Rapid Support Forces

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are a Sudanese paramilitary force formerly operated by the Sudanese government. They originated as auxiliary force militias known as the Janjaweed used by the Sudanese government during the War in Darfur, which the government later restructured as a paramilitary organization in August 2013 under the command of Muhammad Dagalo, better known by his nom de guerre Hemedti. Since 2023, the RSF has been fighting a civil war against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for control of Sudan, after seizing power along with the SAF in the 2021 Sudanese coup d'état. In 2025, it established a parallel government called the Government of Peace and Unity in alliance with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement–North (SPLM–N). Its forces have been documented committing war crimes on a vast scale against members of non-Arab ethnicities in Darfur and against northern Sudanese Arabs (Ja'alin and Shaigiya) in Khartoum State and Gezira State because of their perceived support for the SAF. The United Arab Emirates has been widely accused of secretly supplying it with financial support. The RSF has obtained many fighters and arms from neighbouring Chad, the government of which has ceased any formal relations with Sudan in an effort to quell these accusations. RSF supply lines run in part through Libya, and RSF forces have been deployed to Libya to work for the Libyan National Army. Their fighters are largely recruited as mercenaries, with funding coming from the capture of gold mines and patronage by corporate and state actors; the group has also hired out its fighters as mercenaries to fight in conflicts and assist governments outside Sudan, such as in the Yemeni civil war (2014–present). In more recent years, the RSF has allegedly recruited mercenaries from more distant regions like Colombia to fight in its war in Sudan, occasionally...