Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized control of the town of Mustariha in North Darfur state on Monday, dislodging forces loyal to prominent tribal leader Musa Hilal, according to eyewitnesses.
The takeover followed a day of drone strikes that paved the way for a ground assault, culminating in the RSF’s full control of the town, which Hilal had held while aligning himself with the Sudanese army.
Witnesses said large RSF units attacked Mustariha early Monday, overwhelming Hilal’s fighters, who withdrew to multiple locations. Hilal’s whereabouts remain unknown.
Hilal leads the Mahamid clan, a branch of the Rizeigat tribe, the same broader tribe as RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti. While Dagalo hails from the Mahariya branch, relations between the two men have deteriorated sharply in recent years.
The capture of Mustariha comes amid escalating tensions between Hilal and RSF leadership. In a speech delivered days earlier in the town, Hilal accused RSF deputy commander Abdel Rahim Dagalo of attempting to fracture the Mahamid clan by fueling internal divisions with money and weapons.
Hilal publicly denounced the RSF as a “gang and mercenary militia” and reaffirmed his full support for SAF and its commander, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
Hilal rose to prominence during the Darfur conflict that erupted in 2003 and is widely regarded as a founding figure of the Janjaweed militias, which were accused of widespread atrocities while fighting rebel movements under the former regime of Omar al-Bashir.
He has been accused of war crimes related to those operations and was sanctioned by the UN Security Council, including travel bans and asset freezes. The conflict resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths and massive displacement, prompting the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants against Bashir and senior officials.
Following the creation of the RSF under Dagalo, rivalry emerged between the two men. Bashir ultimately backed Dagalo, prompting Hilal to refuse integration into the RSF and instead form his own armed group, the Revolutionary Awakening Council.
Clashes between Hilal’s forces and the RSF in 2017 ended in his defeat, arrest, and a four-year prison sentence handed down by a military court. He was released under a presidential pardon in March 2021, after Bashir’s overthrow in 2019.
After war broke out between the SAF and the RSF in April 2023, Hilal initially remained neutral in Mustariha. Roughly a year later, he openly aligned with the SAF, framing the conflict as a national cause.
“I stand with Abdel Fattah al-Burhan for the sake of the army, the military institution, and the country that is being destroyed,” Hilal said at the time. “This is my conviction, and I impose it on no one.”
Analysts say his alignment with the SAF is driven in part by a desire for retribution against Dagalo over his earlier defeat, imprisonment, and humiliation following his break with Bashir’s government.
