US tracking nearly 500 incidents of civilian harm during Gaza war

US tracking nearly 500 incidents of civilian harm during Gaza war
Displaced Palestinians ordered by the Israeli military to evacuate the northern part of Gaza flee amid an Israeli military operation, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, Oct. 22, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 31 October 2024
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US tracking nearly 500 incidents of civilian harm during Gaza war

US tracking nearly 500 incidents of civilian harm during Gaza war
  • US embassy in Jerusalem has raised a number of incidents with Israel under the guidance
  • Israel’s military conduct has come under increasing scrutiny as its forces have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians in Gaza

WASHINGTON: US State Department officials have identified nearly 500 potential incidents of civilian harm during Israel’s military operations in Gaza involving US-furnished weapons, but have not taken further action on any of them, three sources, including a US official familiar with the matter, said this week.
The incidents — some of which might have violated international humanitarian law, according to the sources — have been recorded since Oct. 7, 2023, when the Gaza war started. They are being collected by the State Department’s Civilian Harm Incident Response Guidance, a formal mechanism for tracking and assessing any reported misuse of US-origin weapons.
State Department officials gathered the incidents from public and non-public sources, including media reporting, civil society groups and foreign government contacts.

The mechanism, which was established in August 2023 to be applied to all countries that receive US arms, has three stages: incident analysis, policy impact assessment, and coordinated department action, according to a December internal State Department cable reviewed by Reuters.
None of the Gaza cases had yet reached the third stage of action, said a former US official familiar with the matter. Options, the former official said, could range from working with Israel’s government to help mitigate harm, to suspending existing arms export licenses or withholding future approvals.
The Washington Post first reported the nearly 500 incidents on Wednesday.
The State Department declined to comment on this story. In August, deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said Washington was reviewing “very closely” reports of alleged violations of international law and listed the civilian harm process as one of the policies at the department’s disposal.
The administration of President Joe Biden has long said it is yet to definitively assess an incident in which Israel has violated international humanitarian law during its operation in Gaza.
John Ramming Chappell, advocacy and legal adviser at the Center for Civilians in Conflict, said the Biden administration “has consistently deferred to Israeli authorities and declined to do its own investigations.”
“The US government hasn’t done nearly enough to investigate how the Israeli military uses weapons made in the United States and paid for by US taxpayers,” he said.
Another US official told Reuters the US embassy in Jerusalem has raised a number of incidents with Israel under the guidance.
The process does not only look at potential violations of international law but at any incident where civilians are killed or injured and where US arms are implicated, and looks at whether this could have been avoided or reduced, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A review of an incident can lead to a recommendation that a unit needs more training or different equipment, as well as more severe consequences, the official said.
Israel’s military conduct has come under increasing scrutiny as its forces have killed more than 43,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the enclave’s health authorities.
The latest episode of bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023, when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 250 others, according to Israeli tallies.


Blinken says ‘ceasefire is holding’ in Lebanon

Blinken says ‘ceasefire is holding’ in Lebanon
Updated 5 sec ago
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Blinken says ‘ceasefire is holding’ in Lebanon

Blinken says ‘ceasefire is holding’ in Lebanon
BRUSSELS: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday the ceasefire in Lebanon was “holding” despite a series of incidents between Israel and Iran-backed militants Hezbollah.
“The ceasefire is holding, and we’re using the mechanism that was established when any concerns have arisen about any alleged or purported violations,” Blinken told journalists on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in Brussels.
Both Israel and Hezbollah face accusations of having breached the truce that took effect last Wednesday to end a war that has killed thousands in Lebanon and sparked mass displacements on both sides.
“I think fundamentally, both parties, that is to say Israel and Hezbollah, through the Lebanese government, wanted and continue to want the cease fire,” said Blinken.
“But we have to make sure that it’s upheld. And we’re determined to do that,” he added.
A committee including France, UN peacekeepers, Israel, Lebanon and chaired by the United States is tasked with maintaining communication between the various parties and ensuring violations are identified and dealt with to avoid any escalation.
“The mechanism that we established with France to make sure that the ceasefire is effectively monitored and implemented is working, and we want to make sure it continues to work,” Blinken said.
“If there are concerns that one party or the other is violating the ceasefire, it comes to us, and one way or another, we engage the parties. That’s exactly what’s happened,” he added.
Israel stepped up its campaign in south Lebanon in late September after nearly a year of cross-border exchanges by Hezbollah in support of its ally Hamas, following the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.

