Sudan: Musa Hilal faces court martial in Khartoum (Part 1)

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: A few minutes ago (12 noon in England, UK) I completed drafting six blog posts featuring Sheikh Musa Hilal of North Darfur, Sudan.

Radio Dabanga in The Netherlands is doing such a fine job of reporting that I have re-printed, here below, their article on Musa Hilal published today [10 Sep], re-titled it "Part 1" and, as a matter of urgency, I have followed it by jumping to my blog post titled "Part 6" and re-titled it "Part 2" in order to bring it forward for publishing today. The other parts, and more, will follow this week. Yellow highlighting is mine.

In my view, this news is important and urgent. Musa Hilal and his relatives and affiliates must be protected as soon as possible, kept safe and taken good care of, now and in the future, as they could help bring peace to Darfur and Sudan, and South Sudan. God bless the Sudanese people and the peace makers. 

Article from Radio Dabanga.org

Dated 10 September 2019 - KHARTOUM / MISTERIYA

Former Darfur janjaweed leader Hilal faces court martial in Sudan capital

Photo:  A bewildered Musa Hilal arrives in Khartoum after his arrest in Darfur in 2017 (RD)

A military court in Khartoum resumed proceedings on Tuesday [10 Sep 2019] to try former janjaweed leader Musa Hilal, who was detained two years ago, along with hundreds of his supporters.

The Revolutionary Awakening Council (RAC) which was founded by Hilal, said in a statement on Monday [09 Sep 2019] that the Council was surprised to hear that morning that their leader and his detained followers were summoned to appear before the military court without warning.

Hilal was initially arraigned by the military court on April 30 2018.

The RAC statement questions how it is possible that a court martial will try Hilal and his comrades while they were detained during the regime of ousted President El Bashir.

“Opens the door to ask whether the regime has fallen entirely or not. 

The regime that was overthrown by a popular uprising and brought a new system representing the goals of the revolution, freedom, peace, and justice.” The statement says.

The statement also asks why Hilal and his companions remain in prisons and detention cells until now, after the overthrow of the Al Bashir regime.

The RAC rejected any kind of trials (military or civilian) for political prisoners.

RAC: “Stop this absurdity”

In his statement, the RAC called for their immediate and immediate release, and called on the government of Sudan, represented by the Sovereign Council, Prime Minister and Minister of Justice, to intervene immediately to “stop this absurdity to preserve the law and the achievements of our glorious revolution”.

In May 2018, the Darfur Bar Association criticised the military trial of Hilal, “which is being conducted without taking into account the principles of a public trial”. According to the Darfur lawyers at the time (prior to regime change), Hilal’s “trial is a violation of the fair trial standards enshrined in the Sudanese Constitution and the law, which is casting doubts on its fairness and integrity, regardless of the acts attributed to Musa Hilal and his affiliates”.

Hilal should immediately be transferred to a criminal court. “This would constitute the only guarantee for correcting the violated legal procedures,” the statement read.

Families

The families of the detainees, most of them belonging to the Mahameed clan, of which Hilal is the leader, have reiterated their demand for their immediate and unconditional release.

The statement of the families of the detainees refused any trial of these detainees, whether civil or military courts, and demanded in return the Prime Minister Hamdouk’s immediate intervention and the issuance of a decision to release all political detainees.

After the deposal of President Al Bashir and the release of a number of political detainees, mainly fighters of armed movements, relatives and followers of Musa Hilal have publicly called for his and his men’s release more than once.

Supporters of Hilal organised a large demonstration in Misteriya in North Darfur last week, demanding his release.

On August 27, 10 of Hilal’s imprisoned affiliates entered into a hunger strike to protest their continued detention in a military prison in Omdurman. According to the spokesman for Hilal’s Revolutionary Awakening Council, “they have been subjected to systematic ill-treatment by the prison authorities and deprived of their most basic rights such as medical treatment and to meet their relatives through visits”.

In a statement, the organisers of the demonstration demanded from the newly established Sovereign Council and Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdouk to intervene, and release all political prisoners in the country “as soon as possible, without any conditions”.

“The failure to release all political detainees is a conspiracy in order to isolate them politically, and exclude them from the ongoing political process,” the statement reads.

The demonstrators appealed to the Forces for Freedom and Change and other political and civil forces to pressure the authorities to release all “political prisoners and prisoners of war”.

