Rhino: Agencies – Sudan’s army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan on Monday appointed former UN official Kamel Idris as the country’s new prime minister, after more than two years of brutal war with rival paramilitary forces.

The move comes as Sudan remains divided between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), with no clear path to peace. It is unclear how much power Idris will have in a military-dominated government.

Idris, a career diplomat and former presidential candidate, served as director general of the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and worked at Sudan’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations.

Idris ran for president in 2010 against longtime ousted President Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted in a popular uprising in 2019.

Idris replaces acting Prime Minister Daffaalla al-Hajj Ali, who took office less than three weeks after his appointment in late April.

War broke out in Sudan in April 2023 between Burhan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by his former deputy, General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. The conflict has killed tens of thousands, displaced more than 13 million people, and caused what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Burhan said he intends to form a wartime technocratic government to help achieve military objectives, including “liberating Sudan from these rebels.”

In April, the RSF announced it would form a peace government after signing a pact in Kenya with allied political and military factions.

The conflict has effectively split the country, with the army controlling the north, east and center, while the RSF controls almost all of Darfur and, along with its allies, parts of the south.