# Rapid Support Forces The **Rapid Support Forces** (RSF) is the Sudanese paramilitary army commanded by [[Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo]] ("Hemedti"). Since April 15, 2023 it has been at war with Sudan's regular army under [[Abdel Fattah al-Burhan]] for control of the country, a war that has produced the world's largest displacement crisis. The United States has formally found that the RSF committed genocide. ## Origins The RSF was formalized in **August 2013** out of the Janjaweed, the Arab militias that carried out the Darfur atrocities of the 2000s for [[Omar al-Bashir]]'s government. Bashir built it up as a counterweight to the army. It grew rich and independent on three income streams: - **Gold** mined in Darfur, much of it sold through the [[United Arab Emirates]]. That business brought Hemedti's family into partnership with [[Yevgeny Prigozhin]]'s network (see [[Meroe Gold]]), and in May 2023 the U.S. Treasury accused Wagner of supplying the RSF with surface-to-air missiles. - **Mercenary service:** tens of thousands of fighters sent to the Saudi-led war in Yemen. - **State power:** after Bashir fell in 2019, the RSF was implicated in the June 2019 Khartoum massacre of protesters and shared power with the army until the two turned on each other. ## The war | Date | Event | |---|---| | Apr 15, 2023 | War breaks out between the RSF and the army | | Jan 7, 2025 | U.S. determines the RSF and allied militias committed genocide; sanctions Hemedti | | Oct 2025 | Captures El Fasher, the army's last Darfur stronghold, after an 18-month siege; more than 6,000 killed in three days by the UN human rights office's count | | Nov 6, 2025 | Accepts a humanitarian truce proposed by the "Quad" (U.S., Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE); the army demands RSF withdrawal from civilian areas first | | Jun–Jul 2026 | Besieges El Obeid in North Kordofan; G7 foreign ministers and the EU demand it stop (July 15) | | Oct 2026 | Drone strikes on El Obeid continue | The WHO counts at least 40,000 dead, and aid groups say the true toll is many times higher. About 12 million people have been displaced, and famine has been confirmed in El Fasher and Kadugli. ## The UAE question The RSF's main foreign backer is widely reported to be the UAE, which denies arming it. The UAE also sits in the Quad mediating the war. That tension, and the U.S.–Emirati commercial ties tracked elsewhere in this vault, shape how hard Washington presses. ## See Also - [[Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo]] · [[Abdel Fattah al-Burhan]] · [[Sudan]] · [[Genocide]] - [[Wagner Group]] · [[Meroe Gold]] · [[M Invest]] · [[United Arab Emirates]] · [[Massad Boulos]]