The statement also demanded the representatives of the revolution do their part towards their comrades in the struggle who are part of the charter of freedom and change and are still in prison remnants of the former regime.

Janjaweed

Hilal was arrested in a raid on his stronghold in Misteriya, North Darfur, in November 2017. His sons, brothers, and entourage, were detained as well. Hilal, who refused to operate with the government’s disarmament campaign, was transferred to Khartoum. His trial secretly began on April 30.

Hilal is held responsible for the atrocities committed in Darfur against civilians after the conflict erupted in 2003. In that year, he was released from prison by the Sudanese government with the purpose to mobilise Darfuri Arab herders to fight the insurgency in the region.

With full government backing, Hilal's janjaweed targeted villages of African Darfuris. They rarely came near forces of the armed rebel movements.

In 2008, Hilal was appointed as Presidential Assistant for Federal Affairs. In January 2014, he announced his defection from the ruling National Congress Party (NCP), and established the RAC.

The Council consists of Hilal’s militiamen and a number of North Darfur native administration leaders. RAC commanders took control of the Jebel Amer gold mining area in El Sareif Beni Hussein locality in July 2015. According to a UN Security Council report in April 2016, Hilal and his entourage were profiting from vast gold sales in Darfur.

RELATED NEWS

September 2 - 2019

North Darfur supporters of Musa Hilal continue to call for his release

August 29 - 2019

Sudan: Revolutionary Awakening Council detainees on hunger strike

August 23 - 2019

Relatives of Darfur militia leader call for his release

View original: https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/former-darfur-janjaweed-leader-hilal-faces-court-martial-in-sudan-capital

Sudan: Hilal's N. Darfur supporters call for his release

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor:  The International Red Cross ought to visit Musa Hilal and other detainees in Omdurman prison in Sudan to check on their welfare and ensure that they are receiving adequate care and that their human rights are respected and adhered to regardless of their crimes. 

Article from and by Radio Dabanga.org

Dated Monday 02 September 2019 - MISTERIYA

North Darfur supporters of Musa Hilal continue to call for his release

Musa Hilal's sons, arrested in North Darfur, arrive in Khartoum, Novermber 17, 2017 (RD)

Supporters of former Janjaweed leader Musa Hilal, being held in an Omdurman prison for almost two years, organised a large demonstration in Misteriya in North Darfur on Sunday, demanding his release.

In a statement, the organisers of the demonstration demanded from the newly established Sovereign Council and Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdouk to intervene, and release all political prisoners in the country “as soon as possible, without any conditions”.

“The failure to release all political detainees is a conspiracy in order to isolate them politically, and exclude them from the ongoing political process,” the statement reads.

The demonstrators appealed to the Forces for Freedom and Change and other political and civil forces to pressure the authorities to release all “political prisoners and prisoners of war”.

Hilal was detained, along with his sons and hundreds of his militiamen, by members of the Rapid Support Forces, in November 26, 2017, when they refused to hand their weapons during a large disarmament campaign in Darfur.

RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemeti’ said at the time that Hilal and his supporters were “involved in a plot against Sudan which has external dimensions”.

After the deposal of President Al Bashir and the release of a number of political detainees, mainly fighters of armed movements, relatives and followers of Musa Hilal have publicly called for his and his men’s release more than once.

On August 27, ten of Hilal’s imprisoned affiliates entered into a hunger strike to protest their continued detention in a military prison in Omdurman. According to the spokesman for Hilal’s Revolutionary Awakening Council, “they have been subjected to systematic ill-treatment by the prison authorities and deprived of their most basic rights such as medical treatment and to meet their relatives through visits”.

View original article:  https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/north-darfur-supporters-of-musa-hilal-continue-to-call-for-his-release

Further Reading

August 29, 2019

Sudan: Revolutionary Awakening Council detainees on hunger strike

August 27, 2019

Renewed demand to release remaining Darfur detainees

Sudan: ICC 'seeks to have Bashir handed over'

• Mr Fadi El Abdallah, an International Criminal Court (ICC) spokesperson, told Middle East Eye (MEE) that the arrest warrants against Sudan's former president, Omar Al-Bashir, remained valid
• "The two arrest warrants delivered by the ICC judges for Mr al-Bashir remain valid," he said
• "The court has and will continue seeking the compliance of Sudan with its obligation under international law and in relation to the resolution 1539 of the United Nations Security Council"
• Sources tell MEE that the Hague-based court will petition Khartoum's new government to hand over longtime autocrat
• Legal expert Mohamed Omer Shomena told MEE that the new council was aiming to hand over Bashir if asked by the ICC
• The Alliance of Sudanese Lawyers has vowed to collect and submit hundreds of cases against Bashir

