In a covert operation, a force of around 280 fighters, including field commanders, arrived in Khartoum on July 23, 2026, after breaking away from areas controlled by the RSF militia and declaring their allegiance to the Sudanese army.

According to the Global Legal Action Network, this action marks the very first legal complaint brought outside of Sudan against members of the RSF militia.

The transformations unfolding across Darfur under the expanding influence of the UAE-backed RSF are no longer confined to shifting front lines in the militia’s war against the Sudanese army; they are reaching into the region's political and social fabric.

The defection of Major General al-Nour Ahmed Adam al-Qubba, one of the most prominent field commanders in the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), marks one of the most significant breaks yet inside the UAE-backed militia.

The remote Benishangul-Gumuz region in western Ethiopia has quietly become a strategic UAE-backed base training thousands of fighters for Sudan’s RSF militias, with logistics, equipment, and instructors flowing directly from Abu Dhabi.