Identity in flux : tracing the rapid support forces' evolutionary path

Abstract

On April 15, 2023, armed conflict erupted between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the rival paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The RSF finds its origins in the Janjaweed militia, one of the militia groups created under the Sudanese government’s “militia strategy” and the main perpetrator of the Darfur conflict in the early 2000s. Formative to the assembling of these militias and the perpetration of their activities was the government’s manipulation of threats which at the surface level of the conflict appeared to be on the basis of ethnicity and race. Similarly, the actions of the RSF have been considered with this narrative of ethnic based conflict. This paper will look at the factors that have historically influenced the formation of militia identity as well as the unique factors that have contributed to the evolution of the RSF’s identity through historical process tracing as well as the assessment of the RSF’s self-descriptions and media statements. This paper will show potential factors that have shifted the boundaries of identity through the legitimization of their institution and an intergroup struggle for power with the SAF.