Macron says Syria’s Assad cannot be an agent of Iran while acting against security of Israel and stability of Lebanon

In an exclusive interview with Annahar and Randa Takieddine (R), French President Emmanuel Macron talks about events in Syria.
In an exclusive interview with Annahar and Randa Takieddine (R), French President Emmanuel Macron talks about events in Syria.
Updated 4 min 12 sec ago
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Macron says Syria’s Assad cannot be an agent of Iran while acting against security of Israel and stability of Lebanon

In an exclusive interview with Annahar and Randa Takieddine (R), French President Emmanuel Macron talks about events in Syria.
  • “We and Saudi Arabia are convinced that a ceasefire is needed in Gaza that enables the liberation of the hostages…and protects the people of Gaza”: Macron

In an exclusive interview with Annahar and Randa Takieddine, French President Emmanuel Macron said recent events show that Syria’s future requires more than normalization with Syrian President Bashar Assad, whom he said cannot be an agent of Iran and act against the security of Israel and the stability of Lebanon.

You are making a state visit to Saudi Arabia. What are your expectations in bilateral terms, having recently received a Saudi business delegation, the minister of investment, and the director of Saudi Aramco?

This will be my third visit to Saudi Arabia. The prime minister and crown prince have also visited Paris several times, and we are in regular contact. This state visit is particularly important, however, as it will enhance our relations to a strategic partnership. It comes at a particular time in which Saudi Arabia is swiftly transforming, opening up and diversifying its economy. For France, this will be an opportunity to show our support for Saudi Vision 2030 and the international events Riyadh will be hosting.

I will also be visiting AlUla, which is the jewel of our cultural cooperation. This visit also comes at a critical time of multiple regional and international crises. It will therefore be an opportunity to take initiatives together to foster peace, security and international prosperity. Our two countries have a major role in this respect and can also strengthen ties between this part of the world and Europe, in the spirit of the ambition shown by the recent EU-Gulf Cooperation Council Summit.

Saudi Arabia has an important role in the region. What are your expectations for its involvement in Lebanon and the region? If there is a ceasefire, what role do you think you and Saudi Arabia can play in Lebanon and Gaza?

Strengthening our political dialogue is one of our goals. France and Saudi Arabia share the same commitment to regional security and stability and will work together to find lasting political solutions to crises. That will be at the heart of our discussions with the crown prince. Our efforts to achieve a de-escalation in regional conflicts are aligned, particularly in Lebanon, Gaza, Yemen and Sudan.

We and Saudi Arabia are both convinced that a ceasefire is needed in Gaza that enables the liberation of the hostages, including our two nationals, and of course protects the people of Gaza who are in an unacceptable situation of distress, while allowing humanitarian aid to be delivered. We have been calling for this ceasefire since November, and we have been waiting too long. It must come now, it must be permanent, and it must re-open the prospect of a two-state solution. I welcome the work by Saudi Arabia and its Arab partners in defining an Arab vision for peace, updating the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 and sketching out a pathway out of the crisis. A credible framework needs to be worked on jointly to achieve a Palestinian state and guarantee Israel’s security. The UN Security Council and everyone who has a role to play must shoulder their responsibilities.

We will not stop calling for the ceasefire in Lebanon. It is essential for all parties — and this goes for both Hezbollah and Israel — to fulfill their obligations. The international community must continue its efforts to support the Lebanese Armed Forces, which are essential to this agreement and to the restoration of Lebanon’s sovereignty, in line with the conference we held in Paris on Oct. 24 this year.

