Saudi Arabia deposits $250m into Sudan's central bank - Sixth Al-Obeid protester has died of wounds

Saudi Arabia deposits $250m into Sudan's central bank. Payment comes as a doctors committee close to opposition movement said sixth Al-Obeid protester has died of wounds. The financial grant is part of a package with the United Arab Emirates worth $500m announced in April (Reuters)

Article by Middle East Eye and agencies

Date: Wed 31 July 2019 09:01 UTC

Saudi Arabia deposits $250m into Sudan's central bank

Saudi Arabia has deposited $250m into the central bank of Sudan to support its financial position, the Saudi Finance Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday [30 July].

The grant is half of a $500m package the kingdom is providing along with the United Arab Emirates in order to alleviate pressure on the Sudanese pound. This package is part of $3bn in overall aid pledged by both countries in April.

The remaining money will go towards fuel, wheat and medicine, Reuters reported.

The aid offer in April was met with protests in Khartoum from demonstrators who reportedly said they suspected that the Gulf states were trying to influence the country's Transitional Military Council.

Just weeks before the aid announcement, mass protests led the Sudanese army to topple longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir.

However, the economy is still haunted by Bashir's legacy, including the penalties imposed for his support of armed groups and for the offensive he launched to crush rebels in the western region of Darfur.

Because Sudan is still listed by the United States as a state sponsor of terrorism and has $1.3bn of IMF arrears, it is unable to tap the IMF and World Bank for support. 

Sudanese banks have struggled to re-establish correspondent relationships with foreign banks.

Sixth protester dies

As unrest in the country continued, authorities on Tuesday ordered all schools nationwide to suspend classes indefinitely after crowds of students launched demonstrations against the killing of six protesters, including four pupils at a rally in a central town on Monday.

"Killing a student is killing a nation," chanted hundreds of schoolchildren, dressed in their uniforms and waving Sudanese flags, as they took to the streets of Khartoum in protest at the killings in El-Obeid.

Footage shows Sudanese security forces firing towards schoolchildren 

Read More »

Four high school students were shot dead and more than 60 wounded, some by snipers, when they rallied in El-Obeid against fuel and bread shortages, the protest movement and residents said.

Late on Tuesday, a doctors committee close to the protest movement said a sixth protester died of wounds after he was "shot with a bullet in the head".

The committee did not say if he too was a student.

Demonstrators accused feared paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of shooting dead the teenagers.

Calls for investigation

In a statement on Wednesday, Save the Children said: "Schoolchildren should not be a target and we call on the government to invest in safe spaces to protect them."

Adil Al Mahi, Save the Children Sudan Country Director, said: "Countless young lives have been cut short or shattered by this violence.

"We urge the government to investigate these attacks, ensure perpetrators are brought to justice and that injured children have access to support so they can make a full recovery."

The UN children's agency UNICEF has also called on the authorities to investigate the killings and hold the perpetrators accountable.

The head of Sudan's military council, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, condemned the killings on Tuesday.

"What happened in Al-Obeid is sad. Killing peaceful civilians is an unacceptable crime that needs immediate accountability," he told journalists, quoted by state television.

The killings came a day before protest leaders were due to hold talks with generals on the remaining aspects of installing civilian rule, after the two sides inked a power-sharing deal earlier this month.

But protest leaders called off Tuesday's meeting.

"There will be no negotiation today with the Transitional Military Council as our negotiating team is still in Al-Obeid and will return only tonight," said a negotiator and prominent protest leader, Satea al-Haj.

Later, in a television interview on Tuesday, Burhan called on negotiators from both sides to "expedite" the dialogue given the overall impasse in the country.

SOURCE: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/sudans-military-ruler-says-el-obeid-killings-unacceptable-crime

Deluded SLM leader Abdelwahid El Nur will continue to fight for "his people" until he becomes president

Note from Sudan Watch Editor: It is difficult to believe that Abdelwahid El Nur is still commenting on his Darfur war from Paris, France.  How has he made his living during the past 16 years, I wonder.  Why does he not live in Sudan?  Perhaps he is afraid he no longer has the support of the Darfuris.  In my view, he sold out many years ago while seated safely in a Paris hotel directing the Darfur war from a satellite phone. 

Nothing he ever says makes much sense to me. In this article he is quoted as saying his Sudan Liberation Movement “will adhere to the revolution until a radical change takes place and a real civilian authority is established”.  I guess he means, when all is done in 3 years, and the way is clear and safe for him to return. Coward.

