A simmering rift between Sudan’s military and the country’s most powerful paramilitary force has morphed into open rivalry that analysts fear could turn into a military confrontation with calamitous results.
They say the alliance of convenience that existed between the military and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has served out its purpose, with both sides now jockeying for position in anticipation of a civilian-led government replacing the ruling military.
The alliance was formed shortly after the military ousted dictator Omar Al Bashir in 2019 and endured for the two years of joint civilian-military administration that succeeded his 29-year rule.
The army and RSF also collaborated to overthrow the administration’s civilian-led government in 2021 — a coup that upended Sudan’s fragile democratic transition and plunged the country into a political and economic crisis.
The army generals found a useful ally in the RSF in its post-coup tussle with pro-democracy groups campaigning to force them out of power. The RSF, for its part, took advantage of its alliance with the military to build up firepower and resources, as well as entrench its tactical deployment in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.
“It’s a confrontation that no rational person wishes for because, if it happens, it will be disastrous,” a veteran Sudan expert, London-based Osman Mirghani, wrote in the pan-Arab daily Asharq Al Awsat.
“The irony is that this crisis was created and made worse by the army itself, or let us say its leadership, whether during the rule of Omar Al Bashir or at the present time.”
The trial of wills between the military and the RSF spilt over into the public sphere last week, when RSF commander Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo disavowed the 2021 coup he co-led with army chief Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan. He branded it a mistake that served as a gateway for Al Bashir loyalists to make a comeback.
Gen Al Burhan, Sudan’s de facto ruler since the 2021 coup, stoked the dispute when he said he would not sign off on a deal to end Sudan’s political crisis unless it had clear and precise language on the integration of the RSF in the military.
Gen Dagalo says he too wants a “single army", but insists that the RSF integration could only happen as part of a comprehensive restructuring of the armed forces. It is an argument widely interpreted as a time-buying tactic given the military’s reluctance to fully heed calls by pro-democracy politicians for reforming the armed forces.
The dispute took a serious turn on Saturday when Gen Abdel Rahim Dagalo, Gen Dagalo’s elder brother and his senior lieutenant in the RSF, called for the military to hand over power to civilians without delay.
Ironically, Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo is Gen Al Burhan’s deputy on the ruling, military-led Sovereign Council, but his brother's call appeared to be directed at the armed forces.
The elder Gen Dagalo said the RSF would not allow or tolerate any more killing of anti-coup protesters, of whom 125 have died since the 2021 coup, nor the arrest of politicians.
He did not say what the RSF would do if the military ignored his call to step down. Nor was it clear whether he was speaking only for himself or his brother as well, although it appears likely that he cleared his comments with him given the seriousness of their implications.
Al Gameel Al Fadel, a member of Sudan's Umma Party, said the elder Dagalo's comments put the RSF on a potential collision course with the military, requiring it to act if another protester is killed or a politician is arrested or else lose face.
“The RSF was placed by him in a spot where he and the institution he belongs to must show their ability to take action with all the consequences that will follow,” said Mr Al Fadel.
Mohammed Wadaah, a senior Baath Party official, said Gen Dagalo’s comments may have ruined any chance of reconciliation between the military and the RSF. However, he was dubious about the sincerity of his vow to stop the killings and arrests.
“If the RSF has the capability to stop the killing of protesters, why had it not done this before? Do they think they can be absolved of past killings by vowing not to allow more killings to take place?”
The RSF has its roots in a feared militia called Janjaweed that fought on the side of Al Bashir’s government during the war in Darfur in the 2000s. The militiamen are suspected of committing widespread atrocities against civilians during that war.
The RSF also stands accused of being behind the deadly crackdown in June 2019 on protesters camped outside the armed forces’ headquarters in Khartoum in which dozens were killed and hundreds injured.
RSF troops, distinguished by their camouflage fatigues and British-made all-terrain vehicles, have been stationed in Khartoum since 2019, when Al Bashir allowed them to enter the city to protect his regime from street protests against his rule.
Their presence raises the potential for clashes with troops if the rift between the two sides worsens.
“For the two sides to clash would not be the end of Sudan, but it will be very costly, with many civilians losing their lives and the state becoming paralysed,” said Mohammed Adam Araby, a retired army general.
Ten10 Cricket League
Venue and schedule Sharjah Cricket Stadium, December 14 to 17
Teams
Maratha Arabians Leading player: Virender Sehwag; Top picks: Mohammed Amir, Imad Wasim; UAE players: Shaiman Anwar, Zahoor Khan
Bengal Lions Leading player: Sarfraz Ahmed; Top picks: Sunil Narine, Mustafizur Rahman; UAE players: Mohammed Naveed, Rameez Shahzad
Kerala Kings Leading player: Eoin Morgan; Top picks: Kieron Pollard, Sohail Tanvir; UAE players: Rohan Mustafa, Imran Haider
Pakhtoons Leading player: Shahid Afridi; Top picks: Fakhar Zaman, Tamim Iqbal; UAE players: Amjad Javed, Saqlain Haider
Punjabi Legends Leading player: Shoaib Malik; Top picks: Hasan Ali, Chris Jordan; UAE players: Ghulam Shabber, Shareef Asadullah
Team Sri Lanka Cricket Will be made up of Colombo players who won island’s domestic limited-overs competition
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What vitamins do we know are beneficial for living in the UAE
Vitamin D: Highly relevant in the UAE due to limited sun exposure; supports bone health, immunity and mood.
Vitamin B12: Important for nerve health and energy production, especially for vegetarians, vegans and individuals with absorption issues.
Iron: Useful only when deficiency or anaemia is confirmed; helps reduce fatigue and support immunity.
Omega-3 (EPA/DHA): Supports heart health and reduces inflammation, especially for those who consume little fish.
