Minnawi calls for mass mobilization ‘inside and outside’ Sudan after fall of El-Fasher

PORT SUDAN – Darfur’s Governor Minni Arko Minnawi on Tuesday called for a mass mobilization to resist the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), accusing the group of genocide and vowing a new phase of resistance after its fighters seized El-Fasher, the last army stronghold in the vast western Darfur region.

The governor’s address followed the RSF’s entry into the city, the seat of the army’s 6^th Infantry Division, on Monday morning. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) had withdrawn from the strategic base on Saturday night, military sources said, marking a major turning point in the conflict.

Conflicting reports emerged about the fate of the withdrawing SAF and allied joint-force commanders, with some sources claiming they were killed in an ambush while others confirmed their safe relocation.

“I call for mobilization inside and outside Sudan to stop the machinery of genocide and ethnic cleansing. We pledge to rebuild, to stand by our martyrs, and to continue resisting. Reassure the Sudanese people that our forces continue to resist under sound leadership,” he said.

He framed the devastating loss of the North Darfur capital, which had been a safe haven for hundreds of thousands of displaced civilians displaced by the war in rural Darfur, not as a final defeat but as a grim new beginning.

“This is not the end,” he said to the RSF, “but the beginning of a nation reborn. From El-Fasher dawn will begin; hope will be written there. We start from zero, but we will not turn back or be ashamed before these thugs. We are not warmongers, but we have learned that peace is not gifted — it is made through dignity and resolve. Peace with dignity, not humiliation. We reject displacement of native populations and replacing them with newcomers. All Sudanese share the same fate — men and women shoulder to shoulder.”

Minnawi, who also leads the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLA), a former rebel group now allied with the army, unleashed a torrent of accusations against the RSF, detailing alleged atrocities during the siege and fall of the city.

“The martyrs of El-Fasher and the peaceful villages around it faced massacres and brutal extermination committed by the Janjaweed wings of the Rapid Support Forces,” he alleged.

“Those groups brought terror into alleys and homes without distinction between fighter and child, elder or woman,” he continued, claiming the RSF had “planned them with premeditation and ambush” and had ordered fighters “not to take prisoners.”

The fall of El-Fasher is a significant blow to the Sudanese army, which has been fighting the RSF for control of the country since April 2023. The city was the army’s last garrison in the Darfur region and its capture gives the RSF near-total control of the sprawling territory.

Humanitarian organizations had for months warned that an all-out assault on the city, which was sheltering hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people, would lead to a catastrophe.

In his speech, Minnawi confirmed those fears, outlining a “massive displacement” and accusing the RSF of a deliberate campaign of “demographic change.”

The governor announced a two-track plan to respond to the crisis. First, he said, authorities would “document and expose the crimes, genocidal acts, and war crimes” to ensure the RSF does not “escape accountability.”

Second, the plan aims to “map and quantify the massive displacement” to coordinate an urgent response for the tens of thousands now fleeing the city. This would be done “to attract international and local assistance for emergency shelter, food, and essential services until displaced people can return home safely and with dignity.”

In a significant admission, Minnawi acknowledged that internal failings contributed to the city’s fall.

“We acknowledge serious mistakes and failures,” he said. “Leadership of the state and the joint forces accept responsibility. The lesson is to correct errors strictly to protect the country from the invasion.”

He also directed blame at foreign powers, alleging “patron states” created a “militarily unbalanced situation” by providing the RSF with funds, logistics, and intelligence. He claimed these external actors had colluded “to cut satellite communications and isolate the fighters in El-Fasher from command centers.”

The governor’s call for mobilization extended specifically to the Sudanese diaspora, whom he urged to become a global voice for the conflict.

“You have a greater opportunity than others to move the streets of the cities where values like human rights and international law were established… to remind the world that humanity is indivisible,” he said.

Minnawi concluded by warning that the RSF, which he claimed was “fragile” and “dependent on foreign mercenaries,” would next try to “provoke divisions” and “sow discord” among the forces resisting it.