Article from Radio Dabanga.org

Dated 09 August 9 2019 - PARIS

Abdelwahid El Nur: ‘Sudan junta, opposition kidnapped the revolution’

SLM leader Abdelwahid El Nur (File photo)

The Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) will not recognise the accords reached between the Transitional Military Council (TMC) and the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC). According to SLM leader Abdelwahid, the agreements only legitimise the power of the junta.

The Darfur armed movement led by El Nur does not recognise the agreements. “They are just power-sharing deals between remnants of the former regime and forces that kidnapped the revolution from the youth,” the rebel leader said in an interview with Radio Dabanga.

“The junta is just an extension of the ousted regime of Omar Al Bashir, responsible for the killing of people in Darfur, the Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile, Kajbar, and all over Sudan.  

“The janjaweed militia, now called Rapid Support Forces, that committed crimes against the people of Darfur, are still committing the same crimes, now in the entire country.”

El Nur further said he does not have confidence in the Forces for Freedom and Change. “The group was formed only after the people revolted. The members are the same bodies that used to negotiate with the old regime.

“As a result, the slogan of the revolution 'Just fall, that’s all' disappeared. The FFC opted for legitimising the members of the junta and its militias, and now considers them partners in the revolution.”

Agreements

After negotiations brokered by the African Union, the TMC and the pro-democracy movement signed a basic power-sharing Political Charter on July 17. A week ago, the two parties agreed on the Constitutional Declaration, which outlines the powers and the relationships between the branches of the interim government.

The constitutional document, to be officially signed on August 17, will mark the beginning of the interim period led by a civilian government for three years and three months, after which elections will be held.

A Sovereign Council, consisting of 11 members, will rule the country. Five members will be from the military, five will be civilians. The 11th member will be civilian, to be selected by both parties. For the first 21 months, the president will be from the military, followed by a civilian for 18 months.

The 250-pages-long Constitutional Declaration approves the procedural immunity of the members of the Sovereign Council and the rulers of the states, abolishes the laws and texts restricting freedoms, and stipulates the liquidation of the former regime.

‘Radical change’

El Nur said his Sudan Liberation Movement “will adhere to the revolution until a radical change takes place and a real civilian authority is established”.

He explained that continuing with armed struggle is not the movement's option at this stage. “The SLM-AW will depend on popular struggle as an opposition tool, together with the Sudanese people, in order to reach this end, summarised in Just fall, that’s all.”

According to the SLM-AW leader, “The Sudanese people who forced Al Bashir to disappear from the scene are able to overthrow the junta and all other forces that hijacked the revolution in the name of the people, and pave the way for a state based on equal citizenship”.

The Sudan Revolutionary Front (SRF, a coalition of the armed movements) reached an agreement with the FFC on the peace process in Sudan in the Ethiopian capital on July 25. The SLM-AW is no part of the SRF anymore. The movement withdrew when the coalition opted for a peaceful solution instead of continuing the armed struggle. El Nur says he will only join peace negotiations after Khartoum has restored stability and security in Darfur.

Serious doubts

In his op-ed published by Radio Dabanga on August 7, Prof Eric Reeves, expresses his concerns on issues that have not been addressed in the Constitutional Declaration.

“The first, and most frequent, is that far too much power has been left in the hands of the military, now a hybrid military, with both the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) nominally under the command of the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. [..]

“The second criticism, voiced in various forms, is that the fundamental economic issues in Sudan—a nation struggling under the burden of an economy that has largely collapsed—are nowhere addressed with any specificity,” the well-known Sudan researcher and analyst states.

SOURCE: https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/abdelwahid-el-nur-sudan-junta-opposition-kidnapped-the-revolution

Sudanese people really find a way to turn everything into a party😂

THIS fun film footage was tweeted on 10 April 2019. According to a Timeline of Key Events I have posted in the sidebar here at Sudan Watch, on 11 April 2019 "the Sudanese army arrests al-Bashir and says it takes over for the next 2 years, suspending the country’s constitution and closing its borders and airspace. A three-month state of emergency is also imposed." 

Presumably the footage was tweeted around the time the arrest was made. Or maybe the film is just a normal night out for the boys.  Where are the girls?  Are girls not allowed out at night?

Sudanese people really find a way to turn everything into a party😂 #تسقط_بس #موكب_8_ابريل #اعتصام_القياده_العامه pic.twitter.com/TNhqTWiWAL

— - (@zobaidaxo) 10 April 2019

To visit above tweet click here: https://twitter.com/zobaidaxo/status/1115793738473852928 

Sudan’s rapidly rising prices, lack of medicines - Hospitals and pharmacies short of normal saline

Article from Radio Dabanga.org

Date:  28 July 2019 KASSALA / EL GENEINA / EL FULA

Complaints about rapidly rising prices, lack of medicines in Sudan

A pharmacy in the outskirts of Khartoum (File photo)

Many Sudanese are suffering from rising prices of food and medicines. A number of medicines have become hard to find or are not available at all.

