FILE PHOTO: Deputy head of Sudan's sovereign council General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo speaks during a press conference at Rapid Support Forces head quarter in Khartoum, Sudan February 19, 2023. REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/File Photo
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(Reuters) -A Sudanese coalition led by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces announced on Saturday the members of a parallel government, a move opposed by the army, its rival in a 27-month war that could drive the country further towards partition.
RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo was announced head of the presidential council, while Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, head of the SPLM-N, one of the country's largest rebel groups, was made his deputy on a 15-member council.
Mohamed Hassan al-Taishi, a civilian politician, was named prime minister, and regional governors were announced in a press conference from Nyala, the largest city in the Darfur region which the RSF controls most of.
The Sudanese army has pushed the paramilitaries out of the center of the country, while deadly fighting rages over the center-west Kordofan region and Darfur's traditional capital of al-Fashir.
In February, the RSF and its allied politicians and rebel groups agreed to form a government for a secular "New Sudan," aiming to challenge the army-led administration's legitimacy and secure advanced arms imports. The government announced on Saturday includes governors for regions of the country firmly controlled by the army.
The military led by career army officer General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had condemned the idea of the RSF creating a parallel government and promised to keep fighting until it controls all of Sudan, which has for years been plagued by conflicts, coups, poverty and hunger.
Dagalo, a former militia leader and one of Sudan's wealthiest people, known as Hemedti, was hit with sanctions by the U.S., which accused him of genocide earlier this year.
Burhan was sanctioned in January by the U.S., which accused him of choosing war over negotiations to bring an end to the conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people.
The two men had previously shared power after veteran autocrat Omar al-Bashir's ouster in 2019. However, a 2021 coup by the two forces ousted civilian politicians, sparking a war over troop integration during a planned transition to democracy.
The army has in recent weeks appointed a prime minister and permanent cabinet members for the first time since 2021.
The ongoing conflict has devastated Sudan, creating an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in the country, with half the population facing spreading hunger and famine, according to the United Nations.
(Reporting by Khalid Abdelaziz and Nafisa Eltahir; Writing by Nafisa Eltahir and Jana Choukeir; Editing by Michael Georgy and Daniel Wallis)
