The Free Lions Movement, an eastern Sudanese armed group led by TASIS Presidential Council member Mabrouk Mubarak Salim, has begun deploying fighters to battlefronts, marking a further expansion of military mobilisation among forces aligned with Sudan’s parallel government.
The deployment was announced on September 9 and amplified by the Rapid Support Forces through its official media channels, which published video footage describing Free Lions units as moving towards combat fronts.
Neither the RSF statement nor TASIS-linked media identified where the fighters were being sent, and there has been no independent confirmation of their destination, numbers or whether they have entered active combat.
The move is nevertheless significant because Salim is not only the long-time leader of the Free Lions but also a senior figure within the Founding Alliance, known as TASIS, which established a parallel administration in RSF-controlled areas.
Salim serves on the TASIS Presidential Council and has also been appointed governor of the eastern region under the alliance’s administrative structure.
His movement’s deployment therefore appears to represent another step in bringing constituent armed groups within the TASIS coalition into a more active military role.
The Free Lions emerged in eastern Sudan among members of the Rashaida community and fought the government of former president Omar al-Bashir as part of the Eastern Front alongside other armed movements.
The group was historically much smaller than Sudan’s major rebel organisations, but its fighters developed experience operating across the difficult terrain of eastern Sudan and border areas.
The latest deployment comes as TASIS has moved towards greater military coordination among its constituent forces.
Alliance officials have previously spoken of plans to establish a unified military command and general staff structure bringing together armed formations operating under the coalition.
That process is intended to eventually consolidate forces aligned with TASIS under a broader command framework, although the extent to which such integration has already taken place remains unclear.
The Free Lions announcement could therefore carry significance beyond the number of fighters involved.
For TASIS, the participation of an eastern Sudanese movement provides both military and political value as the alliance seeks to present itself as a coalition extending beyond the RSF’s traditional power base in Darfur.
TASIS includes armed and political actors from several regions of Sudan, including Darfur, Kordofan, Blue Nile and eastern Sudan.
The alliance has sought to portray its administration as a national alternative to the authorities based in Port Sudan, while its opponents accuse it of establishing a parallel state under RSF military dominance.
The Free Lions themselves have also been affected by factional divisions, and separate groups using the movement’s name have taken different political positions during Sudan’s war.
That makes it important to distinguish the force led by Salim, which is aligned with TASIS, from rival Free Lions factions whose loyalties have been less clear.
For now, there is no verified evidence that the latest deployment represents a major change in the military balance.