Article from Middle East Eye.net

By MOHAMMED AMIN in Khartoum

Dated Monday 02 September 2019 14:12 UTC 

Sudan: ICC 'seeks to have Bashir handed over' as Khartoum trial opens old wounds

Photo: Bashir admitted in court that he had received $25m from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, sent in cash on a private jet (Reuters)

The appearance of ousted Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir in court for the first time last month has encouraged the International Criminal Court (ICC), as well as many Sudanese, to bring their own cases against the former leader, sources have told Middle East Eye.

MEE understands that the ICC is among several international institutions seeking justice for alleged crimes committed during Bashir's 30-year rule, with sources saying that the intergovernmental organisation is preparing to submit an official request to urge Sudan's new transitional government to hand over Bashir to the Hague-based court for alleged crimes in the Darfur region. 

Bashir is wanted by the ICC after it issued an arrest warrant against him in 2009 for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, extermination, rape and torture. In 2010, pre-trial judges issued a new warrant with additional charges, including genocide.

Sudan's former president was formally charged on Saturday with illicit possession of foreign currency and corruption, after being charged in May with incitement and involvement in the killing of protesters during the demonstrations that led to his overthrow in April.

However, others affected argue that the current trial is merely a cosmetic exercise that seeks to brush over many of Bashir's alleged crimes. 

Lawyers and activists are preparing to lodge more serious charges, including the toppling of the democratically elected government in 1989, much larger cases of corruption, and the deaths of protesters on earlier occasions.

New ruling council

Sudan's new 11-member sovereign council, which was sworn in last month, is made up of military and civilian representatives.

The council will govern for the next three years and three months, ultimately paving the way for democratic elections.

Salih Mahmoud, a leading member of the Darfur Bar Association, told MEE that the ICC will ask the new cabinet to hand over Bashir to the court. 

Mahmoud, a legal expert and award-winning human rights activist, said that the new ruling council faced a critical decision as it was part of its responsibility to impose justice and to cooperate with the international community and the institutions of international justice. 

The Sudanese Military Council (TMC), which led the country from the ousting of Bashir in April until the formation of the new military-civilian sovereign council last month, repeatedly stressed it could not decide the fate of the president regarding the ICC arrest warrant against him.

The TMC generals argued that the possible handover of Bashir was something that should be determined after the end of a transitional period and the election of a new government after three years. 

“We have credible information that the ICC judges will urge the new regime of Sudan to hand over Bashir as soon as possible because it's now a democratic government and supposed to be committed to international laws," said Mahmoud.

'Arrest warrants remain valid'

Fadi El Abdallah, an ICC spokesperson, told MEE that the arrest warrants against Bashir remained valid.

"The two arrest warrants delivered by the ICC judges for Mr al-Bashir remain valid," he said. 

"The court has and will continue seeking the compliance of Sudan with its obligation under international law and in relation to the resolution 1539 of the United Nations Security Council."

Abdallah also added that if the Sudanese government wanted Bashir to be tried in Sudan, it must demonstrate that a genuine national investigation and prosecution will be conducted, among other conditions.

Legal expert Mohamed Omer Shomena told MEE that the new council was aiming to hand over Bashir if asked by the ICC.

Shomena said that Bashir could be tried inside Sudan but that situation would require major reforms to the entire justice system following 30 years of corruption, interventions by the government, and the lack of any independence.

“I do believe that the Sudanese judges and courts are ethically and technically eligible to prosecute Bashir, but that also needs a huge reformation process to our judiciary system, as well as a lot of amendments and new laws to match the international laws and respect for human rights. 

“The objective of judicial reform in Sudan is very important not only for Bashir’s trial but also for the entire transitional justice, accountability and good governance in Sudan in the coming period, and this is the only way to achieve the goals of the revolution."

Hundreds of cases 

In the meantime, the Alliance of Sudanese Lawyers has vowed to collect and submit hundreds of cases against Bashir.

Those cases include alleged atrocities in war zones, the killing of protesters and other civilians, missing persons, and the thousands of people dismissed from their jobs for political reasons.