Saudi Arabia contributes to Lebanon’s stability and has a role to play in bringing an end to the political crisis. At this crucial time for Lebanon’s future, it is important for us to discuss the reconstruction of the country, as well as the political prospects of the upcoming Jan. 9 session of the Lebanese Parliament with the aim of electing a president. All Lebanese actors must contribute to the solution. Hezbollah must facilitate consensus and foster Lebanese unity.

When will France recognize the Palestinian state?

It is urgent to preserve the two-state solution and the viability of a Palestinian state in the context of increased settlement-building, the measures taken against UNRWA and growing pro-annexation discourse. It is absolutely necessary to offer Palestinians real hope of a better life in an independent state and thus cut short any source of legitimacy for Hamas, which has nothing to offer but violence and destruction. The two peoples, Israelis and Palestinians, must be offered a response to their legitimate aspirations, otherwise the region cannot hope for lasting stability.

The recognition of the Palestinian state must contribute to speeding up the two-state solution, and France is ready. In that spirit, we supported Palestine’s accession to the UN as a fully-fledged member. We have voted for all UN General Assembly resolutions in this regard. For it to happen, recognition must take place in a context that enables a lasting end to the crisis. Alongside Saudi Arabia, we will co-chair a conference to give renewed political momentum to the two-state solution and will work on this in Paris.

Will resuming dialogue with Bashar Assad enable the return of Syrian refugees in Lebanon to Syria and control of the Syria-Lebanon border to prevent Iran from rearming Hezbollah?

Recent events have clearly shown that Syria’s future needs far more than normalization with Bashar Assad. The Syrian people need unity and hope. Dialogue with the regime is not an end in itself. The fighting in recent months has pushed many refugees, along with a million displaced Lebanese people, onto the roads toward Syria, but the question remains fully open. The Syrian regime must create an environment that enables the safe return of Syrians to their country. I have discussed this recently with my European and Arab counterparts. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees is talking about it with the Syrian regime, which must provide answers. Assad cannot be Iran’s agent and undermine Israel’s security and Lebanon’s stability.

What role will France play during this ceasefire? Do you think displaced persons will be able to return to the bombarded southern villages? What role can Saudi Arabia play in the implementation of this ceasefire?

France has always stood with Lebanon and the Lebanese people and does so, once again, at this critical moment. The ceasefire agreement follows months of joint diplomatic efforts with the US, and France is contributing to the monitoring mechanism. On Oct. 24, we laid the groundwork for its implementation by holding a conference that raised €1 billion ($1.05 billion) for Lebanon, including €800 million for displaced persons and €200 million for the Lebanese Armed Forces. This effort needs to continue, and France has already decided to deploy additional engineering and mine clearance assets to support the Lebanese army. I will send our army and foreign ministers to Lebanon very soon to work on all these points. Lebanon’s reconstruction will of course be another one of our priorities and will require a sustained international effort.

Will you continue talking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu despite France’s recognition of the International Criminal Court’s decisions? Could France’s independent judiciary itself execute the arrest warrant?

We have always supported international justice. France will fulfill its obligations under international law, in this case and all others. The judiciary’s decisions are totally independent.

France talks to everyone, and that is what enables it to play a role in the region. We must be clear-sighted: The region’s crises cannot be resolved without dialogue with the Israeli authorities.


Syrian forces battling insurgents north of strategic city of Hama

A Syrian Kurdish woman and her child waits with others upon their arrival in Tabqa, on the western outskirts of Raqa, after flee
A Syrian Kurdish woman and her child waits with others upon their arrival in Tabqa, on the western outskirts of Raqa, after flee
Updated 28 min 26 sec ago
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Syrian forces battling insurgents north of strategic city of Hama

A Syrian Kurdish woman and her child waits with others upon their arrival in Tabqa, on the western outskirts of Raqa, after flee
  • Syrian state media says insurgents retreat some 20 kilometers from government-held Hama, Syria’s fourth largest city
  • Syrian photographer working for German news agency dpa killed in an airstrike

