War-torn Sudan appears one step closer to breaking up. Last weekend, a Sudanese coalition led by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced the establishment of a rival government in Darfur.

The announcement had been widely expected after the RSF — which holds nearly all of the Darfur region and parts of the south — and other armed groups had formed the Sudan Founding Alliance (TASIS) in March. At the time, the alliance said it would soon establish a "Government of Peace and Unity" in areas under its control.

But now, the newly formed "Transitional Peace Government" with RSF leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo as president claims to have jurisdiction over all of Sudan.

In a statement, TASIS said it was committed "to build[ing] an inclusive homeland and a new, secular, democratic, decentralized, and voluntarily unified Sudan founded on the principles of freedom, justice, and equality."

Unsurprisingly, the internationally recognized government under the leadership of General Abdel-Fattah Burhan and Prime Minister Kamil al-Taib Idris — who control the capital, Khartoum, along with the north, east and center of the country — has swiftly rejected the rival administration as "artificial construct" and "illegitimate entity."

The African Union with its 55 member states also said it would not recognize a "so-called parallel government" in Sudan.

The AU pointed out that the establishment of the new government "has serious consequences on the peace efforts and the existential future of the country."

Similarly, the UN has warned that the existence of the new administration could deepen Sudan's fragmentation and complicate........

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