Wail Ali Saeed, a leading member of the Alliance of Sudanese Lawyers, told MEE that they had prepared dozens of cases against Bashir, especially from families of protesters killed during the September 2013 nationwide protests in which more than 170 people died, as well as the recent wave of protests from December 2018 to April 2019 that saw Bashir's overthrow. 

"We have done a lot of work and we have a lot of work still to be done... We have divided ourselves into groups to reach any Sudanese, or their relatives, that faced any kind of violations during Bashir's era," he said. 

"We have reached a lot of victims and families and we will continue gathering these cases as we will submit all of these cases to the court, especially after the appointment of the new independent general prosecutor and chief of justice in the country." 

Sulema Ishag, a leading member of an initiative by activists to seek justice for Sudanese victims, told MEE that they were coordinating with independent lawyers to gather evidence over the different kinds of violations, especially against women, in order to submit legal cases against Bashir.  

“We are a large number of activists who are worried about the achievement of justice for the victims in Sudan because we believe that justice is the first step for the stability of Sudan," said Ishag. 

Gulf money trail

Activists and lawyers have also highlighted the disclosure during last month's case of the receipt of money personally by Bashir from Saudi Arabia.

Bashir admitted in court that he had received $25m from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, sent in cash on a private jet.

The former president said he used the money for donations and not for his own benefit. 

Dismissing Bashir's claims, Saeed said that the case showed how Bashir and his assistants dealt with public money. 

An investigator had previously told the court that Bashir received a total of $90m in cash from Saudi royals.

Sudanese army and intelligence members who searched Bashir’s residence in April found around $7m of foreign currency.

Saeed said given the other figures involved, the $7m for which Bashir was being charged in the current case was insignificant.

“This court [case] is nothing actually... I do believe that the stealing of $7m is nothing and it's a shame on all of us if it's considered that this case is enough for the accountability of Bashir," he said. 

"The involvement of the ousted president with the Gulf in their competition for access, and his attempt to play off the different sides to get money to overcome his economic crisis, has caused a lot of corruption and mismanagement of the money and we will pick up this point from this court [case]."

Sudan swears in new Sovereign Council

Read More »

Sudan's Bashir indicted as he admits to receiving millions from Saudi crown prince

Read More »

SOURCE: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/hundreds-more-seek-justice-bashir-trial-reawakens-old-wounds

Sudan: Darfur Sheikh Musa Hilal's relatives call for his release from Khartoum prison

Article from and by Radio Dabanga.org

Dated 23 August 2019 - Khartoum 

Relatives of Darfur militia leader call for his release

Vigil in Khartoum calling for the release of janjaweed leader Musa Hilal, August 22, 2019 (social media)

Relatives of former Janjaweed leader Musa Hilal organised a vigil in front of the office of the Sudanese Professionals Association in Khartoum on Thursday, demanding his release. The Revolutionary Awakening Council also called for the release of Hilal and hundreds of his affiliates arrested on November 26, 2017.

Amani Musa told reporters at the vigil that her father and a number of her relatives are being held for more than a year and a half. Their families have not been allowed to communicate with them.

She said her father was detained because of his opposition to the former regime. “He should have been released, like the rest of the political detainees, after Al Bashir was deposed.

Among the detainees are several of her brothers who have nothing to do with politics, she noted, including a student at the Garden City College.

Hilal’s relatives have repeatedly contacted Lt Gen Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemeti’, Chief commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Deputy Head of the junta that deposed President Omar Al Bashir in a military coup on April 11, member of the recently established Sovereign Council. “To no avail,” Musa said.

She added that “certain entities” asked them not to resort to the media as this “could complicate the issues of the detainees”.

Last Saturday, East Darfuris in Khartoum organised a demonstration demanding the release of Musa Hilal.

Detained

In 2017, after years of close cooperation, Musa Hilal had become a thorn in the side of Khartoum.

The relationship between Hilal and Khartoum began in 2003. After Darfuri rebels took up arms against the government in February that year, Khartoum assigned Hilal, chief of the Arab Mahameed clan in North Darfur, as recruiter of militant Arab pastoralists (popularly called janjaweed) in Darfur.

With the full backing of the government, his militiamen targeted unarmed African Darfuri villagers, but they rarely came near forces of the rebel movements. In 2006, the UN Security Council imposed financial and travel sanctions on Hilal.

Hilal’s stance towards the ruling regime changed over the years. Mid 2013, he returned from Khartoum to his base in North Darfur, where his fighters, mainly members of the paramilitary Border Guards, launched widespread attacks on government forces and allied militias.

