The Rapid Support Forces have begun steps to establish a security and intelligence agency to operate in areas under their control, Darfur24 reported on Sunday, citing three sources familiar with the move.
The development points to an effort by the RSF to consolidate administrative and security structures across territories it controls, particularly in Darfur and Kordofan, as Sudan’s war continues to deepen the country’s division into rival zones of authority.
The RSF controls most of Darfur, with the exception of Jebel Marra, Tawila and al-Tina, as well as West Kordofan and parts of South and North Kordofan, according to the report.
A military source told Darfur24 that RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, had since 2024 sought contact with several senior officers from Sudan’s General Intelligence Service who had maintained close ties with the RSF before the war.
The source said Dagalo asked them to help create an intelligence body tasked with gathering information in RSF-held territories.
“Senior RSF commanders advised Hemedti to train new officers and personnel for security work instead of relying on retired officers from Sudan’s ideologically shaped intelligence service,” the source was quoted as saying.
A second military source working at an RSF training centre said many personnel had undergone more than a year of advanced training at the Advanced Military Training Institute, located at the University of Nyala campus in the Musiya suburb. The training, which ended late last year, was intended to prepare them for intelligence and security duties.
The source said the trainees received advanced courses in security and information-gathering techniques from military and security experts.
A source in the RSF-linked founding council in Nyala also said a decision by Dagalo to formally launch the agency was expected once its mandate and powers were finalised.
The reported move carries historical significance. The RSF was originally formalised during the rule of Omar al-Bashir under Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service before later becoming a separate force with its own legal status.
Separately, two military sources told Darfur24 that the RSF had graduated a batch of soldiers trained in drone operations, electronic warfare, command and control systems by foreign experts in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur.
The sources said three RSF training drones, which were not carrying explosives, crashed in central Nyala in January.
Local residents also told Darfur24 that in early May they saw RSF drones taking off for three consecutive days from the direction of the University of Nyala in Musiya, flying west before returning.
The claims add to previous reporting on the RSF’s growing drone capacity. Reuters reported last year that satellite imagery and analysis by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab showed 13 long-range suicide drones and launch equipment near RSF-controlled Nyala airport in May 2025, marking a significant development in the group’s aerial capabilities.
The RSF and General al-Burhan’s SAF have been fighting since April 2023, in a war that has devastated Sudan, displaced millions and fuelled warnings that the country could face lasting fragmentation.
