Sudanese rebel leader rallies troops in rare public appearance
RSF leader Hemedti acknowledges losses but vows to fight on
The commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, rejected peace and vowed that his troops would return to Sudan’s capital and major cities, after being dislodged during fighting earlier this year.
However, the rebel leader also toned down his previously hostile rhetoric toward neighboring Egypt, saying, “we must solve our problems through dialogue” and “we don’t have any problem with anyone [any nation], including the Egyptians.”
The RSF, which mutinied against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in 2023, now controls large parts of western Sudan, while SAF controls the central and eastern parts of the country. The RSF claims to have formed a new government, while describing the military government in Port Sudan as illegitimate. The civil war, now in its third year, has wrecked the nation’s economy and caused a humanitarian disaster.
Dagalo, nicknamed “Hemedti,” delivered the remarks during a rare public appearance before thousands of RSF fighters at an undisclosed location in the northern part of South Darfur State on Monday. It marked his first direct address to troops since July 2023, when he appeared alongside RSF forces in southern Khartoum during the height of RSF advances across the capital and parts of east-central Sudan.
The highly orchestrated rally is part of an attempt to rehabilitate the RSF leader’s image as a field leader who is in touch with his troops, after some field commanders and rank-and-file RSF members criticized the leadership for being distant, out-of-touch, and at fault for recent battlefield losses.
Below is a propaganda video produced by the RSF’s media wing, showcasing the scene of the rally. A longer video of the speech itself also was released.
Hemedti’s previous speeches were mostly video messages delivered from undisclosed locations. For example, prior to the RSF’s loss of Khartoum to SAF in late March, Hemedti released a pre-recorded message pledging to defend the Republican Palace, which at the time had been nearly encircled by SAF.
Despite urging his troops not to withdraw, the RSF’s defenses in Khartoum quickly collapsed, resulting in a chaotic retreat as the Sudanese army fully reclaimed the capital Khartoum and, after further fighting, its sister city Omdurman.
Hemedti’s latest appearance comes as the Sudanese military continues its westward into RSF-controlled territory in the Kordofan region. One ongoing objective of the SAF is to break the siege of Dilling, where the army’s 54th Brigade, part of the 14th Infantry Division, has remained encamped since the early stages of the war amid coordinated pressure from RSF and allied SPLM-North forces.
Despite massive territorial losses last year and early this year, the RSF scored a handful of limited victories more recently. For instance, the RSF seized the strategically significant tri-border region between Libya, Sudan, and Egypt— commonly referred to as the Triangle, or Jebel Uweinat—and captured An-Nahud, the administrative capital of West Kordofan.
Olive branch to the Egyptian government
Hemedti’s latest comments toward Egypt may be intended to avert Egyptian intervention in the Triangle border zone, or encourage cross-border trade flows. The RSF previously announced a boycott of goods from its territory coming to and from Egypt, and Hemedti accused the Egyptian military of backing SAF.
Hemedti claimed the RSF’s entry into the Triangle serves regional interests:
“As a fact, we have been dislodged from valuable places and have lost what we held the most, but by the will of Allah, we will return. We will return with dignity. Thank God that our entry into the Triangle, even if it is not a gain for our neighbors, it would not be a loss to us because the Triangle and the desert have long been hubs for corruption, terrorism, and illegal immigration, all kind of mafia, such as drugs, smuggling and so on.”
”You have seen the how innocent civilians, women and children, are being held there. We have controlled the desert and have now protected our neighbors, the Egyptians, Libyans and Chadians—all are our neighbors—and we respect them and respect their borders, and we don’t have any problem with anyone including the Egyptians.”
For background, in October 2023, following a series of battlefield setbacks and mounting diplomatic isolation, Hemedti escalated tensions with Egypt, accusing Cairo of playing a “treacherous” role in Sudan’s conflict by providing covert support to the Sudanese military, including alleged involvement in aerial bombing.
The accusation came in the wake of the RSF’s loss of the strategically significant Jebel Moya, a mountainous area in Sennar State that overlooks the Sennar–Rabak highway — a key military corridor. RSF field commanders had, at the time, issued threats suggesting possible retaliation beyond Sudanese borders, including military action against Egypt just after imposing trade embargo preventing exports of goods from RSF-controlled areas to Egypt and SAF-controlled areas.
Egypt, which has expressed concern over potential regional destabilization and a large-scale refugee influx along its southern frontier, publicly distanced itself from the RSF. Egyptian foreign minister said last year that their support lies with Sudan’s national army, emphasizing that backing the SAF is essential to preventing state collapse and preserving border security.
In his latest speech, Hemedti reframed prior hostilities with Egypt as the outcome of manipulation by SAF leadership, accusing the army’s command of engineering regional rifts to isolate the RSF politically. He claimed that the RSF has since reassessed its position vis-à-vis Cairo:
“Even the Egyptian who we had problems with them, which were incited by these [Sudanese Armed Forces leaders], we have evaluated these problems and have decided to resolve them with dialogue. We must solve them on the table, not by arguments or quarrel, but with dialogue. If they offended us or we offended them, we must solve our problems through dialogue.”
“Every problem ends with dialogue. So, we are not against any country, or against any individual. However, these criminals [SAF] have demonized us. They demonized us for the five years prior to the war. They demonized us with South Sudan; they demonized us with our brothers the Chadians.”