Listeners told Radio Dabanga from Halfa El Jadeeda in eastern Sudan’s Kassala that the price for a kilogram of lamb meat jumped from DSDG 300 ($7*) to SDG 400 last week. The price for a kilogram of beef rose from SDG 180 to SDG 280. Adding a salad to the meal now costs SDG 100 ($2.20) instead of SDG 30.

In El Geneina, capital of West Darfur, the price of a gallon of benzine rose to SDG 180 and a gallon of diesel SDG 150.

Various people in the city lamented the high food costs. “We now pay SDG 2,200 ($49) for a 100kg sack of sorghum,” one of them said.

Shortages of medicines were reported in the five states of Darfur and in North and West Kordofan. 

Pharmacists confirmed that a variety of medicines are not on the markets anymore.

They complained about a lack of life-saving medicines, medications for psychiatric and neurological patients, and fever drops for new-borns.

“Many people come to the pharmacy with prescriptions but return to the hospital or home empty-handed because the medicines are not available anymore or they cannot afford to pay for them,” a pharmacist reported from El Fula in West Kordofan.

Already in September 2018, Radio Dabanga reported that Sudanese in various parts of the country were having difficulty in coping with the continuously rising food and consumer goods prices. A number of families complained that the circumstances forced them to reduce their daily meals to just one.

* As foreign exchange rates can vary in Sudan, Radio Dabanga bases all SDG currency conversions on the daily US dollar rate quoted by the Central Bank of Sudan (CBoS)

View original article here: https://www.dabangasudan.org/en/all-news/article/complaints-about-rapidly-rising-prices-lack-of-medicines-in-sudan

- - -

Sudan hospitals and pharmacies short of normal saline

Note from Sudan Watch Editor posted Friday 02 Aug 2019 12:36 GMT UK: 

On Twitter, Sudanese tweeters claim there is a lack of normal saline in all

hospitals and even pharmacies. Click on the following hashtag to read the

tweets on Twitter and calls for help: #NormalSalineForSudan

Films show Sudanese security forces in El-Obeid North Kordofan firing towards schoolchildren

Article by Middle East Eye and agencies

Published date: Tuesday 30 July 2019 08:56 UTC 

Footage shows Sudanese security forces firing towards schoolchildren

Videos on social media show security forces in El-Obeid firing a truck-mounted 'Dushka' machine gun in the direction of protesters

Photo: The truck carries a skull and crossed swords insignia. The words on the windscreen read: "Playing with the big guys is tough" (Twitter)

Footage has emerged on social media which shows Sudanese security forces firing a heavy machine gun in the direction of marching schoolchildren in the southern city of El-Obeid where activists said at least five people were killed on Monday.

At least four of those killed and several others who were critically injured were schoolchildren who had been participating in the student-led march, the activist-aligned Sudanese Doctors' Committee (SDC) said in a statement.

The SDC said those killed and injured had been shot by snipers from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary force which has played a leading role in quashing protests against Sudan’s ruling transitional military council.

But several videos of the scene posted from different angles show a member of the security forces firing a truck-mounted heavy machine gun, commonly known as a “Dushka” towards the protesters from close range.

فيديو واضح جدا للقوات الاطلقت الرصاص في الابيض #الأبيض_تنزف pic.twitter.com/022nZFrHFb

— cola eldabey (@coladabey2) 29 July 2019

 

To visit the above tweet click here: https://twitter.com/coladabey2/status/1155897190843375616

The truck is marked with a skull and crossed swords insignia and a windscreen sticker reads "Playing with the big guys is tough". Rocket-propelled grenades are also visible hanging on the side of the vehicle.

The footage shows the member of the security forces behind the gun rolling up his sleeves and then raising the gun at an angle to fire over the heads of those at the front of the crowd. Sustained gunfire can then be heard.

In one video filmed from the front of the crowd, another member of the security forces points in the direction of the camera and the gunmen swings the weapon round to point straight towards it, at which point the person filming appears to start running.

#مجزره_الابيض#الابيض_تنزف#نناضل_لا_نساوم #السودان#تسقط_بس pic.twitter.com/00s29N55EI

— Mai Albashir (@shambat2000) 30 July 2019

To visit the above tweet click here: https://twitter.com/shambat2000/status/1156156337954447360

The location visible in the footage of the shooting is consistent with other footage of the student protest posted online.

