Sudan: the RSF’s currency offensive to split the country (yet again)

NAIROBI – The aim is to widen the rift between the two Sudans: the one under the control of the regular forces and the de facto state established by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries. The effect is likely to be more symbolic than substantial, although it adds an element of chaos to the country’s increasingly precarious situation. According to reports by the Reuters news agency and local media, the RSF began circulating freshly printed Sudanese pounds a few weeks ago, which are outside the control of the Central Bank of Khartoum.

The move has formalised a new dividing line across the country, the third largest in Africa, now split down the middle between a south-west under the control of paramilitary groups and a central-north-east – including the capital, Khartoum, and its Central Bank of Sudan – governed by the military administration: the only one recognised by the international community, although the RSF administration maintains its network of international relations and is seeking to consolidate its position as an alternative administration to that led by the army.

Sudan’s political and currency split

Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a war that broke out between the regular army and the RSF paramilitary forces, led respectively by General Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman al-Burhan and his counterpart Mohammed Dagalo, known as ‘Hemetti’. The conflict has resulted in what the United Nations classifies as one of the worst humanitarian crises on a global scale, with the current toll standing at over 12 million people displaced either within the country or abroad, and a total death toll that varies depending on the estimates: a US-sourced figure from 2024 put the death toll at 150,000, whilst figures released two years later raised the figure to nearly 400,000. Hostilities between the two factions broke out in Khartoum and spread to the rest of the country, culminating in the declaration of an independent administration under the control of the RSF: the so-called Tasi government, officially known as the Sudan Founding Alliance, which was unilaterally declared an independent state in early 2025, hostile to the old establishment in Khartoum.

The currency dispute has been ongoing since the start of the Sudanese war, increasing the pressure on an economy already ravaged by the conflict and a currency whose value has plummeted against the dollar. In 2024, the regular army itself ‘declared obsolete’ the old Sudanese pound, triggering the issue of banknotes in denominations of 500 and 1,000 pounds. The RSF has contested their validity, contributing to a cash shortage confirmed to Reuters by several witnesses in areas of the country under the militia’s control. Now, the introduction of the pound of so-called ‘Darfunistan’ – as the RSF refer to their own administration – represents an attempt to respond and assert their legitimacy in the currency sphere as well. The introduction of a de facto alternative currency “risks exacerbating the fragmentation of Sudan, but there are obvious practical limitations”, says geopolitical analyst Luciano Pollichieni.