has its origins in the notorious Janjaweed militia that brutally fought rebels in Darfur<\/a>, where they were accused of genocide and ethnic cleansing against the region’s non-Arab population.<\/p>\nSince then, its leader, Gen Dagalo, has built a powerful force that has intervened in conflicts in Yemen and Libya.<\/p>\n
He also controls some of Sudan’s gold mines, and allegedly smuggles the metal to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).<\/p>\n
The army accuses the UAE of backing the RSF, and carrying out drone strikes in Sudan. The oil-rich Gulf state denies the allegation.<\/p>\n
The army also accuses eastern Libyan strongman Gen Khalifa Haftar of supporting the RSF by helping it to smuggle weapons into Sudan, and sending fighters to bolster the RSF.<\/p>\n
In early June 2025, the RSF achieved a major victory when it took control of territory along Sudan’s border with Libya and Egypt.<\/p>\n
With el-Fasher now in its hands, the paramilitary group is now unchallenged in much of Darfur and lso in neighbouring Kordofan region.<\/p>\n
In July it formed a rival government, raising fears that Sudan could split for a second time – South Sudan seceded in 2011, taking with it most of the country’s oil fields.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who are the Rapid Support Forces?published at 11:22 GMT 11:22 GMT Image source, ReutersImage caption, The RSF was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-230101","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Armed](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/7952a2b2-9263-4ed7-893a-85af6bf14b92.jpg.webp.webp\")
Image source, ReutersImage caption, <\/p>\n