The Zaghawa Community in the Kas locality of Sudan’s South Darfur State has denied information circulating in the area that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has threatened to kick them out of the city within 72 hours.

This is amidst unending armed conflicts between the RSF, primarily composed of Arab tribes, and the Justice and Equality Movement and Sudan Liberation Movement led by Minni Minnawi which comprise many members of the Zaghawa ethnicity.

Ithar Khalil, the daughter of Khalil Ibrahim, the founder of the Justice and Equality Movement, tweeted on her official Facebook page that several leaders of the Zaghawa tribe were subjected to arrest because of their ethnicity by the RSF intelligence in Kas before both the RSF and Kas tribes agreed to expel the Zaghawa community from the city.

Hashim Abu Al-Bashar, acting on behalf of the Zaghawa tribal prince in Kas, Abdullah Yusuf, stated that the information about the expulsion of the Zaghawa is baseless.

“The Zaghawa are an integral part of the Kas tribal unity and they have pledged to peaceful coexistence among all tribes in the locality," he said. “Following the spread of this information, we convened at the residence of the Kas tribal prince in the presence of RSF leaders and the administrative authority of Kas locality to find out that all the information is mere rumors spread by those with ulterior motives."

Meanwhile, Mubarak Zakaria Eltoum, the head of the Zaghawa Council, said that any information circulated on social media is rumors and warned RSF leaders that the Zaghawa, as an entity, has no involvement in political or military organizations. He said the community members are free to choose to join the armed movements or the RSF.

"In Kas, Shattaya, and the areas of Jebel Marra, 64 tribes have agreed to peaceful coexistence and work towards resolving their specific issues through agreed-upon means," he clarified.

On his part, a teacher in the Kas area, Anwar Ahmed, denied the validity of the information circulating on social media platforms, indicating that not everything on those platforms is necessarily true.

“It must be understood by everyone that what is written is not necessarily true,” he highlighted. “All that happened is that we had a specific session with the Kas locality administration aimed at clarifying some regional issues."