The Prime Accused -From the balcony- By Tahir El-Mutsaim
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), officially established in 2013, were not a temporary military creation.
They were the direct outcome of Omar al-Bashir’s policies during the Darfur war. The formation of the RSF marked a dangerous turning point in Sudan’s state structure. It opened a new era of militarized politics and privatized violence, transforming tribal militias into an official arm beyond army control. In the early 2000s, al-Bashir’s regime armed local militias to confront Darfur’s rebel movements. The goal was to end the war swiftly and with little political cost. Instead, it created a parallel army inside the state.
When al-Bashir decreed the creation of the RSF under the National Intelligence and Security Service in 2013.
And he had it legalized by parliament. This let him effectively built a force loyal to himself, unaccountable to the army’s hierarchy or discipline. Over time, the RSF gained enormous political and economic power, protecting the regime, securing key regions, and participating in regional wars such as Yemen. It evolved from a counterinsurgency militia into an independent political-economic actor with its own funding networks.
This transformation was only possible because al-Bashir gave it legitimacy and protection. He saw the RSF as a personal safeguard against rebellion or military coups. Thus, it became both the shield of the regime and a threat to the state, undermining the unity of military command. After al-Bashir’s fall in 2019, efforts were made to reform the security system, culminating in the Framework Agreement, but the RSF legacy remained intact. The 2023 war between the army and the RSF was the inevitable outcome of those old policies — a state split between two rival armies.
The Sudanese experience offers a clear lesson:
when a state empowers a militia — even legally — it begins to surrender its sovereignty. The RSF was born not from chaos, but from a deliberate political decision by al-Bashir. He handed the tools of violence to an entity outside the army, and used it as an instrument of rule. The prime accused in Sudan’s current tragedy is Omar al-Bashir himself. He laid the legal and structural foundations for this force. He allowing it to grow into a military rival that challenges the state’s legitimacy.
Today, Sudan endures one of its bloodiest and most divided eras. Al-Bashir’s legacy is clear — a distorted security system built on loyalty, not law. The man who created the RSF to protect his regime ultimately opened the door to the collapse of the state. The roots of Sudan’s crisis cannot be understood without acknowledging this truth: the RSF is the direct product of al-Bashir’s governance doctrine . A rule based on dividing power, not consolidating it, and militarizing society instead of building institutions. Thus, al-Bashir stands as the first and foremost accused . Not only for corruption or war crimes, but for dismantling the Sudanese state and turning its army into a battlefield between his own creations.