The truck is parked alongside the Sudanese French Bank building two blocks north of the El-Obeid Great Mosque in the city centre.

On Tuesday, the head of the transitional military council condemned the shooting of protesters as a crime.

"What happened in El-Obeid is a regrettable and upsetting matter and the killing of peaceful citizens is unacceptable and rejected and a crime that requires immediate and deterrent accountability," Abdel Fattah al-Burhan was quoted as saying on Tuesday by the SUNA state news agency.

A curfew is still in place in several towns in North Kordofan province, where the governor on Monday ordered all schools to suspend classes.

On Tuesday, Sudanese authorities extended that order, closing all schools nationwide indefinitely, after crowds of students launched demonstrations against Monday's attack. 

Protest call

Sudan's main protest group has called for nationwide demonstrations on Tuesday to condemn what it described as a "massacre".

"We call on our people to take to the streets. To denounce the El-Obeid massacre, to demand the perpetrators be brought to justice," the Sudanese Professionals Association said.

Negotiators for the Alliance for Freedom and Change, an umbrella protest movement, have also said they will not be holding planned talks with the country's ruling generals on Tuesday because they are still in El-Obeid and will only return tonight.

Hundreds of schoolchildren had been marching through the city's main market on Monday morning when the shooting occurred.

A resident told the AFP news agency that the protests were prompted by fuel and bread shortages. 

"School children were affected as there is no transport to help them reach their schools. Today, they staged a rally and when it reached downtown there were shots fired," the resident said. 

A live-stream broadcast on Facebook shortly after the firing showed protesters carrying the body of a dead schoolchild to his family home and hundreds gathering for funeral prayers.

SOURCE: https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/sudans-military-ruler-says-el-obeid-killings-unacceptable-crime

- - -

News report and film footage from the BBC

Date: Wednesday 31 July 2019

Sudan crisis: Schools suspended after student killings

The ruling military authorities ordered schools in Sudan to close their doors, the state news agency said.

It follows mass demonstrations in the country over the shooting dead of schoolchildren at a rally.

Protesting students gathered in cities including the capital Khartoum following the killings on Monday [29 July].

- - -

NEXT STORY TO FOLLOW: Saudi Arabia deposits $250m into Sudan's central bank. Payment comes as a doctors committee close to opposition movement said sixth Al-Obeid protester has died of wounds.

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

US ‘has intelligence Hamza bin Laden is dead’ - US offers $1 million reward to find Osama bin Laden’s son

Article from The Telegraph.co.uk

By NICK ALLEN, Washington

Date: Wednesday, 31 July 2019 8:58PM

US ‘has intelligence Hamza bin Laden is dead’

The United States has received intelligence that Hamza bin Laden, the son and possible successor of the former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, is dead, according to reports.

There were no details of how, or where, the reported death occurred, or whether the US had itself confirmed the information, NBC News reported.

Asked whether Hamza bin Laden was dead, Donald Trump, the US president, said: "I don’t want to comment on it. I don’t want to comment on that."

Three US officials confirmed the intelligence had been obtained, but gave no details of whether the US was involved in causing Hamza bin Laden's death, NBC News reported.

Five months ago the US state department announced a $1 million reward for information on his location, and described Hamza bin Laden, who is aged about 30, as an "emerging al-Qaeda leader."

In a statement at the time the US government added: "He has released audio and video messages on the internet, calling on his followers to launch attacks against the United States and its Western allies, and he has threatened attacks against the United States in revenge for the May 2011 killing of his father by US military forces."

Osama bin Laden was shot dead by US Navy Seals in May 2011 in a raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Hamza bin Laden was not discovered at the compound.

He is believed to have been the 15th of Osama bin Laden's roughly 20 children.

Hamza bin Laden spent his early childhood with his parents in Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Afghanistan.

Following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks he was sent to Iran.

After his father's death he became known as the Crown Prince of Jihad, calling for jihadists to unite, and for the overthrow of the Saudi royal family.

In one of the recordings he released after his father's death, Hamza bin Laden said: "If you think that the crime you perpetrated in Abbottabad has gone by with no reckoning, you are wrong."

He reportedly married the daughter of Mohammed Atta, the leader of the September 11, 2001 hijackers. And Ayman al-Zawahiri, his father's successor as leader of al-Qaeda, described him as a "lion".

