Sunday, September 15, 2019

Sudan: Hilal "I am the leader of all the Arab tribes in Darfur" (Part 4)

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: This is Part 4 of a series of posts about Sheikh Musa Hilal of North Darfur, western Sudan. Unfortunately, there was a technical hitch and Part 4 entitled 'Sudan: Hilal turned his forces on SAF and RSF' was deleted.

I have substituted it with the below copied article by BBC News 20 July 2019 by Sudan and Africa expert Dr Alex de Waal, a must-read. Below Alex's article I have re-printed a BBC report dated 2017 about Musa Hilal and his son being arrested. 

Finally, here is an excerpt from Rebecca Hamilton's 03 Dec 2009 article entitled 'The Monster of Darfur': "As Hilal explains it, Arabs were forced to flee their villages long before any “zurga” (literally “black,” a derogatory term for non-Arabs). But, he added scathingly, “[W]e would never go to a [displaced persons] camp and be seen as beggars." To solve the crisis in Darfur, Arabs have to be in charge, he continued. "We have the majority in the field. We have the majority of the livestock. There can be no solution without us”. He sat back in his chair and lit a cigarette. “I am not the leader of the Janjaweed. I am the leader of all the Arab tribes in Darfur,” Hilal said, his relaxed confidence returning." [View original here: https://newrepublic.com/article/71627/the-monster-darfur]

BBC News report
By ALEX DE WAAL
Published 20 July 2019
Sudan crisis: The ruthless mercenaries who run the country for gold
Photo: The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been accused of widespread abuses in Sudan, including the 3 June massacre in which more than 120 people were reportedly killed, with many of the dead dumped in the River Nile Sudan expert Alex de Waal charts their rise. (Photo credit AFP)

The RSF are now the real ruling power in Sudan. They are a new kind of regime: a hybrid of ethnic militia and business enterprise, a transnational mercenary force that has captured a state.

Their commander is General Mohamed Hamdan "Hemeti" Dagolo, and he and his fighters have come a long way since their early days as a rag-tag Arab militia widely denigrated as the "Janjaweed".

The RSF was formally established by decree of then-President Omar al-Bashir in 2013. But their core of 5,000 militiamen had been armed and active long before then.

Their story begins in 2003, when Mr Bashir's government mobilised Arab herders to fight against black African insurgents in Darfur.

'Meet the Janjaweed'

The core of the Janjaweed were camel-herding nomads from the Mahamid and Mahariya branches of the Rizeigat ethnic group of northern Darfur and adjoining areas of Chad - they ranged across the desert edge long before the border was drawn.

During the 2003-2005 Darfur war and massacres, the most infamous Janjaweed leader was Musa Hilal, chief of the Mahamid.
Human rights groups accuse Musa Hilal of leading a brutal campaign in Darfur  Image copyright AFP

As these fighters proved their bloody efficacy, Mr Bashir formalised them into a paramilitary force called the Border Intelligence Units.

One brigade, active in southern Darfur, included a particularly dynamic young fighter, Mohamed Dagolo, known as "Hemeti" because of his baby-faced looks - Hemeti being a mother's endearing term for "Little Mohamed".

A school dropout turned small-time trader, he was a member of the Mahariya clan of the Rizeigat. Some say that his grandfather was a junior chief when they resided in Chad.

A crucial interlude in Hemeti's career occurred in 2007, when his troops became discontented over the government's failure to pay them.

They felt they had been exploited - sent to the frontline, blamed for atrocities, and then abandoned.

Hemeti and his fighters mutinied, promising to fight Khartoum "until judgement day", and tried to cut a deal with the Darfur rebels.

A documentary shot during this time, called Meet the Janjaweed, shows him recruiting volunteers from Darfur's black African Fur ethnic group into his army, to fight alongside his Arabs, their former enemies.