BEIRUT: Syria said Wednesday its counteroffensive has pushed back insurgents attempting to advance to the strategic central city of Hama, while the insurgency says it captured more Syrian troops and Iran-backed militants in fierce battles.
The latest flareup in Syria’s long civil war comes after forces opposed to Syrian President Bashar Assad over the past days captured large parts of the northern city of Aleppo, the country’s largest, as well as towns and villages in southern parts of the northwestern Idlib province.
The offensive is being led by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, a jihadi group, as well as an umbrella group of Turkish-backed Syrian militias called the Syrian National Army. For years, both have entrenched themselves in northwest Idlib province and parts of northern Aleppo, as the battered country reeled from years of political and military stalemates.
The war between Assad and his foreign backers and the array of armed opposition forces seeking his overthrow has killed an estimated half-million people over the past 13 years.
Syrian state media SANA on Wednesday said insurgents retreated some 20 kilometers (12 miles) from government-held Hama, Syria’s fourth largest city, as government troops backed by Russian airpower entrenched themselves in the outskirts. Fierce fighting has raged for days as Damascus fears that the insurgents will make their way into the city like they did over the weekend into Aleppo.
A Syrian photographer working for the German news agency dpa was killed in an airstrike near the city of Hama, the agency said Wednesday. Anas Alkharboutli, 32, has long documented Syria’s civil war, which started after a brutal crackdown on a popular uprising against Assad in 2011. He has worked for dpa since 2017.
The insurgency through its Military Operations Department channel on the Telegram app said they captured five Iran-backed militants, of whom two were from Afghanistan, as well as three Syrian troops from its 25th Special Mission Forces Division in eastern Hama. The claims could not be independently confirmed.
If the insurgents seize Hama city and control the province, it could leave the coastal cities of Tartous and Lattakia isolated from the rest of the country. Lattakia is a key political stronghold for Assad and Syria’s Alawite community and a strategic Russian naval base.
Tens of thousands have been displaced by the fighting, which started last week, Geir Pedersen, the UN special envoy for Syria, said Tuesday.
“If we do not see deescalation and a rapid move to a serious political process, involving the Syrian parties and the key international players, then I fear we will see a deepening of the crisis,” Pedersen said in an address the UN Security Council. “Syria will be in grave danger of further division, deterioration, and destruction.”
Turkiye, which backs Syria’s opposition, has called on Assad to reconcile with opposition forces and include them in any political solution to end the conflict.
Ankara has been seeking to normalize ties with Syria to address security threats from groups affiliated with Kurdish militants along its southern border and to help ensure the safe return of more than 3 million Syrian refugees. Assad has insisted that Turkiye’s withdrawal of its military forces from northern Syria be a condition for any normalization between the two countries.
Damascus views the insurgents as terrorists, and Assad has vowed to respond to the insurgency with an iron fist.
Turkish and Iranian officials have met earlier this week, in a bid to reach a solution to deescalate the flareup. Arab countries bordering Syria and once backed groups that tried to overthrow Assad, have expressed their concern of the conflict’s regional impacts, and have backed the president.


Kurdish pupils denied language lessons in Turkiye amid wider curbs, families say

Kurdish pupils denied language lessons in Turkiye amid wider curbs, families say
Updated 04 December 2024
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Kurdish pupils denied language lessons in Turkiye amid wider curbs, families say

Kurdish pupils denied language lessons in Turkiye amid wider curbs, families say
  • Since 2012, pupils can ask for two hours of Kurdish lessons
  • Teachers’ union says families fear stigmatization if they ask
  • Some parents say requests not met, schools can’t find teachers

