Senior RSF Brigadier General El Safana Announces Defection — Third High-Profile Departure in Two Months

Brigadier General Ali Rizqallah, widely known by his nom de guerre 'El Safana' (also rendered 'Al-Savanna'), announced his formal departure from the Rapid Support Forces on May 11, 2026, in a video circulated on social media. He stated: 'Today, Monday, May 11, 2026, I announce my total departure from the (Rapid) Support Forces,' describing his alignment as being 'with the Sudanese people' while declining to specify which entity, if any, he had joined. According to The National, El Safana had escaped from RSF-controlled Darfur to Khartoum by deceiving superiors about his destination and evading multiple RSF checkpoints. El Safana commanded Unit 296, which had been redeployed from the fiercely contested El Fasher front to West Kordofan. He has a complicated history with the RSF — he was arrested alongside tribal leader Musa Hilal in 2017 and remained detained until the 2023 civil war began, after which he joined RSF formations. Earlier audio recordings from within the RSF had revealed his complaints about unequal resource distribution, difficulty securing medical treatment abroad for wounded fighters, and chronic shortages of vehicles and fuel — internal grievances that provide context for his decision. His defection is the third senior departure from RSF leadership since 2024, following Major General Al-Nour Al-Qubba, who joined SAF in April 2026, and was sentenced to death in absentia by an RSF tribunal. The RSF has moved to contain the damage by releasing videos of other commanders in El Safana's former unit reaffirming loyalty to the paramilitary force. Analyst Osman Al Mirghany noted that such defections require months of careful preparation given tribal considerations and retaliation risks. The clustering of defections — including multiple commanders with links to Musa Hilal's network — suggests growing RSF internal fractures beyond isolated individual decisions.