Lieutenant General Yasir al-Atta told troops in Khartoum that the army would push into Darfur and Kordofan against what he called RSF mercenaries from South Sudan, Ethiopia, Colombia, northern Somalia and West Africa, and accused the UAE and Israel's Mossad of backing them.
Sudan's army chief of staff, Lieutenant General Yasir al-Atta, told troops in Khartoum on Sunday 1 November that the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) were advancing towards Darfur and Kordofan to fight what he called foreign mercenaries serving the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Sudan Tribune reported.
Claims about foreign fighters
"Unfortunately, there are tens of thousands of mercenaries from our sisterly country, South Sudan," al-Atta said, according to Radio Tamazuj. He also listed fighters from Chad, Libya, Niger, Ethiopia, Somalia, West Africa and Colombia. A summary of the speech posted by the SAF on X referred to fighters from "northern Somalia", without naming any administration or offering evidence, Somalia Today reported.
Some of these claims have a documentary basis; others do not. A UN Panel of Experts on South Sudan reported in 2024 that South Sudanese nationals had fought on both sides of Sudan's war, some voluntarily and some apparently forcibly recruited, without finding that they acted for the government in Juba. In September the UN Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan identified Bosaso, in Somalia's Puntland region, as a transit hub for weapons and foreign personnel bound for RSF areas. No evidence was offered for the figure of "tens of thousands", and neither the RSF nor Juba had commented by Sunday evening, Radio Tamazuj said.
Al-Atta also accused UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed and Israel's intelligence service of standing behind the RSF. "We are fighting to thwart the conspiracies of the state of evil and the project of the sons of Zayed and the Mossad," he said, as quoted by Sudan Tribune. The UAE denies arming the RSF and says it supports a ceasefire and humanitarian aid.
Reassurance to Darfur and Kordofan communities
Al-Atta said the campaign was "not against tribes or communities", naming the Rizeigat, Hawazma, Misseriya, Habbaniya, Beni Halba and Salamat, and said the army did not seek revenge. He said attacks on electricity infrastructure would not deter the army.
Context: The pledge comes as the army and allied forces have regained ground in Kordofan over the past three months. However, the RSF still controls most of Darfur, where the Tasis-led Government of Peace and Unity is based. Al-Atta himself was sentenced to life imprisonment by an Abu Dhabi appeals court on 29 October over an unlicensed scheme to supply the army with ammunition, according to the UAE news agency WAM; the judgment described him as the official responsible for armament. Assurances that whole communities will not be targeted will be judged against the army's record. In El Obeid, UN investigators recently documented mass detentions and torture of civilians accused of collaborating with the RSF.
Photo: Yasir al-Atta in a 2019 television interview. Ashorooq TV, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0.