UAE's transport hub for mercenaries in Libya, Yemen - UAE requested multiple stopovers across Sudan

Article from The New Arab

Date: Friday, 26 July, 2019

Sudan 'UAE's transport hub' for mercenaries in Libya, Yemen: report

Photo: The UAE requested multiple stopovers for 'passengers and cargo' across Sudan [Getty]

The UAE has used Sudanese airspace and ports for the transportation of hundreds of mercenaries fighting in conflicts in Libya and Yemen via Eritrea, according to leaked official documents published by Al Jazeera's Arabic-language site.

The report further confirmed the widespread use of mercenary fighters by the Gulf country in its various conflicts across the region.

The news coincides with reports that 1,000 Sudanese mercenaries arrived in Libya on Thursday [25 July], charged with protecting oil facilities under General Khalifa Haftar's control, in order for the Libyan warlord to focus his troops' efforts on the battle to take Tripoli.

The UAE, along with Egypt, support General Haftar and have supplied his militia alliance - known as the Libyan National Army (LNA) - with military aid including anti-aircraft missiles, ammunition and night sighting devices.

One of the documents, a letter from the Emirati embassy in Khartoum to the Sudanese foreign ministry, reveals Abu Dhabi requested a diplomatic permit for two military transport planes to cross the country and land at El Geneina airport in Darfur, western Sudan.

The same letter stated that the planes were carrying "passengers from the Sudanese forces" and requested to carry out the stop between the 1 and 30 June.

The letter also revealed the planes were flying from and departing to Assab in Eritrea, where an Emirati base used for operations in Yemen's Hodeidah is situated.

In another letter, the embassy requested diplomatic permits for two military planes to land at Khartoum airport to transport "passengers and cargo" from the Sudanese capital to Kharouba airport, also known as Khadim airport, on LNA-controlled territory in Libya, also used as an Emirati military base. 

The route also included Abu Dhabi and Cairo airports, and requested the stopovers between 25 and 26 May.

Al Jazeera also alleges that Hemedti, the commander of Sudan's Rapid Support Forces Militia, has recruited some 450 mercenaries from Arab tribes in Darfur, Chad and Niger, requesting they are "light-skinned" and "speak Arabic", citing confidential sources.

Upon UN-backed government forces retaking the Libyan town of Gharyan from Haftar's LNA, videos purported to show captured mercenaries from Chad having been recruited by the Emirati-backed warlord.

View the original article here: https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2019/7/26/sudan-uaes-transport-hub-for-mercenaries-in-libya-yemen

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وثائق ومصادر خاصة للجزيرة نت.. طائرات عسكرية إماراتية تستخدم مطارات السودان وحميدتي يجند مرتزقة لأبو ظبي https://t.co/rBQOE6eHIU

— zahran shakkah (@zahranshakkah) 24 July 2019

To visit the above tweet click here: https://twitter.com/zahranshakkah/status/1154063080810266624

and the source Al Jazeera here: https://www.aljazeera.net/news/politics/2019/7/24/السودان-الإمارات-استخدام-أجواء-السودان-مهام-عسكرية-حميدتي

Sudan militia chief Hemeti hires Canadian lobbying group for $6m to influence US, Russia, Saudia Arabia, UN, AU, Libya in favour of TMC

Article from The Financial Times.com

By TOM WILSON in London 

Published at FT.com on Sunday 20 June 2019

Sudan militia chief hires Canadian lobbying group for $6m

US filings show boom in such contracts between N American outfits and African governments

Photo: Soldiers wait for the arrival of Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo before a meeting in Aprag village, 60 km from Khartoum, Sudan © Reuters

A feared militia commander in Sudan has hired a Canadian lobbying group he hopes will secure a public meeting with US president Donald Trump, support from Libya’s military leader and free wheat from Russia in return for an upfront fee of $6m

The consultancy agreement, signed in May by Montreal-based Dickens & Madson and Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo of Sudan’s ruling military council, was published on June 17 by the US Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. It is the latest in a series of eye-catching lobbying contracts between North American companies and authoritarian African governments.s military leader and free wheat from Russia in return for an upfront fee of $6m.

For decades, lobbying outfits have served the interests of US businesses and foreign governments willing to pay for introductions and influence. Those companies are expanding their services, promising not only access in Washington but also mediation and dealmaking with third-party governments all over the world.

Matthew Page, a former Department of State official, said lobbying contracts between Washington groups and African states were proliferating because there was a belief that the Trump White House was more susceptible to external influence than previous administrations.

“This is a reflection of the changed political realities in Washington where the dynamics within the Trump administration are fundamentally different in terms of influence peddling,” Mr Page, who is now an associate fellow at Chatham House, a UK think-tank, said. “African governments have always had these types of lobbying firms helping them out but in the Trump era these firms can be more effective.”

Foreign governments, individuals and companies spent almost $1bn on US lobbyists in 2017, according to figures compiled by the Washington-based website OpenSecrets.org, a non-profit organisation which tracks money in US politics.

Services rendered have included securing press coverage for Cameroon’s 82-year-old autocrat Paul Biya, defending officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo from targeted sanctions or blocking the investigation of war crimes in South Sudan.

In Sudan, Dickens & Madson said they would attempt to influence US policy in favour of the transitional military council and help secure funding and equipment for the Sudanese army.

Lt Gen Hamdan and his fellow military officers seized power in April, toppling Omar al-Bashir, a long-term US enemy, following months of government protests. After promising to hand power to civilian rulers, the generals have demurred and in June turned their guns on the people, killing more than 100 civilians in a night-time raid on a pro-democracy sit-in.

The lobbying contract was signed on May 7, before the raid. But even then, Dickens & Madson faced an uphill battle to build US confidence in Lt-Gen Hamdan. Better known as Hemeti, the soldier who is second-in-command in the transitional military council and Sudan’s de facto leader, rose to national prominence as the head of a feared paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces.

Members of the RSF have been accused of widespread human rights abuses in Darfur, western Sudan.

The lobbying group’s contract extends further than Washington. It will also push the interests of the Sudanese transitional military council in Russia, Saudi Arabia, the UN, the African Union and “any other mutually agreed upon country or countries,” according to the filings.

In Russia, the company aims to arrange “private meetings . . . with senior Russian and other political figures” and to secure aid shipments of wheat, diesel and animal feed.

In Libya, the goal is to win funding for the transitional council from military leader General Khalifa Haftar - another Dickens & Madson client - in return for Sudanese military support for the Libyan National Army.

Other objectives include meetings with Middle Eastern heads of state, US investment in Sudan’s oil industry and even the negotiation of an economic union between Sudan and neighbouring South Sudan, which seceded in 2011.

When contacted by the Financial Times, a spokesperson for Dickens & Madson said the company’s president who signed the agreement, former Israeli intelligence officer Ari Ben-Menashe, was travelling and could not be immediately reached for comment.

SOURCE: https://www.ft.com/content/816fb488-99a7-11e9-9573-ee5cbb98ed36