Minawi rejects RSF bribes, accuses RSF of Darfur atrocities

October 11, 2024 (PORT SUDAN) – Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) leader Minni Minawi said on Friday that he had rejected bribes from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and a backer to join their side in the country’s conflict.

Minawi, who is also the governor of Darfur, said one offer included sharing control of army divisions in Darfur with the RSF while he remained governor with expanded powers and funding.

This follows accusations from RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, that Minawi joined the army’s side for financial gain.

“My meeting in N’Djamena with your brother (RSF second-in-command Abdel Rahim Dagalo) ended after I categorically rejected his offer,” Minawi said in a statement.

He added that he refused a separate offer, which he said came from a “guarantor” he did not name, to accept the Framework Agreement – a deal for a transition to civilian rule that broke down, triggering the war in April 2023.

Minawi also accused the RSF of attacking camps for displaced people in Darfur, occupying and destroying hospitals in El Fasher, and abusing civilians.

The RSF has controlled most of Darfur since late last year, while fighting continues in El Fasher, the last bastion of central government authority in the region.

Minawi, Gibril Ibrahim of the Justice and Equality Movement, a faction of the Gathering of Sudan Liberation Forces and a splinter faction of the SLM Abdel Wahid decided to join the army in November 2023.

Sources close to these groups say the armed groups decided to break neutrality in the ongoing conflict when they realized that the RSF’s control of their region might permanently change the region’s demography.