Hemedti blames SAF and its Islamist-aligned leadership for instigating the conflict to cling to power, portraying the war as an existential struggle against a “gang” he accused of religious hypocrisy and betrayal.
Remarks on the origin of the war
In his speech, the RSF commander denied Sudanese military accusations that he launched a coup, claiming that the RSF was framed, calling it “very shameful” that the same people who orchestrated the war had accused him of seizing power. Throughout the address, Hemedti directed leveled criticism at the SAF’s Islamist factions – repeatedly referring to them as “criminals” and “kizan,” a term associated with the Islamist National Congress Party.
“But I assure you that the most important part of this is we are defending ourselves. We are defending ourselves and whoever attacks us we attack them like they attacked us. We had been fighting for four to five years to prevent this war. And they eventually waged this war in order for them to continue in power.”
“The most important part is that all our martyrs have died defending themselves and their sacrifices are the real sacrifice unlike these nonsense claims by these criminals that this is a ‘war of dignity’ which dignity are you talking about? Do you have dignity for you to talk about dignity? You have destroyed the people and the country as a whole and talk about dignity oh criminal?”
On the situation in Darfur
Addressing allegations of property seizures by RSF fighters, Hemedti warned against the occupation of civilian homes in Darfur, specifically naming towns such as Nyala, Zalingei, Al-Geneina, and Al-Fula.
His remarks come amid widespread accusations that RSF forces systematically occupied civilian homes in central Sudan, particularly in Khartoum, following the outbreak of the war. Numerous properties abandoned by displaced residents of the capital have since been looted or transported to Darfur, the home-region for most of the RSF fighters, further deepening resentment among Sudanese civilians and exacerbating the RSF’s deteriorating public image.
Acknowledging the reputational damage caused by such practices, Hemedti cautioned his forces against further looting and announced the reopening of RSF-run prisons in Darfur, stating that detention facilities must be used to hold criminals, not left idle while abuses occur unchecked.
“Now, we are hearing that the situation [occupation of houses] in Omdurman has been transferred to the states. It has been transferred to Zalingei, Nyala, Al Geneina, all those safe areas, and Al Fula. That is prohibited. It is prohibited that someone occupies another person’s house.”
“If they insist on occupying others’ houses, these are the looters themselves who have damaged [out image]. We are now reopening all the prisons in Darfur. They must be open because the jail is for criminals.”
Hemedti also addressed the plight of civilians displaced from Khartoum in the wake of the RSF’s withdrawal from the capital, pledging expanded humanitarian access in areas under RSF control and promising that displaced populations would ultimately achieve self-sufficiency as stability is restored.
“Our message in Darfur, we tell you that by the will of Allah, as we expand our control, humanitarian aid will reach you. But in the future, you will not need aid. When it is rainy season, you will farm, and you will not need aid. But now people are in need. The people who have been targeted in Omdurman, Al Jazira, East Nile and Haj Yousif, thousands of them, hundreds of thousands of them have arrived in Kordofan or Darfur … and hopefully aid is coming to these people,” he said.
Command gap in the RSF
Since the outbreak of hostilities in April 2023, Hemedti has made only two confirmed public appearances – excluding a series of pre-recorded video messages distributed by RSF media. His first in-person address came in July 2023, when he briefly appeared before RSF fighters in southern Khartoum at a time when his forces were still pushing through the capital.
Hemedti’s prolonged absence from frontline positions for over two years has become a central focus of the war’s information warfare. Throughout 2023 and early 2024, SAF-aligned propagandists repeatedly claimed that the RSF commander had been killed in earlier phases of the conflict, alleging that video appearances released by RSF media were digitally manipulated or generated using artificial intelligence to conceal his death.
While RSF officials dismissed those claims as deliberate disinformation aimed at fracturing the group's command structure and morale, the extended lack of direct visibility from Hemedti deepened internal uncertainty and raised questions about his ability to command during a high-intensity nationwide conflict. His disappearance from operational zones invited growing scrutiny, both from adversaries and within RSF ranks.
In Hemedti’s absence, his brother and deputy, Abdelrahim Dagalo, became the face of RSF operational command. He has become the RSF’s most visible senior leader, frequently featured in battlefield footage from Darfur and Kordofan, where he has been observed leading deployments and issuing frontline directives.
His consistent visibility has fueled speculation that he is functioning as the de facto operational head of the paramilitary group on the ground, while Hemedti remains largely behind the scenes.
In contrast, SAF commander Al-Burhan has maintained a continuous and highly publicized presence across multiple active combat zones. His routine inspections of forward military positions have served not only as a morale tool but also as a projection of centralized authority, reinforcing the image of SAF cohesion and control.
While Al-Burhan has leveraged battlefield engagement to convey national leadership and command unity, Hemedti’s absence has allowed the SAF to advance a narrative of RSF fragmentation, command disarray, and leadership instability.
The stark contrast in visibility between the two commanders has been exploited by SAF media and psychological operations rooms to sow doubt among RSF ranks and weaken the group’s internal cohesion.
The prolonged command gap has had tangible consequences on the battlefield. Growing discontent has emerged within RSF ranks over the lack of communication from the top. Instances of confusion, morale collapse, and defection had increased in sectors where fighters expressed frustration over leadership ambiguity.
RSF units have abandoned their positions altogether, especially in central Sudan and retreated to Darfur, citing uncertainty over whether their supreme commander remains alive or in control.