Sudan Nashra: Idris carries his ‘peace initiative’ to Munich | Cabinet, TSC clash over executive powers | Leader of Darfur’s Mahamid tribe calls for unity conference as rift with RSF deepens | Military, RSF exchange drone strikes, civilian casualties mount

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As Prime Minister Kamel Idris continues his European tour pitching his roadmap to end the war — one that amounts to a civilian repackaging of the military’s demands — a public tug-of-war over executive powers has been unfolding back home.

Idris and Transitional Sovereignty Council member Ibrahim Gaber,  who also serves as the military’s assistant commander-in-chief, have traded direct and indirect statements over authority and chains of command. At the heart of the dispute, however, is the Gaber-led committee tasked with preparing Khartoum for the return of residents and state institutions — a committee that has allowed Gaber to retain sway over portfolios overlapping with Idris’s remit since mid-2025, government sources told Mada Masr.

Idris, whose Cabinet formation had been marred by TSC interference, viewed the committee’s growing reach as the TSC continuing to muscle in on executive territory, according to a ministerial source.

Pushing back against the committee and Gaber, Idris barred ministers from engaging with committees not chaired by TSC head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan without his approval and overturned decisions deemed to be the product of sovereign pressure.

The power contest in Khartoum unfolds as truce proposals advocating an all-Sudanese political process multiply and new actors reposition themselves to take advantage of a political landscape in flux.

Speaking to his supporters in his stronghold in North Darfur, Musa Hilal, the military-aligned leader of Darfur’s Mahamid tribe and head of the Sudanese Awakening Revolutionary Council armed group, said he is planning to organize his tribal base into a political project that would secure the tribe’s place in Sudan’s political arena while unifying its security structure to deter aggression.

His call comes amid an escalation in his long-standing  feud with the RSF leadership heightened in recent weeks after accusations that he was implicated in the killing of an RSF senior advisor in East Darfur in January. Addressing crowds gathered around him in the Mostariha area, Hilal accused the RSF of inciting Mahamid members allied with the paramilitary group against their traditional leadership and attempting to dismantle the tribe’s structure.

A former intelligence official said the conflict, between Hilal and RSF Commander Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo and his brother and deputy commander Abdel Rahim, reflects a deeper contest over legitimacy and leadership within Darfur. At the same time, a Mahamid source said that Hilal, a long-time ally of the military, could sway RSF-aligned Mahamid leaders, threatening the RSF’s social base on which it depends for recruitment and mobilization.

As these strategic and political calculations play out, civilians continue to bear the brunt of the protracted war. This week, the military and the RSF traded drone attacks, with strikes from both sides hitting civilian areas, leaving dozens dead and injured in Darfur, Kordofan, Blue Nile and Sennar.

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Idris carries ‘peace initiative’ to Munich

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Prime Minister Kamel Idris once more held up his roadmap to end the war as the only viable framework, insisting that Khartoum has yet to receive or approve “any concrete proposal.”

“Ceasefire in itself is not an end,” he said, arguing that it has to be connected to other arrangements, such as the “relocation of militias” that should be “banned under international law,” referring to RSF elements he described as “a combination of militias and mercenaries.” 

Idris’s initiative ultimately rests on the military establishment’s core demands, including the withdrawal and disarmament of the RSF.

Responding to a question about Sudan’s stance toward the UAE, a member of the US-led Quad on Sudan and the main RSF backer, Idris said Khartoum is prepared to open a negotiating track with Abu Dhabi on the condition that the Gulf country stops providing weapons and assistance to the RSF. “Once they stop, we can enter serious talks,” he said.

A government source said mediation efforts between Sudan and the UAE have never fully ceased since the outbreak of the war, despite a public war of words between the two sides and Khartoum’s repeated filings against Abu Dhabi in international courts.

Idris commended the peace efforts led by United States President Donald Trump, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, saying that his roadmap “complements those efforts.”

A source in the Transitional Sovereignty Council said that Khartoum is particularly attentive to the Saudi-US initiative, viewing it as a counterweight to the risk of unilateral US sanctions.

Boulos, who had announced earlier this month a new truce proposal in the making, has recently floated the possibility of new sanctions in Sudan “if need be.”

A former government official told Mada Masr last week that TSC Chair and military Commander-in-Chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, in seeking to appease his military bloc, “will not concede on the conditions laid down by the military, even if that leads to major sanctions against him.” 

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Cabinet, TSC clash over executive powers

Tensions between Prime Minister Kamel Idris and Transitional Sovereignty Council member and Assistant Commander-in-Chief Ibrahim Gaber spilled into public view over the past week, as both sides traded a series of public statements and administrative decisions.

Gaber accused the Cabinet Affairs Ministry of financial misconduct, while Idris restricted ministers’ engagement with TSC committees, a move one of the sources who spoke to Mada Masr described as a swipe at the one led by Gaber.

