The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has been locked in a brutal conflict with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) since April 2023, in a war that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and uprooted more than 12 million people. The war, initially sparked by disagreements over the integration of the RSF into the army, has torn the country apart, with the military now controlling eastern and northern Sudan and the RSF dominating western Darfur and large parts of the south. The RSF and its allies last month signed a “founding charter” of a breakaway government, in a further sign of the splintering of the country.

Signatories of the document intend to create a “government of peace and unity” in rebel-controlled areas, the AFP news agency reported. The African Union (AU) on Wednesday warned that the move posed “a huge risk of partitioning of the country”. It urged all of its member states, as well as the international community, “not to recognise any government or parallel entity aimed at partitioning … the Republic of Sudan or its institutions”. In a statement, it said the AU “does not recognise the so-called government or parallel entity in the Republic of Sudan”. Last Tuesday, the European Union also reiterated its commitment to the “unity and territorial integrity of Sudan”.

This follows a warning from the United Nations Security Council last week that expressed “grave concerns” over the “founding charter”, adding it could worsen an “already dire humanitarian situation”. The war in Sudan has upended the impoverished nation. UN rights chief Volker Turk last month warned that Sudan was “looking into the abyss” and that the country was facing the “biggest displacement crisis in the world”, with millions of people forced from their homes since fighting began. Meanwhile, nearly 25 million people are suffering from dire food insecurity, 600,000 of whom are “on the brink of starvation”, the UN recently warned.