Al-Qaeda was believed to be hoping to use his name as a propaganda tool as it sought a resurgence in the wake of the destruction of the caliphate of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

View the original article here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/07/31/us-has-intelligence-hamza-bin-laden-dead/

- - -

Article from The Telegraph.co.uk

By BEN FARMER, Islamabad; GIANLUCA AVAGNINA, video producer

Date: 01 March 2019 2:39PM

US offers $1 million reward to find Osama bin Laden’s son

A favourite son of Osama bin Laden who has tried to take on his father's mantle of international jihadist leader has had his Saudi citizenship removed and a $1m reward put on his head.

America offered a bounty for information leading to the capture of Hamza bin Laden after the man sometimes called the Crown Prince of Jihad has become a rising star in al Qaeda.

The son of the group's late founder was now emerging as a leader in his father's network after issuing a string of exhortations to attack the West, the United States said.

The measures followed the warning last month by the head of MI6, Alex Younger, that al Qaeda was undergoing a resurgence.

As the bearer of the world's most notorious terrorist name, and son of the man behind the 9/11 attacks, his pedigree as jihadist royalty potentially makes him a potent propaganda tool for al Qaeda.

The group is thought to be trying to capitalise on the destruction of the Islamic State's caliphate to again become the world's pre-eminent jihadist group, analysts have said.

But his lineage alone may not be enough to propel him to the top of the organisation without concrete achievements in jihad.

Film: First video of Osama bin Laden’s son Hamza as an adult

“Whether he is ’the chosen one’ still needs to be seen, but he has become more prominent in the group’s media releases during the last three years,” said Tore Hamming, a jihadist specialist at the European University Institute.

“His last name is a major advantage. His father, Osama, still commands incredible respect within the Jihadi movement, not just in al-Qaeda, but more broadly. Hamza was always favoured by his father and he has been groomed by the most senior people in al Qaeda.”

The young bin Laden is thought to be aged around 30 years old and is possibly hiding in Afghanistan, Western officials believe.

Eight years after his father was shot dead in a special forces raid on a compound in Abbottabad, in Pakistan, America has now issued a reward for information about his son.

“Hamza bin Laden is the son of deceased former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and is emerging as a leader in the al Qaeda franchise,” the US State Department said.

Hamza is believed to be the 15th of bin Laden's 20-odd children and spent his early childhood with his parents, first in Saudi Arabia and then in Sudan and Afghanistan in the 1990s.

After the 9/11 attacks, when bin Laden became the world's most wanted man, several wives and children including Hamza were sent for their won safety to live in Iran.

Letters discovered in the Abbottabad compound after the May 2011 raid that killed the older bin Laden show Hamza had a close bond with his father and wanted to follow in his footsteps. His father in turn appeared to be grooming him for a leadership role.

At one point Hamza complained of living “behind iron bars” and wanting to join his father's holy war against the West.

“What truly makes me sad, is the mujahideen legions have marched and I have not joined them,” he wrote.

By the time of his father's death, Hamza had left Iran, but was not living in his father's compound. Instead he was reportedly kept in a separate safe house and was to be sent to Qatar for education.

“Hamza is one of the mujahideen, and he bears their thoughts and worries,” his father wrote in one letter.

He has since gone on to swear revenge for his father's death. “If you think that the crime you perpetrated in Abbottabad has gone by with no reckoning, you are wrong,” he warned in one recording.

Image: The poster released by the US State Department

His status in al Qaeda was underlined when he was introduced by the network's leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, as a “lion”. His jihadist pedigree has been further burnished by reports he married the daughter of 9/11 lead hijacker Mohammed Atta.

In one 2015 audio message, he called on jihadists in Syria to unite, claiming that the fight would pave the way to “liberating Palestine.” He has also called for the overthrow of the Saudi royal family.

Saudi Arabia on Friday said it would revoke his citizenship.

The US reward for information on Hamza bin Laden's head however remains far lower than the rewards on other al Qaeda figures, said Daniel L Byman of the Brookings Institution think tank.

Al-Zawahiri, who has a $25m reward for information, undoubtedly remains leader of the organisation, he said.

“It’s a bounty for a prominent figure but it’s not a huge bounty compared to his father or previous top-level figures.”

“The thing about him is that there isn’t much to know. He’s very young, he spent a lot of time in hiding in Iran… and he doesn’t have major operational credibility that other figures have,” he said.

“Right now he’s at best a figurehead...while seasoned leaders are trying to recapture their brand, which was much stronger under his father. With that in mind using the Bin Laden name is sensible, the question is can he build on this and go from the son of an important person to an important person in his own right.”

View the original article here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/03/01/us-offers-1-million-reward-find-osama-bin-ladens-son/

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

- - -

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