RSF Announces Plans for Breakaway Government in Sudan

The Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group battling for power in Sudan’s ruinous civil war, took a step toward forming its own breakaway government on Tuesday when it hosted a lavish political event in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

The group’s deputy leader, Abdul Rahim Dagalo, who is under American sanctions, was greeted by hundreds of cheering people as he arrived at the elaborate event, held at a state-owned convention center in downtown Nairobi.

Mr. Dagalo did not speak at the event, and a promised charter meant to pave the way for a parallel government in R.S.F.-controlled areas was not signed. Officials said they needed another three days to negotiate the terms of the charter with Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, the leader of another Sudanese rebel faction, who sat beside Mr. Dagalo.

The meeting was a moment of striking symbolism for the R.S.F., which only last month was formally accused of genocide by the United States, and comes against the backdrop of shifting battlefields in Sudan as well as a torrent of American foreign policy changes and evolving alliances in the region.

Sudan’s army has scored a series of battlefield victories in recent months, pushing the R.S.F. out of key areas in Khartoum, the capital, and in central Sudan. The R.S.F. hopes to ends that losing streak, and bolster its claim to rule, by forging a government for the considerable swath of the country it holds.

In an amphitheater bedecked with Sudanese flags, where cheering men in white turbans filled entire rows, speakers railed against the army and spoke of their desire to forge a “new Sudan.”