Although Hemeti's commanders are all from his own Mahariya clan, he has been ready to enlist men of all ethnic groups. On one recent occasion the RSF absorbed a breakaway faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) - led by Mohamedein Ismail "Orgajor", an ethnic Zaghawa - another Darfur community which had been linked to the rebels.

Consolidating power

Hemeti went back to Khartoum when he was offered a sweet deal: back pay for his troops, ranks for his officers (he became a brigadier general - to the chagrin of army officers who had gone to staff college and climbed the ranks), and a handsome cash payment.

His troops were put under the command of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), at that time organising a proxy war with Chad.
Some of Hemeti's fighters, serving under the banner of the Chadian opposition, fought their way as far as the Chadian capital, N'Djamena, in 2008.

Meanwhile, Hemeti fell out with his former master, Hilal - their feud was to be a feature of Darfur for 10 years. Hilal was a serial mutineer, and Mr Bashir's generals found Hemeti more dependable.

In 2013, a new paramilitary force was formed under Hemeti and called the RSF.

The army chief of staff did not like it - he wanted the money to go to strengthening the regular forces - and Mr Bashir was worried about putting too much power in the hands of NISS, having just fired its director for allegedly conspiring against him.

So the RSF was made answerable to Mr Bashir himself - the president gave Hemeti the nickname "Himayti", meaning "My Protector".

Training camps were set up near the capital, Khartoum. Hundreds of Land Cruiser pick-up trucks were imported and fitted out with machine guns.

RSF troops fought against rebels in South Kordofan - they were undisciplined and did not do well - and against rebels in Darfur, where they did better.

Gold rush

Hemeti's rivalry with Hilal intensified when gold was discovered at Jebel Amir in North Darfur state in 2012.

Coming at just the moment when Sudan was facing an economic crisis because South Sudan had broken away, taking with it 75% of the country's oil, this seemed like a godsend.
Sudan is one of Africa’s biggest gold producers

But it was more of a curse. Tens of thousands of young men flocked to a remote corner of Darfur in a latter-day gold rush to try their luck in shallow mines with rudimentary equipment.

Some struck gold and became rich, others were crushed in collapsing shafts or poisoned by the mercury and arsenic used to process the nuggets

Hilal's militiamen forcibly took over the area, killing more than 800 people from the local Beni Hussein ethnic group, and began to get rich by mining and selling the gold.

Some gold was sold to the government, which paid above the market price in Sudanese money because it was so desperate to get its hands on gold that it could sell on in Dubai for hard currency.

Meanwhile some gold was smuggled across the border to Chad, where it was profitably exchanged in a racket involving buying stolen vehicles and smuggling them back into Sudan.
Hemeti has loyal supporters outside the capital

In the desert markets of Tibesti in northern Chad, a 1.5kg (3.3lb) of unwrought gold was bartered for a 2015 model Land Cruiser, probably stolen from an aid agency in Darfur, which was then driven back to Darfur, fitted out with hand-painted licence plates and resold.

By 2017, gold sales accounted for 40% of Sudan's exports. And Hemeti was keen to control them.

He already owned some mines and had set up a trading company known as al-Junaid. But when Hilal challenged Mr Bashir one more time, denying the government access to Jebel Amir's mines, Hemeti's RSF went on the counter-attack.

In November 2017, his forces arrested Hilal [ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-42141938 ], and the RSF took over Sudan's most lucrative gold mines.

Regional muscle

Hemeti overnight became the country's biggest gold trader and - by controlling the border with Chad and Libya - its biggest border guard. Hilal remains in prison.

Under the Khartoum Process, the European Union funded the Sudanese government to control migration across the Sahara to Libya.

Although the EU consistently denies it, many Sudanese believe that this gave license to the RSF to police the border, extracting bribes, levies and ransoms - and doing its share of trafficking too.
RSF fighters have fought for Yemen’s government in the civil war which is devastating the country

Dubai is the destination for almost all of Sudan's gold, official or smuggled. But Hemeti's contacts with the UAE soon became more than just commercial.

