Sudan's RSF sets up civilian administration in Khartoum

Move by paramilitary force reflects its control over most of Sudan's capital despite army's recent advances in 19-month civil war

Sudanese army soldiers patrolling Khartoum North in November. AFP

The powerful Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has set up a civilian administration in Khartoum, a move that reflects its control over most of Sudan's capital despite some advances made this year by the army, its enemy in a 19-month civil war.

The RSF said the creation of a local administration as well as a 90-member assembly followed calls by many of the capital's residents for an authority to provide services, maintain security and assist in the arrival and distribution of humanitarian aid.

The statement said the RSF named Abdelateef Al Hassan as head of the administration and Babkr Nasser as head of the assembly.

The RSF has created similar bodies in areas under its control in the western region of Darfur and in Al Jazira, south of the capital, but setting up one in Khartoum is of symbolic significance and puts pressure on the army to accelerate its slow-moving campaign to regain control of the sprawling city.

The army-backed government has moved from Khartoum to Port Sudan on the Red Sea, where Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, the armed forces commander and de facto leader of Sudan, lives.

The war between the RSF and the army broke out in April last year after months of tension between Gen Al Burhan and his one-time ally Gen Mohamed Dagalo, the paramilitary's commander, over their role in a democratic Sudan boiled over.

Tens of thousands have since been killed and more than 10 million displaced. About 26 million Sudanese – more than half the population – are facing acute hunger, with pockets of famine surfacing in the nation's western regions.

The RSF captured most of the capital in the early stages of the war, taking over its only international airport, the presidential palace and ministries. The army made some battlefield gains there this year, mostly in the cities of Omdurman and Bahri which, together with Khartoum, make the capital's greater area.

The Sudanese capital had a prewar population of more than seven million, but less than half of that are believed to be still residing in the Nile-side city.