Ethnic Ideology of the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces (RSF)

Abstract

The Sudanese Rapid Support Forces (RSF), derived from the extremist Janjaweed militias, are participating in Sudan’s civil war by seeking power and terrorising the population, yet without a clearly and convincingly articulated vision or ideological program. Deciphering or reconstructing the drivers of the RSF’s violent approach poses a dual challenge: to researchers, and to the authorities of states and international organizations seeking to end the war. Nevertheless, analyzing the organization’s origins, recruitment dynamics, propaganda, and statements by members and commanders, as well as its methodology of crimes including ethnic cleansing with hallmarks of genocide, enables us to reconstruct the beliefs that underpin the organization and its affiliated groups. These beliefs concern ethnic relations in the region and are predominantly informed by a specific conception of Arabness characterized by a sense of superiority and the historical role of nomadic Arab tribes in the Sahel. This ethnically motivated animosity is directed not only towards indigenous African groups, as in the past, but also towards Arab-Nubian communities in central and northern Sudan. The RSF seek to expel and supplant these communities. Overlaid on this was the ambition to embody the marginalized periphery and exact retribution for the center’s historical domination.