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Sudan Discusses Merging Military Forces


FILE - Deputy head of Sudan's sovereign council General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo speaks during a press conference at Rapid Support Forces head quarter in Khartoum. Taken Feb. 19, 2023.
FILE - Deputy head of Sudan's sovereign council General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo speaks during a press conference at Rapid Support Forces head quarter in Khartoum. Taken Feb. 19, 2023.

KHARTOUM - Sudan's military and civilian political leaders began talks on Sunday on a proposal to bring the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) under the army's control as they try to finalize an agreement for a new transition leading to elections.

"The process of security and military reform is not easy but it is important and our goal is a single army," Dagalo said at the launch of the talks on Sunday, adding that the RSF would not abandon "the choice of democratic transformation."

Power jostling between the head of the RSF, Mohamed Hamadan Dagalo, and army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, along with uncertainty over how and when the RSF could be merged with the army, has been a source of recent tension.

General al-Burhan, the council's head, asserted on Sunday that the country's army would be brought under the leadership of a new civilian government, restating pledges that it would withdraw from politics.

"The process of security and military reform is a long and complicated process and one that cannot be bypassed," he said.

Dagalo has put himself at the forefront of the planned transition toward democracy, unsettling fellow military rulers and triggering a mobilization of troops in the capital Khartoum in recent weeks.

Sudan's army has a long history of staging military takeovers and has amassed substantial economic holdings. It wants to see the RSF, which by some estimates has up to 100,000 fighters, integrated under its control.

Integrating the RSF and placing the military under civilian authority are central demands of civilian groups that helped overthrow long-time autocratic ruler Omar al-Bashir four years ago and shared power with the military until an October 2021 coup.

Dagalo, widely know as Hemedti, is the deputy leader of the ruling council that took full power after the 2021 coup.

The talks this week follow a framework deal agreed in December between the military and the civilian Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) alliance, which aims to turn the page the coup which led to mass protests and cut Sudan off from much international financial support.

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