Why Sudan's RSF should be designated a terrorist group

In November 2025, the rapid support forces militia stormed the city of El-Fashir, and in just a few days, thousands were killed and targeted based on their ethnic background. Before the tragic fall of the town, the militia besieged the city for 18 months; its residents were subjected to mass starvation, shelling, and water denial as a means to force the city to surrender.

This, however, is not an isolated case; The RSF has been consistently attacking civilians to advance its political interests in defeating the legitimate and recognised government in order to rule the country. These deliberate acts obviously fall under the definition of terrorism and demand that the world take immediate measures to designate the militia as a terrorist organisation.

Terrorising civilians

A conflict erupted in Sudan in April 2023 between the Sudanese National Army and the Rapid Support Forces militia. The consequences have been catastrophic, with thousands killed and millions of people forced from their homes.

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) were formed in 2013 as a restructured version of the infamous Janjaweed militia, intended to assist the Sudanese government in counterinsurgency operations in Darfur and South Kordofan. In 2017, the Sudanese parliament formally legalised the group's operations. Since then, the RSF has been widely accused of committing serious human rights abuses, including village burnings, protester killings, sexual violence, mass executions, arbitrary detentions, attacks on hospitals and religious sites, assaults on journalists and media organisations, ethnically motivated violence, and the use of child soldiers.

While there are several definitions of terrorism, most of them agree on the deliberate attacks on civilians and the political motivation behind them; in the case of the RSF militia, both conditions are satisfied.

In recent weeks, the RSF militia has conducted drone strikes against various civilian infrastructure throughout the country, such as power plants, civilian airports, oil facilities, Telecom and internet networks, as well as water dams that serve the whole country. The impact of these attacks has been devastating on the lives of citizens.

Mounting international pressure

The call for the designation of the militia has been rising; for instance, the recently adopted EU Council resolution on the escalation of the war and the humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan called on the council to trigger the process of adding the militia to the terrorist list after rigorously reviewing the substantial evidence.

US Congress is considering a proposal submitted by Senator Jim Risch, the head of the Foreign Relations Committee, requesting that the Department of State conduct an assessment to determine if the RSF militia meets the criteria for a foreign terrorist organisation. And an online petition requesting Congress to move on with the designation has now been signed by thousands. The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who has the legal authority to designate, showed his openness to take this step.

In November 2025, the Great Lakes Summit also approved a recommendation to classify the militia as a terrorist organisation.

The Sudanese government requested in several international forums for the classification of the militia. These efforts reflect the growing understanding of the brutal nature of the militia and the serious risk it poses to the stability of Sudan and the region.

In December 2025, I coordinated a letter addressed to the US secretary of State, signed by a group of civil society organisations, scholars, writers, and lawyers, calling for the immediate designation of the RSF militia as a terrorist organisation. To mitigate any harm from the designation of civilians in areas controlled by the militia, the letter requested that measures be taken to safeguard the provision of humanitarian assistance, as well as journalism, human rights work, and personal remittances.

Regional complicity

The designation of the militia is also a demand of Saudi Arabia, which became fully aware of the serious risk posed by the militia to both its national security and that of the region. The last drone attacks on Port Sudan, the strategic city located on the Red Sea and opposite the western coast of Saudi Arabia, show how far the militia is willing to go to destabilise Red Sea security to pursue its interests.

Moreover, the militia represents one of the UAE's military arms to reshape the entire Middle East to its own interests through proxy wars in Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen, undermining legitimate governments and advancing separatist plots. This vision for a totally new order to the region will come at the cost of significantly impacting the Saudi historical influence and interests.

To address all these concerns, the king of Saudi Arabia, Mohamed bin Salman, in his last meeting with President Trump last November, and as part of his overall plan to end the war in Sudan, acted pre-emptively and requested that the militia be designated as terrorist group.

Taking the step of the designation isn’t only symbolic, in that it will signal to the world that the militia is not welcomed and has no future, but also it will have practical and direct implications; it will legally prohibit any kind of financial or military support to the militia, which will significantly limit the capabilities of the militia to launch more attacks on civilians.

It’s time for the world to hold the RSF militia accountable and end its war on civilians. Other countries that are yet to initiate the designation process should realise the importance of this measure, as it sets an example for maintaining international peace, and should expeditiously follow suit.

Mohamed Suliman is a Sudanese writer based in Boston, USA. His recent work focuses on the RSF militia and its violations.

Follow Mohamed in X: @MuhammedKambal

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