Kenya faced sharp criticism from Sudan and domestic opponents on Wednesday for hosting Sudanese paramilitary rebels set to announce a rival government.
The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), locked in a nearly two-year war with Sudan’s army, plan to declare a government in areas under their control at an event in Nairobi on Friday, RSF sources told AFP.
Sudan’s foreign ministry, aligned with army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, condemned Kenya for permitting the gathering.
The move “promotes the dismembering of African states, violates their sovereignty, and interferes in their internal affairs,” the ministry said in a statement.
Kenyan President William Ruto also came under heavy fire at home.
“What Ruto is doing is a reckless abandonment of the traditional caution and dignified approach to Kenyan diplomacy,” said Mukhisa Kituyi, a Kenyan politician and former UN Trade and Development secretary-general.
He accused Ruto of “trying to legitimise a criminal gang that has been dismembering people,” calling the move “criminally irresponsible.”
Since April 2023, the war between the Sudanese army and RSF has killed tens of thousands, displaced over 12 million, and triggered the world’s worst hunger and refugee crisis.
The conflict has divided Sudan, with the army controlling the east and north while the RSF dominates nearly all of western Darfur and large parts of the south.
The army has recently reclaimed major cities and most of the capital, Khartoum.
The RSF’s move to sign a charter with allied political groups is seen as an effort to solidify its grip on Darfur, effectively deepening Sudan’s fragmentation.
The paramilitary group has been accused of mass ethnic killings, sexual violence, and other human rights abuses in its territories.
In January, the United States determined the RSF had committed genocide in Darfur and imposed sanctions on its leader, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, as well as army chief Burhan, for war crimes.
Sudan’s foreign ministry accused Kenya of “endorsing (the RSF’s) atrocities and being complicit in them” by allowing the event to proceed.
Initially planned for Tuesday at Nairobi’s state-owned Kenyatta International Convention Centre, the event was postponed to Friday.
Daglo, who has largely remained out of public view during the war, has arrived in Kenya and is expected to attend, organizers told AFP.
Kenya has historically hosted key regional peace negotiations, including Sudan’s 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended a previous civil war.
However, a Refugees International lawyer argued that Kenya’s decision to host the RSF “shatters” its diplomatic reputation.
“This is bottom-of-the-barrel diplomatic stuff that you cannot come back from,” Abdullahi Boru Halakhe told AFP, describing the move as “genocide-washing.”
