Is Sudan's RSF next target on Trump's hit list?

In a dramatic Christmas Day military intervention, US President Donald Trump announced that he had directed a “powerful and deadly strike” against an ISIS-affiliated terrorist faction in northwest Nigeria.

The operation, which Trump claimed targeted jihadists slaughtering “innocent Christians,” has sent shockwaves across Africa and sparked intense speculation about the next potential target of America’s counter-terrorism war.

While Nigeria and Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are now in focus because of their direct influence on the plight of Christian communities, the attack brings the issue of religious persecution closer home to East Africa.

Their struggle, and their refuge in Kenya, brings into focus the conflict Trump vows to confront.

Meanwhile, Kenya's delicate diplomatic dance with Sudan's warring factions, particularly the RSF, adds a complex layer to regional security matters.

The announcement came via Trump’s social media platform. He stated that the operation was in retaliation for the killings of Christians “at levels not seen for many years, and even centuries!” He warned the terrorists weeks earlier that “there would be hell to pay.”

“The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing,” Trump’s statement read.

US media identified the target as the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). Reuters cited a security source within the Nigerian military who confirmed the strikes. “The Americans took out a key command node,” the source said.

Trump's stark focus on the defence of Christians highlights a grim reality much closer to home.

The RSF has been implicated in a series of horrific atrocities against non-Muslims in Sudan, particularly Christians, with documented incidents spanning several years and locations.

Their actions have drawn widespread condemnation from international human rights organisations, the United Nations, and governments around the world.

Between April and November 2023, the RSF, alongside allied militias, carried out systematic attacks in El Geneina, West Darfur, targeting the ethnic Massalit and other Christians.

The assaults resulted in the deaths of thousands and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.

Witnesses reported door-to-door executions, mass killings, and the deliberate destruction of homes and places of worship, leaving entire communities in ruins.

In May 2023, RSF fighters stormed the Mar Girgis (St George’s) Coptic Church complex in Khartoum’s Bahri area, killing five members of the clergy and looting church property, including a gold cross.

This attack was part of a broader pattern of targeting Christian religious sites and their congregants.

Between April and October 2025, the RSF’s siege of El Fasher escalated into one of the most brutal chapters of the conflict.

Reports from the Sudanese government and humanitarian organisations indicate that at least 2,000 civilians were killed during the RSF takeover, with credible accounts of extrajudicial killings, door-to-door raids, and sexual violence against women and girls.

Survivors described scenes of horror, with RSF fighters executing patients and staff inside the city’s last functioning hospital.

Satellite imagery analysis by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab suggested that tens of thousands of bodies were disposed of through mass burials and incineration to cover up the scale of the killings.

Estimates of the total death toll from the El Fasher massacre range from 60,000 to more than 68,000.

The RSF has also been accused of using starvation as a tool of warfare, deliberately depriving civilians of food, medicine, and relief supplies — actions that amount to crimes against humanity under international law.

Survivors have recounted being forced to flee their homes, with many dying from hunger and lack of medical care during displacement.

RSF, now courted and accommodated in Nairobi, may find itself in the US crosshairs. The paramilitary group has established a significant and controversial political operation in Nairobi, leveraging Kenya’s capital as a key hub for diplomacy, lobbying, and media relations.

This presence, which analysts describe as a de facto parallel government, has been cultivated with direct access to the highest levels of Kenyan leadership, raising questions about Nairobi’s diplomatic balancing act in the region’s conflicts.

RSF’s legitimacy in Nairobi was visibly cemented on May 27, 2024, when its commander, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, popularly known as “Hemedti,” was received at State House by President William Ruto.

Official photographs showed a warm handshake and meeting — a stark visual that circulated globally.

Following the talks, State House issued a statement saying President Ruto had urged “the warring parties in Sudan to commit to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.”

However, when pressed by journalists the next day, May 28, on the optics of hosting a leader implicated in atrocities, Ruto defended the engagement.

“We must talk to everyone involved if we are to silence the guns,” he said at a press briefing. “Our role as a regional leader is not to judge but to facilitate peace. If we only speak to those we like, there will be no peace in Sudan or in our region.”

Beyond the photo opportunity, the RSF has constructed a full-scale political office in Nairobi. Operating from upmarket locations, this apparatus functions as the group’s international face, far from the battlefields of Darfur and Khartoum.

A CNN investigation in August 2024 detailed the mass killing of Massalit men and the destruction of villages — acts that directly mirror the “slaughtering” Trump condemned in Nigeria.

The strategic threat that elevates the RSF is its alliance with the Russian Wagner Group, a US adversary.

Amani el-Tayeb, a Horn of Africa security analyst quoted by Al Jazeera, says: “The RSF-Wagner nexus in a destabilised Sudan creates a perfect funnel for arms, funds, and potentially extremist ideology. It creates a new sanctuary, much like Somalia has for Al-Shabaab, but with state-level military resources.

“Kenya’s engagement is pragmatic diplomacy, but in Washington, it is the RSF’s actions and alliances that are being tallied.”

Across the border in nearby Somalia, Christians are also under threat.

In Somalia, a country with a deeply ingrained Sunni Muslim identity, the tiny and secretive Christian community faces existential threats.

Professing Christianity is punishable by death under some interpretations of Sharia law, and the Al-Shabaab militant group actively hunts suspected converts.

The atrocities are well documented. In June 2023, gunmen believed to be Al-Shabaab shot dead Mohamed Ahmed Bakay, accused of converting to Christianity, at his home in Mogadishu’s Daynile district.

Months later, Al-Shabaab publicly executed Mahad Ahmed in Jilib, accusing him of spying and professing the Christian faith.

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom has long listed Somalia as a “country of particular concern,” reporting targeted killings and beheadings of converts.

Fleeing this relentless persecution, Somali Christian leaders and activists have found sanctuary in Kenya.

On November 12, 2024, during an interfaith dialogue forum in Nairobi, Principal Secretary for Foreign Affairs Korir Sing’oei reiterated Kenya’s commitment to protecting all persons and promoting religious freedom as a fundamental human right.

“Kenya stands as a beacon of peaceful co-existence. We will protect the vulnerable and advocate for their rights everywhere,” he said.

For Dr el-Tayeb, the thread connecting Nigeria, Somalia, and Sudan is clear: ungoverned spaces and militant groups that commit mass atrocities while enabling international terrorist networks.

Kenya finds itself at the centre of this storm — a safe haven for victims, a diplomatic stage for perpetrators, and a key ally for a global power now flexing its military muscle.

“The pattern is Somalia–Al-Shabaab, Nigeria–ISWAP, Sudan–RSF/Wagner. Each represents a node of instability that can export violence,” el-Tayeb says.

“The strike in Nigeria is a return to a doctrine of preemption. The question is whether diplomatic engagements in Nairobi can alter the trajectory of these groups before the US comes for them.”

As Trump’s statement declared, “there will be many more dead terrorists if slaughter continues.