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A senior commander in Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced Tuesday that he had defected to the Sudanese army, ending approximately 13 years of service with the group, local media reported on the social media platform X.
Lt. Gen. Khalid Nour al-Daim Bireish, a former Sudanese army officer, declared his allegiance to the military after holding senior administrative, security and operational positions within the RSF, according to the local news outlet Sudanese Echo.
Bireish joined the RSF in 2013 with the rank of brigadier general as part of a group of professional army officers recruited to help establish the paramilitary organization’s administrative and military structures.
On June 11, the Tasis platform reported that RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti, had promoted Bireish from major general to lieutenant general, according to Sudanese Echo.
His departure marks the latest in a series of defections by senior RSF commanders amid the group's continuing conflict with the Sudanese army.
There was no immediate comment from the RSF on the reported defection.
On Nov. 2, the Sudanese army announced that a group of RSF members had defected and surrendered to its 4th Infantry Division in Damazin, the capital of southeastern Blue Nile state.
The army said the group included a commander who provided information about RSF military operations in the area.
On Oct. 8, RSF Special Tasks Group commander Lt. Col. Mohammed Azraq al-Fanjari announced his defection along with 300 officers and soldiers and 30 combat vehicles.
In August, Maj. Gen. al-Nour Ahmed Adam, known as al-Nour al-Gubba, and Brig. Gen. Ali Rizgallah, known as al-Savna, also defected to the army, the outlet reported.
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Sudan has been engulfed in fighting between the army and the RSF since April 2023, when a power struggle between the two forces escalated into open warfare, killing thousands of people and displacing millions.
Sudan’s army-affiliated government has welcomed a series of high-level defections from the RSF that have reshaped alliances and strengthened the military, Reuters reported earlier.
The war, now in its fourth year, has produced the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and the RSF seized el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, in October 2025 after a siege of about 500 days.
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