In March 2014, he established the Revolutionary Awakening Council (RAC), consisting of native administration leaders and militants from various tribes in north-western Darfur, who profited from vast gold sales in Darfur, according to a UN Security Council report in April 2016.

When the Sudanese government announced a nationwide disarmament campaign in July 2017, the RAC and Border Guards opposed the measures. On November 26, a large force of RSF militiamen raided the stronghold of Hilal in North Darfur, arrested him and his entourage, and transferred them to Khartoum. Hilal’s trial began, secretly, on April 30, 2018.

Hundreds of followers detained

In a statement on Thursday, the RAC repeated its call for the release of all political prisoners and detainees in the country.

According to the council's spokesman, Ahmed Mohamed Abakar, hundreds of affiliates of Hilal are being held as well since November 26, 2017. “Until now, their relatives do not know where they are detained. They have not been allowed to visit or contact them,” he told Radio Dabanga in an interview on Thursday.

According to the RAC spokesman, Hilal and his men are held in “secret detention centres of the former regime”. He noted that this way of keeping people detained is violating the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners, and called on “the UN Human Rights Council and other relevant organisations to intervene and visit these ghost houses to assess the human rights situation closely and take the required measures”.

Abakar further explained that the RAC has submitted several memoranda letters to “our partners”, the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC), demanding “the release of all prisoners of war and political prisoners tried under the former regime”.

He said they were disappointed by the FFC’s “negative role” concerning “the national concern about the fate of prisoners and detainees. “The position of FFC is contradicting the Declaration of Freedom and Change itself.”

He emphasised “the support of the RAC for all genuine national initiatives that seek to release its founder and head, Sheikh Musa Hilal, and all leaders and affiliates of the RAC, as well as for all international efforts to help restore human rights in Sudan”.

View original article here:  https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/relatives-of-darfur-militia-leader-call-for-his-release

Sudan's Gold: Hemedti's untold power - Hilal’s militia made up to $54m pa controlling Jebel Amer goldmine

Article from Zimfocus.net - African Business Magazine

Written by TOM COLLINS

Dated 08 JULY 2019

SUDAN’S GOLD: HEMEDTI’S UNTOLD POWER

The power of Mohamed “Hemedti” Hamdan Dagolo, who has led the violent suppression of demonstrators in Sudan, is based not only on leadership of a militia but also his control of valuable gold resources. Tom Collins reports

After weeks of peaceful sit-ins outside the military headquarters in Khartoum, the uneasy truce between Sudan’s security forces and thousands of protestors demanding change was finally ruptured at dawn on 3 June. Members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – a militia widely condemned for human rights violations in its suppression of rebels in the western province of Darfur – fanned out across the city and proceeded to kill over 100 demonstrators.

A grim warning had been given just days before by Mohamed “Hemedti” Hamdan Dagolo, the leader of the RSF and vice-president of the Transitional Military Council (TMC), the body that has controlled the country since the overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir in April. “My patience has limits,” he said.

Hemedti, along with the head of the army, Abdul Fattah al-Burhan, has emerged as a key figure within the TMC. With a violent past and control of a paramilitary force estimated to number as many as 40,000, many fear that he has set his ambitions on more than simply preventing Sudan’s transition to democracy.

His reported vast personal wealth – accrued from the gold trade, along with outsourcing his militia to the former regime and Saudi Arabia to fight the war in Yemen – under­pins his power.

In 2017, Sudan produced 107 tonnes of gold, making it the third-largest producer on the continent after Ghana and South Africa. Some 70% of output is estimated to be smuggled abroad, although the true size of the illicit trade is hard to quantify. Through his militia, Hemedti controls one of the country’s most lucrative gold mines – Jebel Amer in North Darfur.

By origin a member of the Rezeigat tribe in the Darfur region, Hemedti rose from humble origins as a trader of cloth and camels. In 2003, he joined the Janjaweed, a local militia that was waging a brutal campaign against Darfuri rebels on behalf of the government under the leadership of tribal chief Musa Hilal. The conflict has left 300,000 dead, according to UN estimates.

Through his role in the war, he gained favour with President Bashir, who in 2014 put him in charge of the RSF, which had been formed as an offshoot of the Janjaweed. The group was given the status of a regular force but retained its violent modus operandi, and Bashir began to use it as a bulwark against the strength of Sudan’s military.

