Thread by @daniel_van0

🧵 Pan-Arabism and Chadian-Sudanese unionism within the Rapid Support Forces ranks.

The first four videos that I'll share were uploaded in the past three weeks by a Chadian RSF supporter and possible fighter (tiktok: zdan_27taoit). 1/n

It's a common practice on TikTok for users to share videos of themselves watching and reacting to other videos. Here the RSF supporter watches a speech by Gaddafi espousing pan-Arabism. /2

Gaddafi played a role in the history of Darfur by promoting an organization called the Arab Gathering, which historians have identified as a predecessor of the Janjaweed militias that became the RSF.

Below, a crudely edited montage of RSF slogans, Hemedti's voice, & music. /3

Also from TikTok, this video juxtaposes an image of RSF leader Hemedti (with the Khartoum skyline in the background) with a video of Chadian Arabs holding a flag that says, "The Arabs." The narrator praises RSF and Hemedti and says their message is "from the nation of Chad." /4

More innocuously, this video from a confirmed RSF fighter succinctly encapsulates the dual national identities of some of Hemedti's fighters. The video says, “Aisha Al Jabal or Zanzoun, Chad or Sudan?” comparing a Sudanese singer to a Chadian influencer (uploaded 2/2/23). /5

The fighter indicates he prefers the Chadian influencer but the Sudanese flag, though clearly he appreciates both. Having dual national identities comes naturally to some nomadic peoples, such as those straddling the Chad/Sudan border. Here's the same man seen in Khartoum. /6

7/ Racist screed by a Hemedti supporter who identifies himself as being from Chad and Niger but says that in reality Sudan, Chad, and Niger are one. He says he will fight with Hemedti forever.

8/ In a tweet pre-dating the war, a RSF soldier wrote about a "champion of Juhayna Chad line” (a reference to Rizeigat tribe), adding, “Long live the struggle of the Arab people." He included flags of 🇸🇩, Chad, Niger, Libya. In the comments he said, "We do not recognize borders."

9/ As I wrote in another thread, this same account promotes a warrior culture and the cultural superiority of “the sons of the desert.” Assertions of cultural superiority of nomadic Arabs over their sedentary Sudanese brethren and non-Arabs are an implicit part of RSF propaganda.

10/ The TikTok account "6ahmed207" features a similar mix of cultural content and military propaganda. The user, a current or former RSF soldier, uses the hashtag “Arabs of Sudan and Chad” on many of his videos (#عرب_السودان_وتشاد). tiktok.com/@6ahmed207

11/ Notably, the RSF soldier tagged several videos with both “Rapid Support” and the names of Darfur Arab tribes, underscoring that for him, tribal identity and the militia’s identity are intertwined. Even cultural videos with no military content were tagged "Rapid Support."

12/ The pro-RSF account refers to the nomadic Arabs of Chad and Darfur as the “red line (lineage)” (خط أحمر). Overall it posted 78 videos since December 2022, the contents of which demonstrate an obsessive preoccupation with race and tribe.

13/ One very odd video highlights the racial anxieties of this particular fighter, as well as the contradictions inherent in the Sahelian Arab Supremacist project of the RSF. It begins with a red flag that says “The Arabs,” with eagle & sword symbols, and a picture of the user.

14/ The text below the flag says, "The Arabs are a red line." The video then cuts immediately to a pile of shit, accompanied by a fart noise, followed by a cut to a photo of the RSF fighter pointing to a darker-skinned fellow tribesman.

15/ The video could be interpreted multiple ways. I interpret it as explicitly racist. Here's the full video. (For background, not all Sudanese nomadic Arabs are light-skinned. Some are very dark).

16/ At this point, a reminder that this is a thread about Arabism and Chadian-Sudanese unionism within the Rapid Support Forces ranks. This thread touches on very sensitive questions of identity and culture. Many others consider these matters too difficult to discuss.
🕊️ 🧕🏾👨🏿‍🦳🧒🏿

17/ However, I believe that racism in any society ultimately fuels injustice and conflict and should not be ignored, especially when killing and raping is happening on a racial basis.

https://twitter.com/daniel_van0/status/1658571564282007569

18/ In my opinion, too many observers are focused on the idea that the Sudan conflict is a “power struggle” between two leaders and factions of the same regime. While this is generally true, it ignores or downplays the unfortunate ethnic dimensions of the current conflict.

19/ Think tanks, analysts & media, especially Western ones, are comfortable talking about power, kleptocracy, clientalism. They aren't comfortable talking about ethnicity. So they embraced a "political marketplace" a framework for understanding Sudan that became popular recently.

20/ That framework is valid and important. But it ought not to crowd out the obvious and very uncomfortable truth, namely, that the conflict has spiraled into ethnic violence.

https://twitter.com/daniel_van0/status/1659970757965889538

21/ For background, RSF has a predominantly Western Sudanese orientation and power base. Basically it is Sahelian, based in Darfur with strong Chad and Libya ties, whereas SAF's power base historically is the Nile Valley and East.

22/ If Hemedti takes power in Sudan, his regime would fundamentally differ from prior dictatorships built upon the colonial foundation, army, and civil service centered in Nile valley.

23/ Hemedti's Sudan would be, in effect, a Sahelian emirate built upon clientism and tribal ties. Centered in Darfur, it would exert influence or control east to the Nile Valley, west into Chad, north into Libya, and south into the Bahr al Ghazal region of South Sudan.

24/ When I say "emirate," I do not necessarily mean that Hemedti would abandon the trappings of republican democracy. But there are those among his followers who already call him, literally, "emir."

Below: "May God protect the prince (emir) of the country, founder of modern 🇸🇩."

25/ Needless to say, not every Darfur Arab or Chadian Arab supports Hemedti’s project & the RSF, even though the RSF espouses an Arab Supremacist ideology. An example of this was in Nyala last week when tribal leaders, including Darfur Arabs renounced war: facebook.com/madibu1/posts/…