General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, at a ceremony to sign the framework agreement between military rulers and civilian powers in Khartoum, Sudan on Dec. 5, 2022. Dagalo is commander of Sudan's Rapid Support Forces, which began fighting the Sudanese army on Saturday.EL TAYEB SIDDIG/Reuters
The man at the centre of Sudan’s latest chaos is a former camel trader who rose to great wealth and power from his roots in the notorious Janjaweed militia that terrorized Darfur two decades ago.
General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known in Sudan by his nickname Hemedti (Little Mohamed), is the commander of the Rapid Support Forces, a sprawling militia force with an estimated 100,000 members and vast holdings of gold mines, trading companies and commercial property across the country. For years he thrived on alliances with Sudan’s army, ascending to become deputy leader of Sudan’s military regime – but now he is battling that same military in a violent feud that has convulsed the country.
The fighting that erupted on Saturday between the army and the RSF has already killed scores of civilians in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to more than a dozen towns and cities across Sudan, destroying buildings and leaving hospitals crowded with dead and wounded as artillery and tank fire crashes into densely populated neighbourhoods.
A patient is being carried into a hospital in Khartoum on April 17.Ashraf Idriss/The Associated Press
Gen. Dagalo’s ambitions have extended far from his remote rural origins as a school dropout in a camel-herding clan in the Darfur region of western Sudan. Today he has forged relationships with key foreign powers, including Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. He sent 15,000 of his troops to Yemen to support a Saudi-led intervention, generating substantial revenue for his forces. He has links to the Russian mercenaries of the Wagner Group and the powerful military of neighbouring Eritrea.
Now, however, he may have finally overreached. After capturing several bases and strategic buildings at the beginning of the fighting, the RSF is losing control of many of its gains. Its arsenal of Toyota pickup trucks and Kalashnikov rifles is highly mobile and agile, but it is outgunned by the military’s tanks and warplanes.
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In Khartoum, many RSF fighters are turning to urban warfare, seizing houses in residential neighbourhoods and establishing sniper posts. But the RSF faces the threat of being pushed back to its Darfur stronghold, losing its share of political power in Khartoum. General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the military chief who is Sudan’s de facto ruler, has denounced Gen. Dagalo as a mutineer who will be tried in court.
In a possible sign that he is desperate for foreign help, Gen. Dagalo issued a statement on Twitter on Monday, portraying himself as a friend of democracy and an enemy of religious extremism. He called on the international community to “take action” against Gen. al-Burhan, whom he denounced as “a radical Islamist who is bombing civilians from the air.” He added: “We are fighting against radical Islamists who hope to keep Sudan isolated and in the dark, and far removed from democracy. … The fight that we are waging now is the price of democracy.”
Few Sudanese believe his claims to be a democrat. But he has long had an interest in public-relations campaigns and political spin on the international stage. In 2019, The Globe and Mail revealed how Gen. Dagalo had signed a deal with Canadian lobbying firm Dickens & Madson in an attempt to polish the image of Sudan’s military regime. The contract promised a US$6-million payment to the Canadian lobbyists. “We shall use our best efforts to ensure favourable international as well as Sudanese media coverage for you,” the lobbying firm promised in the contract.
The image-polishing and lobbying efforts are an attempt to cover up the grim reality of Gen. Dagalo’s history. In the early 2000s, with support from Sudan’s military, he was a local commander in the Janjaweed, the brutal militia that became infamous for atrocities and massacres against rebels in Darfur. Its fighters torched entire villages in their assaults. In 2013, the militia was officially renamed the Rapid Support Forces, but it continued to perpetrate atrocities in the Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile regions. Human-rights groups have alleged that the RSF committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in its operations.
In 2019, after moving into Khartoum, the RSF was instrumental in crushing a protest by pro-democracy activists. In an assault on the protesters on June 3, 2019, the RSF killed an estimated 120 people and injured 900, destroying the protest camp. In recent years, the militia has continued to launch attacks in Darfur, killing hundreds of people and forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes.
An Il-76 transport aircraft burned at the Khartoum International Airport on April 17, in this handout satellite image courtesy of Maxar Technologies.HANDOUT/AFP/Getty Images
The RSF was allied with Sudan’s army in launching a coup in 2019 to topple the long-ruling dictator Omar al-Bashir and replace him with a military-led junta. They were united again in another coup in 2021 to extend the regime’s control of the country. But the army, after using the RSF as an attack force for many years, eventually realized that it might have created a monster.
“Bashir created something that neither he nor anyone else in the government, including the regular army, could control,” said Nicholas Coghlan, a former Canadian ambassador to Sudan.
“Hemedti grew in influence and power. He acquired gold-mining interests in Darfur, which – as the economy went into free-fall starting four years ago – have given him even more clout.”
Tensions between the RSF and military began to escalate, especially after the regime signed an agreement with civilian leaders in December to form a civilian-led government and hold elections. The RSF was to be integrated into the Sudanese military, under civilian oversight. But while Gen. Dagalo reportedly wanted a 10-year transition, Gen. al-Burhan insisted on just two years.
As the friction escalated, Gen. Dagalo began to portray himself as an ally of the civilians and the democracy movement. The pro-democracy groups, however, have refused to support either side in the fighting, recognizing both sides as long-standing foes of civilian rule.
Sudan's Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, second left, and paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, left, attend the signing ceremony of an initial deal with civilian leaders aimed at ending a deep crisis caused by last year's military coup, in Khartoum, on Dec. 5, 2022.ASHRAF SHAZLY/AFP/Getty Images
Four years ago, the pro-democracy protesters were the heroes of a street revolution. Months of courageous protests put such pressure on Mr. al-Bashir that he was ousted from office. But this only led to a military takeover, and the protests have continued regularly since then, with tens of thousands of people filling the streets and often clashing with security forces that have killed dozens of them.
Now they find themselves on the sidelines of a power struggle within Sudan’s military junta. Most civilians are simply trying to survive the destruction and bloodshed that the RSF and army have unleashed.
“Virtually none of the civilian population has any stake in the fight,” Mr. Coghlan told The Globe. “Neither side is more legitimate than the other, and there is no reason to believe either one offers a better prospect than the other for peace, stability and democracy.”
But the longer the fighting continues, he said, the greater the danger that the two sides will seek to recruit civilians on ethnic or tribal grounds. They could offer power or weapons to local groups to gain their support. Or they could try to recruit military help from external powers such as Egypt, the Gulf states, Ethiopia or Eritrea. This, in turn, could lead to civil war.
Geoffrey York