RSF

• Over the past three decades, Alexandria has strategically and methodically created the highest-quality life science assets concentrated in high-barrier-to-entry markets and built the leading infrastructure platform for the life science industry.
• The company's execution of its multifaceted platform of internal and external growth continues to drive outstanding long-term total stockholder return (TSR).
• Alexandria's strong and timely execution of its strategic value harvesting and asset recycling program to raise accretive capital has demonstrated continuing solid demand for scarce, high-quality life science assets.
• Affiliates of Alexandria recently completed the sale of five non-core, non-mega campus properties aggregating 428,663 RSF in the Greater Boston market to affiliates of TPG Real Estate Partners.

• That may sound puzzling in the context of the current violence: what are the police doing in the middle of this?
• By consolidating territory over several decades, this created what became Sudan: a colony built by armed force.
• While colonial states always tended to be violent, Sudan was particularly fierce in imposing central control on a large and diverse population.

Mostly ruled by soldiers

• Sudan has been mostly ruled by soldiers since 1956: in 1958, 1969 and 1989, military coups overthrew shortlived civilian governments.
• Every time, soldiers continued to wield much power.
• That process looks cyclical: soldiers kept defying the authority of civilian politicians.
• The long-running wars with rebels encouraged that process – Sudan’s rulers recruited militia who would fight insurgents on the cheap, but who could also support them against insubordinate soldiers.

Money talks – so do guns

• In the end, this increasingly messy and splintered array of armed groups could not save Bashir.
• When popular anger against his rule seemed unstoppable in 2019, both the SAF and RSF turned against him and Bashir was pushed out of office.
• But by that time, there were too many armed groups for any stable transition to be agreed.
• So, even if Sudan’s untamed soldiers could be reconciled, it is hard to see how they would be brought under civilian control.

• According to the World Health Organization, more than 330 people have been killed over the past week.
• Now, with reports emerging that arms are being sent from Egypt and Libya, there are growing fears the situation could develop into a civil war that could draw in regional powers.
• The RSF began as a militia movement, the Janjaweed, comprising fighters from Darfur in the west of Sudan.

Paramilitary power brokers

• Far from being a short-term Sudanese problem, this conflict between two rival centres of military power illustrates a common long-term problem in Africa.
• Likewise in Zimbabwe the “green bombers” acted as a virtual private army for former Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe as he fought to hold on to power.
• These paramilitary militias are typically used for a wide range of activities including political or party-based violence, or as a counterweight to formal armed forces if they are perceived as a potential threat.

Adding mercenaries to the mix

• These groups are frequently allied to other mercenary organisations that may provide fighters, training or some command and control.
• The arrival of Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group in Mali, and South African firm Dyck Advisory Group (DAG) in Mozambique has recently shed light on a new wave of mercenary activity across the continent.
• Now it is apparently active in Sudan as well, where it has been accused of using gold from Meroe, north of Khartoum, to boost Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.

Pot of gold

• Shortly afterwards a new gold-mining company, Meroe Gold, began operating in Sudan, Africa’s third-largest gold producer.
• After al-Bashir’s ousting in 2019, Wagner’s main focus has reportedly been on Sudan’s gold mining operations.
• Days later, according to a CNN investigation published in July, an aircraft loaded with gold flew from Sudan to Russia’s military base at Latakia in Syria.
• CNN estimated that around 90% of Sudan’s gold production worth an estimated US$13.4 billion (£10.8 billion) has allegedly been smuggled out this way.

Sudan is in crisis. Fighting continues between Sudan’s military leader, Abdelfattah Al-Burhan, and his deputy on Sudan’s ruling council, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagolo, who commands the paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Moina Spooner, from The Conversation Africa, asked Sudan historian and conflict expert Tsega Etefa to unpack what led to this eruption in violence and provide insights into who the RSF are.

What’s at the centre of the conflict?

• Al-Bashir was ousted following widespread public protests which started in 2018 over the cost of bread.
• These eventually challenged his entire regime, which had been in place for over 30 years.
• Along with the army, the paramilitary force played a key role in the removal of al-Bashir.
• A Sovereign Council, made up of civilian and military factions, was established as an interim government.

Who are the Rapid Support Forces and how did they get to be so powerful?

• The government’s plan was to establish a well-trained, well-equipped, and centrally integrated security force that could be deployed against threats to its regime.
• Hemedti, an Abbala Arab of the Hemedti clan, was selected by al-Bashir as the leader.
• The great majority of Rapid Support Forces personnel are Darfurians, many were picked by Hemedti.
• The targeting of civilians to eliminate support base for the rebels has become the hallmark of their activities.

Is the power of the Rapid Support Forces a cause for concern?

• The Janjaweed militia originated in the mid-1980s when there was a collapse of law and order in the Darfur region.
• Darfurians began to arm themselves, forming militias for protection though they largely operated to grab land and restock lost animals.
• The Rapid Support Forces should be disbanded and its members be given the option of joining the army or police – or returning to civilian life.
• The paramilitary group’s history of brutality and impunity suggests that the increase in its activities will drive instability in Sudan.
• A new political framework agreement is needed that is inclusive and that has the trust and support of Sudanese people.