Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and allies have signed a charter that paved the way for the establishment of a parallel government, as Sudan’s army made advances recently against the rival groups.

The war in Sudan has killed more than 24,000 people and driven over 14 million people — about 30% of the population — from their homes, according to the United Nations. An estimated 3.2 million Sudanese have escaped to neighboring countries.

The RSF has seized most of the western Darfur region and swathes of the Kordofan region in an almost-two-year war, but is being pushed back from central Sudan by the Sudanese army.

The RSF has seized most of the western Darfur region and swathes of the Kordofan region in an almost-two-year war, but it is being pushed back from central Sudan by the Sudanese army, which has condemned the formation of a parallel government.

Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied political and armed groups have signed a charter to establish a parallel government, in a move that risks deepening the country’s fragmentation amid a nearly two-year civil war. The agreement, signed late on Saturday in Kenya, aims to create a “government of peace and unity.”