Jawan
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TOURNAMENT INFO
Women’s World Twenty20 Qualifier
Jul 3- 14, in the Netherlands
The top two teams will qualify to play at the World T20 in the West Indies in November
UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (captain), Chamani Seneviratne, Subha Srinivasan, Neha Sharma, Kavisha Kumari, Judit Cleetus, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Heena Hotchandani, Namita D’Souza, Ishani Senevirathne, Esha Oza, Nisha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi
Yahya Al Ghassani's bio
Date of birth: April 18, 1998
Playing position: Winger
Clubs: 2015-2017 – Al Ahli Dubai; March-June 2018 – Paris FC; August – Al Wahda
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Schedule
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The design
The protective shell is covered in solar panels to make use of light and produce energy. This will drastically reduce energy loss.
More than 80 per cent of the energy consumed by the French pavilion will be produced by the sun.
The architecture will control light sources to provide a highly insulated and airtight building.
The forecourt is protected from the sun and the plants will refresh the inner spaces.
A micro water treatment plant will recycle used water to supply the irrigation for the plants and to flush the toilets. This will reduce the pavilion’s need for fresh water by 30 per cent.
Energy-saving equipment will be used for all lighting and projections.
Beyond its use for the expo, the pavilion will be easy to dismantle and reuse the material.
Some elements of the metal frame can be prefabricated in a factory.
From architects to sound technicians and construction companies, a group of experts from 10 companies have created the pavilion.
Work will begin in May; the first stone will be laid in Dubai in the second quarter of 2019.
Construction of the pavilion will take 17 months from May 2019 to September 2020.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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In 2018, the ICRC received 27,756 trace requests in the Middle East alone. The global total was 45,507.
There are 139,018 global trace requests that have not been resolved yet, 55,672 of these are in the Middle East region.
More than 540,000 individuals approached the ICRC in the Middle East asking to be reunited with missing loved ones in 2018.
The total figure for the entire world was 654,000 in 2018.
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How to help
Donate towards food and a flight by transferring money to this registered charity's account.
Account name: Dar Al Ber Society
Account Number: 11 530 734
IBAN: AE 9805 000 000 000 11 530 734
Bank Name: Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank
To ensure that your contribution reaches these people, please send the copy of deposit/transfer receipt to: juhi.khan@daralber.ae
Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
ABU%20DHABI'S%20KEY%20TOURISM%20GOALS%3A%20BY%20THE%20NUMBERS
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Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
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Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
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Most sought after workplace benefits in the UAE
- Flexible work arrangements
- Pension support
- Mental well-being assistance
- Insurance coverage for optical, dental, alternative medicine, cancer screening
- Financial well-being incentives
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
Oscars in the UAE
The 90th Academy Awards will be aired in the UAE from 3.30am on Monday, March 5 on OSN, with the ceremony starting at 5am
How Tesla’s price correction has hit fund managers
Investing in disruptive technology can be a bumpy ride, as investors in Tesla were reminded on Friday, when its stock dropped 7.5 per cent in early trading to $575.
It recovered slightly but still ended the week 15 per cent lower and is down a third from its all-time high of $883 on January 26. The electric car maker’s market cap fell from $834 billion to about $567bn in that time, a drop of an astonishing $267bn, and a blow for those who bought Tesla stock late.
The collapse also hit fund managers that have gone big on Tesla, notably the UK-based Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF.
Tesla is the top holding in both funds, making up a hefty 10 per cent of total assets under management. Both funds have fallen by a quarter in the past month.
Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital, recently warned that Tesla founder Elon Musk had “flown a bit too close to the sun”, after getting carried away by investing $1.5bn of the company’s money in Bitcoin.
He also predicted Tesla’s sales could struggle as traditional auto manufacturers ramp up electric car production, destroying its first mover advantage.
AJ Bell’s Russ Mould warns that many investors buy tech stocks when earnings forecasts are rising, almost regardless of valuation. “When it works, it really works. But when it goes wrong, elevated valuations leave little or no downside protection.”
A Tesla correction was probably baked in after last year’s astonishing share price surge, and many investors will see this as an opportunity to load up at a reduced price.
Dramatic swings are to be expected when investing in disruptive technology, as Ms Wood at ARK makes clear.
Every week, she sends subscribers a commentary listing “stocks in our strategies that have appreciated or dropped more than 15 per cent in a day” during the week.
Her latest commentary, issued on Friday, showed seven stocks displaying extreme volatility, led by ExOne, a leader in binder jetting 3D printing technology. It jumped 24 per cent, boosted by news that fellow 3D printing specialist Stratasys had beaten fourth-quarter revenues and earnings expectations, seen as good news for the sector.
By contrast, computational drug and material discovery company Schrödinger fell 27 per cent after quarterly and full-year results showed its core software sales and drug development pipeline slowing.
Despite that setback, Ms Wood remains positive, arguing that its “medicinal chemistry platform offers a powerful and unique view into chemical space”.
In her weekly video view, she remains bullish, stating that: “We are on the right side of change, and disruptive innovation is going to deliver exponential growth trajectories for many of our companies, in fact, most of them.”
Ms Wood remains committed to Tesla as she expects global electric car sales to compound at an average annual rate of 82 per cent for the next five years.
She said these are so “enormous that some people find them unbelievable”, and argues that this scepticism, especially among institutional investors, “festers” and creates a great opportunity for ARK.
Only you can decide whether you are a believer or a festering sceptic. If it’s the former, then buckle up.
The specs: 2018 Opel Mokka X
Price, as tested: Dh84,000
Engine: 1.4L, four-cylinder turbo
Transmission: Six-speed auto
Power: 142hp at 4,900rpm
Torque: 200Nm at 1,850rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L / 100km