ISTANBUL: A Turkish government proposal to end a decades-long conflict with Kurdish militants has put Kurdish rights back in the spotlight, at a time when Kurdish leaders say repression is rife and freedoms won more than a decade ago have eroded.
One of those is the right to receive two hours of Kurdish language education in school, a move introduced by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in 2012 as an “historic step” in a country which once banned the Kurdish language outright.
More than a dozen parents, Kurdish politicians and education experts told Reuters their children today could not receive the language classes even in Turkiye’s largest cities, and not all Kurdish families knew of the right to ask for them.
Turkiye’s Kurds make up about a fifth of the population, numbering an estimated 17 million. Kurdish is the mother tongue for most and the right to education in Kurdish is one of their main demands.
The constitution however states, “no language other than Turkish shall be taught as mother tongue to Turkish citizens.”
“The Kurdish people’s right to education in their mother tongue is essential for the expression of their cultural identity and social equality,” said Gulistan Kilic Kocyigit, chairperson of the pro-Kurdish DEM party in parliament.
“Education in mother tongue is essential for peace, equal citizenship and the protection of cultural rights.”
Erdogan’s key ally in his ruling alliance made a shock proposal in October that jailed Kurdish militant PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan end his group’s insurgency in exchange for the possibility of his release.
Previously, a peace process with the militants was started in 2012 but collapsed in 2015 and was followed by fresh violence and a crackdown on the pro-Kurdish political movement.
“Optional Kurdish classes have become invisible in schools since the end of the peace process,” said Remezan Alan, a lecturer within the Kurdish Language and Culture department of Artuklu University in Turkiye’s southeastern Mardin province. The department was formed in 2009.
Two of Alan’s children were unable to access Kurdish class in Diyarbakir, a city of 1.8 million in the mainly Kurdish southeast. “There were enough requests, but a teacher was not available,” he said.
Asked about the classes, Turkiye’s ministry of education, which speaks for schools, said, “it is possible for a course to be taught if at least 10 students are enrolled.” It did not comment on the situation in individual schools.
Education Minister Yusuf Tekin last month denied that the state was ignoring requests from parents for the lessons or discouraging them from asking for them. If there were not enough students he said, it was because of a 2012 boycott of the lessons by DEM’s predecessor party, which said two hours were not enough.
Parents want children to learn Kurdish in school so they can read and write in the language, they say.
Hudai Morarslan, a member of teachers’ union Egitim-Bir-Sen which campaigns for teachers’ rights and educational rights, says pupils have access to optional Kurdish classes in only 13 cities across Turkiye. He is campaigning for them to be available in Bingol, a town in the mainly Kurdish southeast region.
“Everyone is afraid to ask,” he said, adding that there is a constant fear of being stigmatized by the state and linked to the PKK, designated as a terrorist group by Turkiye, the United States and the European Union.
In November, Turkish authorities detained 231 people and replaced six pro-Kurdish mayors over suspected PKK ties. The DEM Party said those detained included its local officials and activists.
Earlier, dozens of people singing and dancing to Kurdish songs at weddings were detained on charges of “spreading terrorist propaganda,” which the DEM party said showed “intolerance toward Kurdish identity and culture.”
Government officials said the songs were an expression of solidarity with the PKK and a threat to national unity.

SLOW PROGRESS
Turkiye’s ban on the Kurdish language was lifted in 1991. Seventeen years later, state broadcaster TRT began a Kurdish TV channel, which some Kurds boycotted and criticized as government propaganda.
Nevzat Yesilbagdan, 43, lives in Istanbul’s Bagcilar district with his family. He says three of his children’s requests to learn Kurdish have been denied by the school due to a lack of teachers or an insufficient number of students.
“Our main demand is to be educated in our mother tongue, but an optional course is an important step toward that goal.”
A study released by Rawest Research, a think tank focused on Kurdish issues, found in 2020 that only 30 percent of some 1,500 parents were aware of the optional Kurdish courses.
Ihsan Yildiz, 42, who works in the construction sector in Istanbul, said his 15-year-old daughter Meryem received no response to her request for Kurdish class from her Islamic Imam Hatip school. She then stopped asking.
His children understand some Kurdish but can’t read it.
“My mother who lives with us does not speak Turkish. I translate when my children talk to their grandmother. This is so sad.”


