Mubarak al-Fadil al-Mahdi, leader of a break-away faction of Sudan’s Umma Party, says hard-line Islamists inside the SAF—not General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s formal high command—ordered the 15 April 2023 assault on Rapid Support Forces (RSF) units at Khartoum’s Sports City, the clash that set off the current civil war.
In a post on X late Saturday, al-Fadil claimed the decision came from senior officers aligned with the outlawed National Congress Party (NCP) and the broader Islamic Movement, acting on directives from ex-regime power-brokers Ali Karti and Ali Osman Mohamed Taha. “They fired the first bullet,” he wrote, urging the UN to create an independent commission and send any perpetrators to the International Criminal Court.
Why it matters
- Narrative battle: Both SAF and RSF accuse each other of starting the war; a high-profile opposition figure blaming Islamist officers inside SAF adds a new wrinkle.
- Accountability push: An international inquiry could widen the list of individuals exposed to sanctions or prosecution.
- Political optics: Al-Fadil’s statement distances mainstream Umma factions from the Islamists many Sudanese blame for scuttling the 2019 transition.
The proposal for an international fact-finding panel has not been taken up by the UN or African Union, but rights groups say mounting evidence of war crimes on both sides makes a neutral investigation increasingly likely.
