RSF Atrocities, US Connections: The Darfur Story They Don't Link Up
The story correctly identifies the RSF as a brutal paramilitary force, morphed from the Janjaweed militia, responsible for massacres and ethnic cleansing. What's omitted? The US State Department, under President George W. Bush, initially engaged with Janjaweed leaders like Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo ('Hemedti') in the mid-2000s, attempting to leverage them against Al-Qaeda in the region. This
realpolitik created a veneer of legitimacy for figures now deemed genocidal, a detail rarely mentioned when condemning their current actions. One might wonder if official engagement then somehow 'legitimized' the monster they are now fighting. Furthermore, the RSF later received significant funding and training from regional powers, some of whom are close US allies, eager for their services in
proxy wars. To condemn the RSF now without acknowledging this complex, often self-serving history, or the broader geopolitical chessboard that empowered them, feels like a convenient erasure. How many 'atrocity-accused' groups were once, however tacitly, considered partners by global powers?