Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander Lieutenant-General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti, said on Sunday that tensions with Egypt “must be resolved at the negotiating table,” pledging to rely on diplomacy rather than force and to respect the borders of all neighbouring states.
Addressing thousands of fighters in a forested area outside the western city of El Geneina, Dagalo accused General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s army (SAF) and allied Islamist factions of tarnishing the RSF’s image across the region by linking it to smuggling and narcotics networks.
Dagalo repeated allegations that Cairo had supplied weapons to the SAF but said the RSF had “reviewed our calculations” and would pursue dialogue, adding, “We are not against any country.”
Dagalo said RSF units now control the sparsely populated “triangle” where Sudan meets Egypt and Libya, a desert zone he described as a former hub for smuggling, terrorism and drug trafficking. Securing the area, he argued, protects Sudan and its neighbours. The RSF announced it had taken the triangle on June 11.
“Our deployment is to protect citizens and secure the frontier,” he said, insisting that future disputes with Egypt would be settled “through dialogue, not confrontation.” He voiced respect for Libyan, Egyptian and Chadian sovereignty and said RSF patrols had freed captives and disrupted trafficking rings.
Dagalo blamed Islamist elements inside the SAF for provoking last year’s civil war “to cling to power,” branding them “murderers” who send ordinary soldiers to die. He promised to reclaim RSF-held territory lost to junta.
Inviting rebel leaders Minni Arko Minawi and Gibril Ibrahim to join what he described as a struggle for “justice and change,” Dagalo closed his speech by declaring: “We are advocates of peace, not war – but either we eliminate them or they eliminate us.”