Sudanese army chief says many countries ‘turn a blind eye’ to RSF crimes | Conflict News

General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan told Al Jazeera that many countries remain silent about the RSF’s alleged crimes in Sudan’s civil war.

Sudanese army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said “many countries remain silent and turn a blind eye” to crimes allegedly committed by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) during the country’s more than year-old civil war.

Sudan has been embroiled in war since April 2023, when fighting broke out between forces loyal to al-Burhan and the RSF led by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

Since the start of the war, tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions more displaced, while the humanitarian crisis has worsened.

Both sides have been accused of possible war crimes by U.N. officials and human rights groups.

In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera in Port Sudan, al-Burhan said: “Many countries remain silent and turn a blind eye to the crimes that are being committed every day.”

“Every day, the enemies kill the Sudanese people, plunder their lands and rape their women and girls… All those who remain silent and those who support what the other side does daily are undoubtedly enemies,” al-Burhan said, without naming any countries.

“Some countries may have used their influence to stop aid to the Sudanese state. Some countries may have used their international and regional mechanisms to stop supporting the armed forces,” he added.

In March, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said his team had documented dozens of cases of sexual violence.

“Sexual violence as a weapon of war, including rape, has been a defining – and despicable – feature of this crisis from the beginning,” he said.

His team has documented 60 incidents of conflict-related sexual violence, involving at least 120 victims across the country, the vast majority women and girls, he said, adding that “these figures are unfortunately a considerable under-representation of the reality.”

“RSF uniformed men and armed men affiliated with the RSF are believed to be responsible for 81 percent of the documented incidents,” Turk said.

Paramilitary gains

The RSF has made several breakthroughs in recent months and is closing in on Port Sudan on the Red Sea, where the army, government and UN agencies are currently based.

Asked about the RSF’s military gains, al-Burhan said that “battle losses or withdrawal in a certain situation do not mean the loss of the battle itself, and do not mean defeat,” adding that “the Sudanese people and the Sudanese armed forces will never be defeated.”

By late June, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) indicated that the war had left some 755,000 Sudanese facing “catastrophe,” the most severe level of extreme hunger, while 8.5 million people were grappling with food shortages that could lead to acute malnutrition and death.

The United Nations Hunger Monitoring System recently warned of a real risk of famine in several regions of Sudan, including parts of Darfur, Khartoum, Kordofan and Gezira states.

Asked about the humanitarian situation, al-Burhan told Al Jazeera: “When we talk about famine, we have to talk about its causes and those who are responsible for it.”

“Sudan has vast areas of arable land and a large number of farmers who know how to work these lands; most of the arable lands have been cultivated, except for the lands where the Janjaweed terrorist groups have threatened citizens and prevented them from cultivating,” he said.

The RSF emerged from the Popular Defense Forces militias, commonly known as the Janjaweed, mobilized by former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir against non-Arab tribes in Darfur.

“In Sudan, we have shortages in some areas that are under the control of these rebels, but in the rest of the country there are no shortages, except in areas where people have been displaced,” he said.