Published on 5/29/2026
Civilians are no longer just side casualties in the war that has been ongoing between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces for more than 3 years, but they have turned into a legitimate target in it as the prospects for a peaceful solution to the conflict decline, analysts say.
The Sudan Doctors Network confirmed the killing of dozens of civilians as a result of attacks launched by the Rapid Support Forces on villages in the Al-Murrah region, western Kordofan region, which it says did not contain any presence of the army or its allies, considering that what happened confirms the urgent need for effective international action to stop the war.
At the same time, the commander of the Rapid Support Forces, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), said that his fighters will not stop fighting before achieving the goals for which they entered the war.
Hemedti’s speech came after the head of the Sovereignty Council, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, announced an initiative to launch a comprehensive political dialogue to end Sudan’s crises and address them radically, and he said that it “will not include those who have indulged in the blood of the Sudanese,” which analysts considered a signal of rapid support.
Between this and that, the “Civil Democratic Alliance for Revolutionary Forces” presented a document that it said included a comprehensive vision for resolving the crisis based on a combination of urgent humanitarian response, stopping the fighting, and launching a comprehensive political process that includes removing all forces carrying weapons from the political track and reviving the path of democracy and transitional justice.
Civilians became a target
While each side of the conflict continues to insist on excluding the other from any future political process, and accuses them of killing Sudanese, civilians continue to pay the biggest bill for this war, which the United Nations says has produced a widening humanitarian catastrophe.
Dr. Kofi Kwaku, a researcher in African affairs, considered what happened Thursday in the city of Bara in North Kordofan “a new massacre that must be condemned,” and he said during his participation in the program “Beyond the News” that it was “not an isolated incident in the development of the course of the war.”
According to the spokesman, this massacre indicates “a deeper transformation of the conflict that has turned into a civil and political war, and civilians have become legitimate targets, not just collateral losses,” and that “there is pressure on the population to forcibly leave their areas.”
Sudanese political analyst Youssef Abdel Manan also said that the victims of the attacks on Al-Murrah, who amounted to 42 dead and 58 injured, “fell in confrontations between residents and gangs affiliated with the Rapid Support Forces that control the region.”
The Sudanese army and its allies are not present in any way in the Bara area, which Abdel Mannan says is completely devoid of even military bases.
On the other hand, Sudanese political analyst Mustafa Muhammad Ibrahim described the residents of the area as armed, and said that talk of confrontations “meaning that they are not civilians,” adding that “they are obtaining heavy weapons from the army to confront the Rapid Support on his behalf and hand him over to the area after he failed to enter it.”
Indeed, Al-Deif denied the involvement of the Rapid Support in these confrontations, which he said took place between residents and armed gangs in the region, to which Abdel Manan responded by saying that the region is subject to the Rapid Support and therefore it bears responsibility because it is the one who drives these gangs as well.
The solution is still far away
This exchange of accusations reveals that the two sides are still very far from reaching an agreement that will stop the war and provide security for the population, which African affairs researcher Kofi Kwaku says may face a greater disaster in the future.
The political initiative launched by Al-Burhan clearly excludes Rapid Support, according to Abdel Mannan, “because it is a militia whose hands are stained with the blood of Sudanese who will not accept to be part of any future political process.”
Likewise, the initiative launched by the Civil Alliance from Nairobi cannot be relied upon because it is “dreamy, in addition to being issued by a group that supported the Rapid Support at the beginning of the war and then changed its position as the situation on the ground changed,” says political analyst Youssef Abdel Manan.
More importantly, the force led by Al-Burhan (the army and those allied with him) must be part of any future operation in Sudan, and therefore there is no room for talk about keeping everyone who carries weapons away from the procedures that would lead to elections, according to the same spokesman.
At the same time, political analyst Mustafa Mohamed Ibrahim describes Al-Burhan’s initiative as “evasive,” and says that Al-Burhan “does not have a decision at all, because he is affiliated with the Islamists who have controlled the scene since the beginning of the war,” saying that the Rapid Support Forces “do not accept the current army to defend Sudan because it is ideological and must be completely dissolved and integrated into a national army.”
As for Kwaku, he believes that the Burhan initiative is capable of success despite the great challenges it faces, because Sudan’s future “will not be determined by weapons, but by the Sudanese themselves, no matter how long the war lasts.”
Therefore, the expert in African affairs believes that there is no room for the success of an initiative that excludes one party at the expense of another on the pretext of having blood on its hands. He wonders, “Who will determine whose hands are stained and whose hands are not stained with the blood of the Sudanese?”
The only solution that might avoid Sudan from a greater catastrophe, according to the spokesman, is to reach a formula agreed upon by everyone through regional mediation and intervention from international institutions, “away from war, revenge, and the search for a military victory that will not be achieved for any party.”
Despite the large field losses, it cannot be said that one party has defeated another, and this is what makes things difficult, despite the fact that there is room for regional mediation and avoiding the worst scenario, according to Kwaku.
