Sudan’s army urges RSF members to join its ranks amid clashes

ISTANBUL

The Sudanese army on Monday called on members of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to join its ranks amid raging fighting between the two sides.

“We call on all RSF members to quickly join the Sudanese Armed Forces,” the army said in a statement.

The army assured the RSF members that they will not be demobilized.

“The country is still in dire need of its people combined,” the statement said.

A disagreement between the army and RSF regarding military and security reform, which envisages the full participation of the RSF in the army, has turned into a hot conflict in the last few months.

The dispute between the two sides came to the surface last week, when the army said recent movements by the RSF had occurred without coordination and were illegal.

The tension escalated into fighting in the capital Khartoum and its surrounding areas on Saturday, killing at least 97 people and injuring hundreds, according to local medics.

Sudan has been without a functioning government since October 2021, when the military dismissed Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok’s transitional government and declared a state of emergency in a move decried by political forces as a “coup.”

Sudan’s transitional period, which started in August 2019, was scheduled to end with elections in early 2024.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi in Ankara