The Rapid Support Forces have announced a new civilian administration for Khartoum state, describing it as a body meant to fill a wartime governance vacuum and oversee basic services in territory under its control.
According to the evidence supplied by Dabanga Sudan, the RSF-backed Civilian Foundress Council in Khartoum elected Professor Abdellatif El Hasan as head of the state’s new civil administration and chose Professor Nayel Babikr as president of the 90-member council. The council includes representatives from localities across Khartoum, Omdurman and Khartoum North, along with figures from youth groups, women’s groups, professional associations, Sufi orders and native administration structures.
The account says the council will serve as the legislative body for the state, issuing legislation and overseeing the executive body led by the administration head. Babikr said at the ceremony that the war had created a severe vacuum in basic services and that the administration would work to provide humanitarian aid and essential services. El Hasan said the new leadership sided with oppressed civilians and intended to restore security and community peace, while urging professionals, technicians and workers in greater Khartoum to return to work.
The RSF-linked leaders also used the announcement to call for a halt to the war. El Hasan appealed to residents to speak out against the fighting and urged both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF to return to negotiations. He said the combatants should respect international humanitarian law and avoid attacking hospitals, markets, houses of worship and civilian gatherings.
The announcement comes against the backdrop of a war that has left the RSF in control of much of Khartoum and large parts of western and central Sudan. The evidence says the group had already set up civilian administrations in other areas it controls and had threatened last year to create a genuine civilian authority with Khartoum as capital.
The ceremony itself was presented by RSF officials as proof of local civilian participation rather than direct command by the paramilitary group. Col Hasan El Turabi of the RSF Guidance Department called it a historic session and said the RSF had not interfered, but would support and protect the new administration so it could carry out its work.
The broader significance is political as well as administrative. Khartoum remains a symbolically important capital, and the move adds another layer to a conflict that has already produced rival centers of authority. It also places humanitarian concerns at the center of a political project launched under wartime conditions, with the new leadership explicitly framing itself as an emergency response to hunger, disease and disrupted public services.
For now, the announcement is less a sign of a settled political order than an attempt to formalize one side’s control over daily life in a capital region still shaped by combat and displacement.