In 2015, the Sudanese government agreed to send a battalion of regular forces to serve with the Saudi-Emirati coalition forces in Yemen - its commander was Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, now chair of the ruling Transitional Military Council.

But a few months later, the UAE struck a parallel deal with Hemeti to send a much larger force of RSF fighters, for combat in south Yemen and along the Tahama plain - which includes the port city of Hudaydah, the scene of fierce fighting last year.

Hemeti also provided units to help guard the Saudi Arabian border with Yemen.

By this time, the RSF's strength had grown tenfold. Its command structure didn't change: all are Darfurian Arabs, its generals sharing the Dagolo name.

With 70,000 men and more than 10,000 armed pick-up trucks, the RSF became Sudan's de facto infantry, the one force capable of controlling the streets of the capital, Khartoum, and other cities.

Cash handouts and PR polish

Through gold and officially sanctioned mercenary activity, Hemeti came to control Sudan's largest "political budget" - money that can be spent on private security, or any activity, without needing to give an account.

Run by his relatives, the Al-Junaid company had become a vast conglomerate covering investment, mining, transport, car rental, and iron and steel.

Since April, Hemeti has moved fast, politically and commercially

By the time Mr Bashir was ousted in April, Hemeti was one of the richest men in Sudan - probably with more ready cash than any other politician - and was at the centre of a web of patronage, secret security deals, and political payoffs. It is no surprise that he moved swiftly to take the place of his fallen patron.

Hemeti has moved fast, politically and commercially.

Every week he is seen in the news, handing cash to the police to get them back on the streets, to electric workers to restore services, or to teachers to have them return to the classrooms. He handed out cars to tribal chiefs.

As the UN-African Union peacekeeping force drew down in Darfur, the RSF took over their camps - until the UN put a halt to the withdrawal.

Hemeti says he has increased his RSF contingent in Yemen and has despatched a brigade to Libya to fight alongside the rogue general Khalifa Haftar, presumably on the UAE payroll, but also thereby currying favour with Egypt which also backs Gen Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army.

Hemeti has also signed a deal with a Canadian public relations firm to polish his image and gain him political access in Russia and the US.

Hemeti and the RSF are in some ways familiar figures from the history of the Nile Valley. In the 19th Century, mercenary freebooters ranged across what are now Sudan, South Sudan, Chad, and the Central African Republic, publicly swearing allegiance to the Khedive of Egypt but also setting up and ruling their own private empires.

Yet in other ways Hemeti is a wholly 21st Century phenomenon: a military-political entrepreneur, whose paramilitary business empire transgresses territorial and legal boundaries.

Today, this semi-lettered market trader and militiaman is more powerful than any army general or civilian leader in Sudan. The political marketplace he commands is more dynamic than any fragile institutions of civilian government.

Alex de Waal is the executive director of the World Peace Foundation at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
View the original report plus a video here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-48987901
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BBC News report
Published 27 November 2017
Sudan says militia leader Musa Hilal arrested

Sudanese authorities have arrested a powerful militia leader suspected of human rights abuses in the Darfur region

Musa Hilal was detained after fighting with Sudanese forces near his hometown in North Darfur, state media reports.

He is a former ally of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and led the government-allied Janjaweed militia.

Musa Hilal is subject to UN sanctions for his suspected involvement in the Darfur conflict of the mid-2000s.

His son Habeeb was also detained in the clashes in North Darfur, Sudan's defence minister, Lt Gen Ali Mohamed Salem, said.

"They were arrested after clashes in the area but the security situation there is now stable. They will soon be brought to Khartoum," Gen Salem added.

Musa Hilal was appointed as an adviser to President Bashir in 2008 but they later fell out. His fighters have often clashed with Sudanese forces in Darfur.

The latest fighting started on Sunday when Sudanese troops were ambushed as they oversaw a handover of weapons under a disarmament campaign, the Sudan Tribune reported.

