Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (Hamidati), commander of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, said his conflict was with military leaders clinging to power, and not with the army. “We are against anyone who wants to be a dictator,” he told RSF troops at a military base in the capital of Khartoum. In his speech, Dagalo played down any tensions between his forces and the military as an institution. “There is no problem between the military and the Rapid Support (Forces),” he told cheering RSF troops. “We want to achieve a true democratic transition. We want this country to rise.” The dispute between Dagalo and other military generals has escalated in recent weeks. “Any party we ask to support Sudan, it tells us: after the formation of the civilian government,” he said. Sudan was plunged into chaos after a military coup in October 2021, stalling its short-lived transition to democracy after nearly three decades of autocratic rule under President Omar al-Bashir. The coup came more than two years after a popular uprising forced the removal of al-Bashir and his government in April 2019.