The leader of the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Force (RSF) Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo or Hemedy tonight accused Egypt of being involved in the airstrikes against his soldiers.

In his video message, Hamedi said that Egyptian warplanes were dropping American-made bombs on Sudan. “If the Americans had not agreed, these bombs would not have reached Sudan,” he said. It also claimed that Cairo is training and supplying drones to the Sudanese army, with which the RSF has been fighting since spring 2023, in a bloody civil war.

Hemendi called all RSF soldiers to report to their units.

Egypt’s foreign ministry was not immediately available for comment.

Although Egypt is seen as closer to Sudan’s military and its leader, the country’s de facto leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Cairo is also trying, along with the US and Saudi Arabia, to mediate the crisis. Earlier this year it hosted talks between rival political parties.

In his speech, Hemmedi also claimed that mercenaries from Eritrea, Azerbaijan, Ukraine and Tigray, Ethiopia are in the country and repeated the accusation that Iranians are participating in the war, alongside the army.

Recently, the army has made some progress in the capital Khartoum and Shenar State in the southeast, where Hemedi says Egyptian strikes against the RSF have forced his troops to retreat from the strategic Jebel Moya area.

In this message there was a change in tone compared to his previous announcements, where he appeared to support peace efforts. “The war will not end in two, three, four years. Some are talking about a million soldiers and soon we will reach a million,” he said.

The war in Sudan has caused widespread famine and nearly 10 million people have been displaced. There are also reports of ethnically motivated violence, mostly blamed on the RSF.