Sudan Rejects Chad’s Denial of Support to RSF

Deby welcomes Hemetti at the Chadian presidency on January 30, 2023

November 9, 2024 (PORT SUDAN) – Sudan’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday rejected Chad’s denial of support for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the paramilitary group battling Sudan’s army, and insisted that there was ample evidence of such assistance.

The ministry cited satellite imagery and United Nations reports to bolster its accusations that Chad facilitates the flow of weapons and fighters from the United Arab Emirates to the RSF. Human rights organizations, including the Conflict Observatory, which is funded by the United States State Department, have echoed these claims.

“Chad’s continued support for this terrorist militia — the Rapid Support Forces — needs no further explanation,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that the evidence of Chad’s involvement in the conflict was clear.

Chad’s Foreign Ministry on Friday denied providing any support to the RSF and said it had taken in 1.5 million Sudanese refugees over the past 20 years.

“The misleading accusations by Sudanese authorities aim to divert attention from their responsibility for the deteriorating situation in their country,” reads a statement signed by the Chadian foreign minister Ghulam Allah Abdel Rahman. It suggested that Sudan was trying to find a scapegoat for its internal problems.

The Sudanese Foreign Ministry dismissed Chad’s denial as “feeble” and said that Chad was “the main crossing point for weapons and mercenaries” for the RSF.

Sudan has filed a complaint against Chad with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, accusing it of complicity in the RSF’s “crimes of aggression, genocide and rape.”

The escalating war between the Sudanese army and the RSF has plunged Sudan into a humanitarian crisis and destabilized the region.