Sources in the government said that at the core of the dispute is that very committee, formed in July last year and tasked with preparing Khartoum for the return of citizens and government institutions.

The committee, the sources said, has effectively preserved a share of the executive influence Gaber wielded prior to Idris’s appointment, at a moment when Idris has been moving to consolidate his authority and delineate executive decision-making. Though reports of dissolving the committee have circulated, no formal step has been taken.

A ministerial source said Gaber had been one of the most prominent overseers of productive ministries and key economic and service portfolios. His direct ties to the military establishment, coupled with his involvement in energy, infrastructure and reconstruction files, afforded him considerable influence within executive circles, the source said. That gave Gaber a tangible presence in the day-to-day workings of government. 

According to the source, Idris’s appointment in May 2025 brought renewed attention to the far-reaching transfer of executive influence to the TSC after the 2021 coup, which continues to play out through joint committees.

It was in this context that the Khartoum return committee emerged. 

“The committee monopolized all powers, sidelining not only [Khartoum State’s] government, but also federal authorities,” Emam al-Hilu, the head of the National Umma Party’s policy committee, previously told Mada Masr.

Since its formation, the Gaber-led committee issued several sovereign decisions, assuming sweeping authority over planning and services in the capital. It oversaw the repositioning of state institutions in a process laden with administrative, security and symbolic implications.

But Idris, whose months-long Cabinet formation process, concluded in August, was marred by TSC interference and who has in recent months taken forceful steps to shore up his political standing amid mounting scrutiny of his government’s performance, viewed the committee’s increasingly intrusive directives as a deepening of of TSC influence within the executive branch, according to the ministerial source.

Last week, Idris issued a directive barring any minister from meeting with any committee not chaired by Burhan except with direct permission from Idris himself — a move a source at the Cabinet Affairs Ministry said was widely interpreted as targeting the Gaber-led committee.

The source said the decision, though not framed in escalatory language, carried a clear message: to recalibrate channels of communication between ministers and committees, and to confine institutional legitimacy to two frameworks only — the premiership and the chairmanship of the TSC.

The directive coincided with a public exchange over lease contracts for the irrigation and foreign affairs ministries. Gaber accused the Cabinet Affairs Ministry of contracting in US dollars amid a severe economic crisis, while defending the committee he leads as a supervisory body that neither managed nor disbursed funds. The ministry denied the claim, asserting that the agreements were concluded in Sudanese pounds.

The exchange was interpreted as part of a broader tug-of-war over who controls the return-to-Khartoum file and, by extension, the reins of executive decision-making, according to the ministerial source.

A former advisor to the transitional government said Idris is aware that his premiership has been being tested from the outset, and that his legitimacy will be measured by his ability to carve out executive authority in a system shaped by years of centralized military power. “The repositioning of the state in Khartoum represents a test of the prime minister’s ability to assert centrality in decision-making,” the advisor said, “particularly in the face of figures who have accumulated influence within the administrative apparatus.”

Last week, TSC member Salma Abdel Gabbar tried to pressure an official in Khartoum’s state-owned land administration into lifting a freeze on a plot of land belonging to her father. The official refused, which led to his suspension by the administration’s management. However, Idris intervened to reinstate him on February 11 during an inspection visit to the administration, where he stressed the need to uphold the law and prevent conflicts of interest, according to the Cabinet Affairs Ministry source.

According to a source close to the premiership, Idris was keen to project himself as a defender of institutional norms against political influence, including that of TSC members. The message, the source said, was twofold: no one is above due process, and the executive branch is the final authority in administrative disputes.

A source close to the TSC insists that the demands of the moment require such interference from the TSC. According to the source, the council is not seeking to curtail the prime minister’s powers, but rather to exercise an oversight role dictated by the nature of the current phase, particularly amid security and economic challenges.

Still, a former ministerial source said, the proliferation of committees and overlapping mandates has created a murky landscape that has allowed certain individuals to expand their influence within the administrative system.

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Leader of Darfur’s Mahamid tribe calls for unity conference as rift with RSF deepens

Addressing supporters on Saturday in Mostariha, his stronghold in North Darfur, Musa Hilal, the military-aligned leader of Darfur’s Mahamid tribe and head of the Sudanese Awakening Revolutionary Council armed group, said he plans to organize his constituency into a political project to secure the tribe’s place in Sudan’s political arena while unifying its security structure “to deter aggression.”

Hilal accused the RSF of turning segments of the Mahamid against their traditional leadership and attempting to dismantle the tribe’s structure by luring members with cash and arms.

He said that he has been pressured to join the RSF’s project or face death — an ultimatum he dismissed as “political ignorance.”