Sudan's Rapid Support Forces said they lost 10 members, including a commander.

Musa Hilal has refused to surrender the weapons held by his militia and has also declined mediation to resolve the dispute, the report adds.

The Darfur conflict erupted in 2003 when black African rebels began attacking government targets, accusing Khartoum of favouring Arabs.

In response, the mainly Arab Janjaweed militia was accused of carrying out a policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide against Darfur's black African population.

Arrest warrants against President Bashir were issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2009 and 2010 on charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in Darfur. The conflict claimed at least 300,000 lives.

He denies the charge and has evaded arrest.

View the original report here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-42141938
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RELATED NEWS

Musa Hilal called for end to tribal fighting in Darfur
20 July 2016
Sudan Watch - September 09, 2019
- - -
Musa Hilal faces court martial in Khartoum (Part 1)
10 September 2019
Sudan Watch - September 10, 2019
- - -
Must Hilal knows truth about Hemeti & Darfur war (Part 2)
27 November 2017
Sudan Watch - September 10, 2019
- - -
Musa Hilal given senior govt position (Part 3)  
Sudan Watch - September 14, 2019
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FROM THE ARCHIVE OF SUDAN WATCH

Musa Hilal of Darfur, Sudan: Lynchpin of Arab Janjaweed Militia Recruitment
Sudan Watch - July 04, 2019
Sudanese Warlord Sheikh Musa Hilal of North Darfur
Useful Background To Crisis In Khartoum, Sudan.
- - -
Musa Hilal & Janjaweed - Misseriya and Rizeigat tribes sign peace deal in W. Darfur, W. Sudan
Sudan Watch - June 30, 2010
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Video Transcript of 2004 interview with Musa Hilal
Sudan Watch - July 06, 2019
Video transcript of a Human Rights Watch interview with Musa Hilal in Sep 2004. Last paragraph refers to a list of individuals alleged to be guilty of crimes against humanity. Musa Hilal's name is on the list. 
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Musa Hilal interview in Darfur 2004 and Khartoum 2005
Sudan Watch - July 04, 2019
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ICC: Darfur suspects must stand trial 
Sudan Watch - June 28, 2019
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Al-Bashir should face justice, says ICC
Al-Bashir taken from Kober prison to prosecutor's office in Khartoum Sudan, 
formally charged with corruption and money laundering
Sudan Watch - June 27, 2019

Saturday, September 14, 2019

Sudan: Musa Hilal given senior govt position (Part 3)

Article from The Guardian.com UK
By Xan Rice, East Africa correspondent
Dated Monday 21 January 2008 13.08 GMT
Darfur militia leader joins Sudan government
Photo:  Alleged Janjaweed militia organiser Musa Hilal addresses villagers at his north Darfur home region in 2005. Photograph: Beatrice Mategwa/Reuters

A tribal sheikh described as "the poster child for Janjaweed atrocities in Darfur" has been given a senior government position by the Sudanese authorities.

Musa Hilal, who is accused of leading militias on a state-sponsored campaign to cleanse parts of Darfur of non-Arab farmers, will act as special advisor to the minister of federal government, local media reported.

The appointment was made despite Hilal facing a United Nations travel ban and sanctions for his role in the conflict, and ahead of his possible indictment by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes.

Hilal has admitted recruiting local Janjaweed militias for the government, but denies personal involvement in the scorched earth campaign that has driven more than two million people from their homes, and seen more than 200,000 people die.

He told Reuters on Sunday that his new role would be based in Khartoum but would include travel to outlying areas.

Analysts say Hilal's nomination will act as a further stumbling block to efforts to persuade Darfur's myriad rebel groups to enter peace talks with the government, who they accuse of condoning and even rewarding those people responsible for the worst atrocities in Sudan's western region.

In September, President Omar al-Bashir appointed Ahmad Muhammad Harun, one of two men sought by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur, as state minister for humanitarian affairs. The other accused, an alleged Janjaweed leader known as Ali Kushayb, was freed from jail the following month.

