RSF Launches Major Security Sweep In Nyala

Nyala, August 18, 2026 - The Rapid Support Forces launched its largest security and military mobilization in Nyala since taking control of South Darfur's capital, seeking to reassert command in a city central to its parallel administration.

Heavily armed special forces and elite units deployed across major roads, key intersections, administrative headquarters, and checkpoints. Armored vehicles conducted rigorous searches early Tuesday at major intersections across the city.

The campaign follows worsening insecurity, including armed robberies in markets and residential areas, kidnappings of merchants and local leaders for ransom, ethnically motivated violence, and tight restrictions on Starlink satellite communications.

Local accounts indicate the operation was ordered by RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, to restore discipline and confiscate more than 300 unregistered combat vehicles. Dagalo is widely believed to be in Nyala after recent public appearances at field hospitals and with wounded personnel.

For investors and aid planners, the move underscores Nyala's strategic role in RSF-held western Sudan, while highlighting the risks of fragmented command, insecurity, and communications constraints in Darfur.