Sudan's military chief Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan has issued a decree dissolving the paramilitary his troops have been fighting against since April.

The decree, issued late on Wednesday, followed an exchange of criticisms between Gen Al Burhan and his one-time deputy and ally, Rapid Support Forces commander Gen Mohamed Dagalo.

It came a day after the US imposed sanctions on the deputy leader of the RSF, Abdelrahim Dagalo, in connection with rights abuses by his fighters.

Gen Al Burhan has already removed Gen Dagalo from his role as deputy chairman of the ruling, military-led Sovereignty Council. Gen Al Burhan is the council's chairman. He also froze the RSF's assets and bank accounts.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the sanctions were issued against him, Abdelrahim Dagalo described the US government’s actions as unfair.

“The US sanctions issued against me are unfair and rely on sources opposed to the Rapid Support Forces. The US sanctions should have targeted the other party in this war instead,” Mr Dagalo told Sky News Arabia on Thursday.

“The party that imposed the sanctions on us does not know those who are actually responsible for the violations in Sudan,” he added.

Mr Dagalo also said that Gen Al Burhan does not have “the legitimacy” to dissolve the RSF.

“The Rapid Support Forces are committed to the law and do not interfere in tribal battles in Darfur. The Sudanese Military Intelligence are the ones who are arming the tribes in Darfur and sowing discord among them,” he told Sky News Arabia.

The decree was issued hours after news broke that at least 32 civilians had been killed and dozens injured in artillery strikes by the army on Tuesday, one of the highest tolls from a single day of fighting since war broke out in April, according to the activist group Emergency Lawyers.

The group said the strike was in Ombada in western Omdurman, a neighbourhood that has been the site of several deadly strikes.

The army has been using heavy artillery and air strikes to target positions of the RSF in Khartoum, causing heavy civilian casualties. The RSF is in near total control on the ground in Khartoum, with thousands of its fighters sent deep into residential areas.

After nearly five months of war between the army and the RSF, the move to dissolve the paramilitary group appears mostly symbolic. But it does, however, effectively reduce the RSF to a mutinous group of fighters and could affect its relations with countries in the region.

It also deals a blow to the prospects of a negotiated end to the war that has created a major humanitarian crisis, including the displacement of more than five million people.

The RSF's forerunner is a notorious militia that fought on the government's side to suppress an uprising by ethnic African groups in Darfur in the 2000s.

Sudan's former leader Omar Al Bashir, ousted in 2019, later legitimised the group, making it a branch of the armed forces and giving Gen Dagalo, who did not attend the country's military academy, the rank of general.

The RSF continued to enjoy a large degree of autonomy and the patronage of Al Bashir, who was widely believed to have used the paramilitary to protect his rule against possible attempts by army generals to replace him.

The RSF moved quickly after the removal of Al Bashir to develop its resources, building an economic empire centred on gold mining and growing into a well-armed force of 100,000 fighters.

“The decree is based on the consequences of the mutiny of that force against the state and the gross violations it has committed against citizens and the destruction of the nation's infrastructure,” the official Sudan news agency reported.

Since the start of the war, the RSF has been accused of large-scale looting in Khartoum and of carrying out attacks on ethnic African communities in Darfur.

The violence has reportedly killed thousands and forced tens of thousands to flee to neighbouring Chad. The group has also been accused of sexual violence in Khartoum and Darfur.

Updated: September 07, 2023, 10:23 AM