“That’s when Hemedti became quite strong,” says Omer Ismail, senior advisor at the Washington-based NGO Enough Project. “Bashir was not confident in the army because the economy was deteriorating rapidly and there were many problems.”

Yet along with a position of almost unparalleled power, Hemedti’s ascendance was accompanied by access to riches. In 2015, a report drawn up for the UN Security Council found that Hilal’s militia was making up to $54m a year from control of the Jebel Amer goldmine. The following year, Hemedti moved against Hilal, who had come into conflict with the government, and seized control of the lucrative mine. Ismail estimates that his earnings may now outstrip those of his former boss.

With this money, the militia kingpin has been able to recruit jobless youths from the across the Sahel to the RSF, resulting in an ever-growing force which Ismail claims is presently “occupying” Sudan: “I would say that Sudan is occupied now because the troops that he is using to control and monopolise power, most of them are not even Sudanese. They are recruited from Chad, Mali and Niger. They are from the Sahel.”

As the RSF continues to sow terror, much of the gold coming from the Jebel Amer mine, which supports a surrounding settlement of around 70,000 people, is exported clandestinely to various international buyers via a shady and complicated web of smuggling activities.

“Almost everything makes its way east to Khartoum,” says Ismail. “From there it is almost exclusively sold to traders in the UAE.”

With very little capacity for smelting and refining gold in Sudan, the metal travels onwards in rough kilogram bricks to countries including Dubai, which act as a gateway for much of Africa’s illicit gold trade.

Comtrade data shows that the UAE imported $15.1bn worth of gold from Africa in 2016, more than any other country and up from $1.3bn in 2006. The share of African gold in the UAE’S gold imports increased from 18% to nearly 50% over the same period and the industry accounts for approximately one fifth of the country’s total GDP.

The substantial offtake of Sudanese gold in Dubai’s markets suggests that economic considerations are part of the UAE’s chequebook diplomacy, which saw a joint $3bn aid package pumped into Khartoum alongside Saudi Arabia.

Hemedti has close links with both Gulf countries as the agent who recruited around 15,000 of his troops to fight the war in Yemen against Houthi-led militia. Ismail speculates that he may receive anywhere between $2,000 to $3,000 a month per person as payment for outsourcing his troops.

Other gold routes, according to Ismail, include the “40-day route” through the desert, historically used to smuggle slaves and ivory to either Tripoli in Libya or Cairo in Egypt. Ismail estimates that the country has around 440 remote airstrips used in the clandestine trade.

“They put the gold in a Land Cruiser and smuggle the gold outside the city of Khartoum,” he explains. “Then one of the smaller companies who have licences to fly out of Sudan will set up a local flight. They will put the gold in the belly of the plane. The gold will then come back through Khartoum airport and onwards to its final destination.”

RUSSIAN INVOLVEMENT

One of these destinations is Russia. Ramping up its presence across Central Africa and the Horn, Moscow has begun gold mining operations in Sudan over the last two years – predominantly in the northeastern region away from Darfur.

Sim Tack, global security analyst for Stratfor, says that the Wagner Group, a Russian private-military outfit with close links to the Kremlin, has been providing security to Russian companies working in the region.

“Russia has become very involved in mineral extraction in Sudan,” he says. “We have seen big accounts of Russia doing this in the Central African Republic (CAR) but at the same time they are doing it in Sudan. Sudan is the entry point into Africa which Russia is using to support its presence in CAR.” 

Data from the Russian central bank cited by Bloomberg show that its gold reserves have nearly quadrupled over the past 10 years, and that 2018 marked the most “ambitious year yet” for Russian gold-buying.

Much of Russia’s activities across Sudan and the CAR are shrouded in secrecy, and the Enough Project’s Ismail believes there is “no way of knowing” how large the trade is.

As for Hemedti, it’s clear that the vast amount of money earned from his gold-mining activities is a key enabler of the fearsome power he continues to wield in Khartoum and beyond.

SOURCE: http://www.zimfocus.net/2019/07/04/sudans-gold-hemedtis-untold-power-african-business-magazine/

The New Arab tweet - ‘Sudan's revolutionaries must remove Hemedti by any means necessary’

Comment - ‘Sudan's revolutionaries must remove Hemedti by any means necessary‘ writes @Ali_AR_Ali https://t.co/JgM7j7N61E

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) 27 July 2019

To visit the above tweet published at The New Arab Twitter page 27 July 2019 click here: https://twitter.com/The_NewArab/status/1155104324286128130