Tensions between Hilal and the RSF leadership spiked in early January after a drone strike in East Darfur killed Hemedti’s first security advisor Hamed Abu Bakr, along with several field commanders. In the aftermath, prominent RSF figures directly accused Hilal and his son, Fathy, of involvement in the attack, a Mahamid source close to Hilal said.

Fearing the accusations could trigger intra-tribal violence, over 40 tribal leaders and elders in North Darfur convened a committee to investigate, but they ultimately found no evidence implicating Hilal, according to the source.

Despite the upheaval, Hilal has continued to strike a cautious tone.

In Mostariha, he pledged not to initiate hostilities against the RSF, even as he reaffirmed loyalty to the military. He warned, however, that he stood ready to respond to any attack on his strongholds in North Darfur as the RSF looks to cement control over all of Darfur after the seismic fall of its capital, Fasher, in October. 

A relative of Hilal said this stance reflects an effort to position himself as a defensive actor seeking to protect tribal influence without being drawn into a full-scale confrontation that could ignite fighting among Arab tribes.

During his speech, Hilal announced plans to convene a conference within a month to unify the Mahamid politically and militarily under the umbrella of the Sudanese Awakening Revolutionary Council. He urged those he described as “misled” to return to what he framed as a project of unity — one that would establish a political party that would not be limited to the Mahamid. Security cohesion, meanwhile, would ensure protection against aggression, he said.

Another Mahamid source in North Darfur said that Hilal’s speech and the rising tensions with the RSF cannot be understood without considering the complex history between Hilal and his longstanding rivals — Hemedti and his brother, RSF deputy commander Abdel Rahim Dagalo.

According to the source, Hilal’s enduring tribal authority among the Mahamid, particularly in North Darfur, gives him leverage over loyalty dynamics within the very social base on which the RSF depends for recruitment and mobilization.

With Hilal openly aligned with the military since 2023, he could influence RSF-aligned tribal leaders to reconsider their backing, at a time when the paramilitary group is locked in a protracted war of attrition and facing mounting domestic and international pressure, the source said.

Superseding strategic influence is the symbolic dimension of the rivalry, according to the source. Hilal represents the “traditional leader,” who views Hemedti as having moved beyond tribal frameworks into a cross-tribal military-political project. To Hemedti’s camp, Hilal is a symbol of a bygone era, no longer able to control the new balances of power, the source said.

A former official in the General Intelligence Service said the conflict between Hilal and Hemedti is a deeper contest over legitimacy and leadership within Darfur, and over who speaks for the region’s Arab tribes at a moment when power balances are shifting. If the military manages to push through Kordofan toward Darfur, the source added, Hilal, a military ally, could emerge as a key figure around whom Darfuri Arab tribes rally.

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Military, RSF exchange drone strikes, civilian casualties mount

The military and the RSF traded drone attacks this week, with strikes from both sides hitting civilian areas, leaving dozens dead and injured.

On Sunday, drones linked to the military carried out repeated strikes on RSF fuel tankers and combat vehicles inside a market in the border area of Adikong, near Chad, according to a former Sudanese official based in the Chadian border town of Adre.

The strikes caused fires and sent traders fleeing, the source said. Twenty-one individuals were injured, three of them critically.

An RSF officer described the Adikong attack as part of a campaign that has also targeted the Naam market near the South Sudan border earlier this month, alongside repeated attacks on commercial trucks from Libya. According to the officer, the aim is to halt trade flows and besiege cities under RSF control by cutting off goods. Civilians, they said, are bearing the consequences.

The same day, the military said its drones destroyed an RSF air defense system in the Abu Zabad area of West Kordofan, inflicting heavy losses in personnel and equipment.

The strike followed a series of operations last week targeting RSF drone and air defense sites in Debeibat in South Kordofan and South Darfur’s Nyala, a military source told Mada Masr. According to the source, the military has acquired new technology enabling strategic drones to conduct precision strikes, which they described as a qualitative shift in the war.

Over the week, the RSF also stepped up drone operations in North Kordofan, Sennar and Blue Nile.

On Tuesday, the group’s drones struck residential neighborhoods in the North Kordofani town of Rahad, killing three civilians and wounding others, a community notable told Mada Masr. Six drones targeted the nearby village of Ardeiba the previous day, though no casualties were reported. RSF drones also struck the town’s public transport station and an electricity distribution transformer, knocking it out of service, according to the source.

In Sennar, an RSF drone strike on a hospital in Mazmum on Sunday killed three people and injured seven, including medical staff, according to the Sudan Doctors Network.

In Blue Nile, RSF drones struck the headquarters of the humanitarian Kalsotium organization in Bakori, Qeisan locality, on Sunday, a local government official said.

Ground clashes in the state have eased after the military repelled RSF advances in Bau and Kurmuk last week, according to the official.

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