 days ago

Force in Play

Fighting Sudan's army in the civil war

Satellite images analysed by AFP place the October 10 strike on an artisanal gold mine inside the Halayeb Triangle, a border area both Egypt and Sudan claim. The strike hit about 8.7km north of the 22nd parallel; Emergency Lawyers says at least 114 miners were killed.

Updated 6 days ago

Force in Play

One of the two warring parties; UN documents a wave of October drone strikes attributed to the force

Drone strikes killed at least 306 people across Sudan in the first three weeks of October, the UN human rights office said on 23 October, attributing them to both the army and the Rapid Support Forces. The deadliest hit a transport truck in Dibab, West Kordofan, on 18 October, killing at least 139 in what the office called a repeat "double tap" strike.

Updated 7 days ago

Force in Play

Controls West Kordofan and much of Darfur

Drone strikes on a funeral convoy in West Kordofan and a fuel market in the disputed Abyei region killed more than 300 people over two days, local officials and the Sudan War Observatory said. Abyei's information minister put the Amiet Market toll at 153 and said fires were still burning as workers recovered bodies.

Updated Oct 22

Rule Changes

Controls Darfur and parts of southern Sudan

The UN Security Council extended its arms embargo on Sudan's Darfur region by two months this week. A US push to broaden the embargo to all of Sudan failed, blocked by Russia and China.

Updated Oct 10

Force in Play

Lost Sodri and al-Mazroub to army offensive in North Kordofan

The Sudanese Armed Forces has extended its gains in North Kordofan since recapturing Sodri on September 25. On October 2, the army said it captured al-Mazroub, a town about 130 kilometers northwest of El-Obeid.

Updated Oct 5

Force in Play

At war with the army, holding parts of Darfur and Kordofan

Five million Sudanese have gone home since the army retook Khartoum in 2025. Many are returning to damaged homes, closed schools, and clinics that barely function.

Updated Sep 22

Force in Play

Lost the El Obeid siege; still controls most of Darfur

For nearly two years, the people of El Obeid lived under a paramilitary siege that cut off food, fuel, and medicine. On July 26, 2026, Sudan's army broke it. Soldiers took the town of Bara and four nearby villages, then seized the full 350-kilometer Al Sadarat highway linking El Obeid to Omdurman.

Updated Jul 27

Force in Play

Controls western Sudan; accused of genocide in El Fasher

The United Nations reopened its Khartoum headquarters Thursday, nearly three years after staff fled when civil war broke out in April 2023. The Sudanese Armed Forces recaptured the capital in March 2025, and more than two million people have since returned.

Updated May 30