New militias sow future danger for war-weary Sudan

New militias sow future danger for war-weary Sudan
Updated 04 December 2024
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New militias sow future danger for war-weary Sudan

New militias sow future danger for war-weary Sudan
  • They established the so-called joint forces to fight on the army’s side, while other groups “wavered, before throwing their weight behind the RSF,” Hamrour said
  • Historically, though ethnic or tribal armed groups “may ally themselves with the regular army, they remain essentially independent,” according to Ameer Babiker, author of the book “Sudan’s Peace: A Quagmire of Militias and Irregular Armies”

CAIRO: Mohamed Idris, 27, has despaired of ever finding a job in war-torn Sudan. Instead, he’s now set his sights on a training camp on the Eritrean border, hoping to join a militia.
“I got my university degree but there aren’t any job opportunities, if I get into a training camp I can at least defend my country and my people,” he told AFP from Kassala in Sudan, the nearest city to the border.
Analysts say the growing role such militias and armed groups are playing in the war will only prolong the country’s suffering.
Sudan’s war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began in April 2023, sparking what the UN calls the world’s worst displacement crisis.
More than eight million people have been uprooted internally and more than three million have fled abroad.
The northeast African country is on the brink of famine, according to aid agencies, and a UN investigation found both sides committed rights abuses with the RSF particularly implicated in sexual violence.
In Sudan’s east, Kassala and Gedaref have so far been spared the chaos of war, but host more than a million people who have fled fighting elsewhere.
In both cities, AFP correspondents have seen convoys of four-wheel drives mounted with anti-aircraft weapons speed through the streets.
Each vehicle, blasting its horn as it went, was manned by a handful of young men waving assault rifles — though the nearest battles are hundreds of kilometers (miles) away.
The men, like Idris, are part of a generation who have lost their futures to the flames of Sudan’s war.

Now, they represent recruiting potential for new armed groups being formed, particularly along ethnic and tribal lines in the country’s army-controlled east.
“The forces I want to join are from my tribe and my family,” said Idris.
According to Sudanese analyst and former culture and information minister Faisal Mohammed Saleh, “these groups haven’t yet joined the fray in the current war.”
“But the fear is that they could be preparing for future rounds,” he told AFP.
Sudan, which has only known brief interludes of civilian rule since independence from Britain in 1956, is rife with armed groups, some with the capacity of small armies.
For decades, many were locked in wars with the central government, claiming to champion the rights of marginalized ethnic minorities or regions.
In 2020, most signed a peace agreement with the government in Khartoum, and several rebel leaders subsequently became senior officials in the government of army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan.
“In the first months of the war, many of these groups were neutral, but have since declared allegiance to the army,” Sudanese policy researcher Qusay Hamrour told AFP.
They established the so-called joint forces to fight on the army’s side, while other groups “wavered, before throwing their weight behind the RSF,” Hamrour said.
According to former information minister Saleh, “what’s new now is the eastern Sudanese groups, most of which are training inside Eritrea.”
Eyewitnesses told AFP earlier this year that they saw Sudanese fighters being trained in at least five locations in neighboring Eritrea, which has not commented on the allegations.
The witnesses said the camps were linked to Burhan’s army or to figures from the former Islamist-backed regime of ousted dictator Omar Al-Bashir.

Historically, though ethnic or tribal armed groups “may ally themselves with the regular army, they remain essentially independent,” according to Ameer Babiker, author of the book “Sudan’s Peace: A Quagmire of Militias and Irregular Armies.”
Khartoum has long relied on armed groups to fight its wars in other parts of Sudan.
In response to an uprising in Darfur in 2003, Bashir unleashed the Janjaweed militia, leading to war crimes charges against him and others.
The RSF, formalized by Bashir in 2013, are descended from the Janjaweed.
In 2021, army chief Burhan led a coup that derailed a fragile civilian transition that followed Bashir’s own ouster.
By April 2023, a long-running power struggle between Burhan and his deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, erupted into all-out war.
Now, what Babiker calls “the weakness of the Sudanese state” has compelled it to again to depend on militias to secure territory.
He said this strategy would “only lead to these groups growing stronger, making them impossible to bypass in the future.”
Already, there have emerged “multiple centers of decision-making within the army,” he told AFP.
According to a May report from the International Crisis Group think tank, “both main belligerents are struggling with command and control.”
Burhan, increasingly reliant on powers from the Bashir regime “as well as communal militias and other armed groups ... risks losing his hold on the various factions.”
Meanwhile the RSF is “an ever more motley assortment of tribal militias and warlords,” according to Crisis Group, which says that both wartime coalitions have become more unwieldy.