The president and members of the Presidential Council for Sudan’s parallel government were sworn into office on Saturday, in a ceremony that revealed a fundamental change to the country’s official emblem.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF) move to form a parallel authority has drawn widespread regional and international condemnation. The African Union’s Peace and Security Council and the UN Security Council have both stated that they will not recognise the new body.

A video of the ceremony showed a modified version of Sudan’s national emblem, the Secretarybird. The new design places “Republic of Sudan” at the top and the motto “Freedom, Justice, Equality” at the bottom, with eight stars added to the bird’s centre. The original emblem features the motto “Victory is Ours” at the top and “Republic of Sudan” at the bottom.

The RSF commander, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, swore the constitutional oath before chief justice Ramadan Ibrahim Shamila in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, the council said in a statement.

The leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement–North (SPLM-N), Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, was sworn in as deputy head of the council, the statement added. He took the group’s “Sincere Declaration,” an oath of service to its principles of secularism and social justice.

Shamila serves as the chief justice in a civilian authority the SPLM-N established in areas it controls in the South Kordofan and Blue Nile regions.

Thirteen council members were sworn in. They include eight new regional governors: Al-Hadi Idris (Darfur), Jagoud Makwar (South Kordofan), Joseph Tuka (New Funj), Mohamed Mohamed Hamed (Kordofan), Salih Issa (Central), Mabrouk Mubarak Salim (Eastern), Abu al-Qasim al-Rasheed (Northern), and Faris al-Nour (Khartoum).

The other new members are Al-Tahir Hajar, Mohamed Yousef, Hamed Hamdeen, Abbas Ibrahim, and Khuloud Fathi.

The Tasis alliance, the political umbrella for the new authority, has agreed to a transitional constitution that provides for a secular state, the right to self-determination and decentralised government.

Hours before the ceremony, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) conducted a drone strike on positions in Nyala, which the new administration has designated as its headquarters.

The groups allied under the Tasis umbrella control most of the Darfur region and large parts of South and West Kordofan, as well as smaller pockets of territory in North Kordofan and Blue Nile.