Richard Dicker, director of the International Justice Program at Human Rights Watch, said the UN secretary general, Ban Ki Moon, who is due to meet President al-Bashir during an African Union summit next week, should insist that Hilal's position is revoked.

"Musa Hilal is the poster child for Janjaweed atrocities in Darfur," said Dicker. "Rewarding him with a special government post is a slap in the face to Darfur victims and to the UN Security Council."

In April 2003, shortly after a rebel attack on a Darfur army base that triggered the conflict, Hilal, the son of a famous paramount chief, was released from prison in Port Sudan where he was serving a sentence for robbery. He immediately returned to Darfur, convening a meeting where he reportedly ordered Arab tribesman to attack all non-Arab villages and steal their livestock. He was given arms and supplies by the government.

In a Guardian interview in 2004, Hilal said that he raised a militia from his clan to fight the rebellion launched by mainly African ethnic groups in Darfur.

"The government was putting forward a programme of arming for all the people," he said. "I called our sons and told them to become armed."

But rights groups allege that Hilal's role went far beyond recruitment. It says that he ran training camps for his fighters, and was present at the scene of several large attacks on villages in North Darfur.

As part of its case against Harun, prosecutors at the International Criminal Court described Hilal as a "notorious militia/Janjaweed leader" who spoke alongside Harun at a militia rally in 2003, making a "very racist" speech in which he talked of "holy war". The court said it will issue more indictments, and Hilal is thought to be high on the list of candidates.

Sally Chin, a Sudan analyst at the International Crisis Group, said Hilal's appointment came at a time when some Arab communities in Darfur were voicing anger at the government, and even forming alliances with rebel groups.

"Giving Hilal an official position is a disturbing move," she said. "It sends a very negative message to Darfur and to the negotiation process."

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RELATED NEWS
Sudan: Hilal called for end to tribal fighting in Darfur
20 July 2016
Sudan Watch - September 09, 2019
- - -
Sudan: Musa Hilal faces court martial in Khartoum (Part 1)
10 September 2019
Sudan Watch - September 10, 2019
- - -
ICC: Hilal knows truth about Hemeti & Darfur war (Part 2)
27 November 2017
Sudan Watch - September 10, 2019
- - -

FROM THE ARCHIVE OF SUDAN WATCH
Musa Hilal & Janjaweed - Misseriya and Rizeigat tribes sign peace deal in W. Darfur, W. Sudan
Sudan Watch - June 30, 2010
- - -
Video Transcript of 2004 interview with alleged Janjaweed leader warlord Musa Hilal 
Sudan Watch - July 06, 2019
Here is a copy of the video transcript of a Human Rights Watch interview with Musa Hilal in September 2004. Last paragraph refers to a list of individuals alleged to be guilty of crimes against humanity. Musa Hilal's name is on the list. 
- - -
Sudan Warlord Sheikh Musa Hilal interview in Darfur 2004 and Khartoum 2005
Sudan Watch - July 04, 2019
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Warlord Sheikh Musa Hilal of Darfur, Sudan: Lynchpin of Arab Janjaweed Militia Recruitment
Sudan Watch - July 04, 2019
- - -
ICC: Violence against civilians in Darfur Sudan must stop and all 
Sudan Watch - June 28, 2019
ICC Darfur suspects must stand trial
- - -
Mass killings in Darfur, Al-Bashir should face justice, says ICC - Al-Bashir taken from Kober prison to prosecutor's office in Khartoum Sudan, formally charged with corruption and money laundering
Sudan Watch - June 27, 2019

Tuesday, September 10, 2019

ICC: Hilal knows truth about Hemeti & Darfur war (Part 2)

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor:  The following article by Radio Dabanga dated 27 Nov 2017 features the Nov 2017 arrest of Sheikh Musa Hilal in North Darfur by Hemeti’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Coloured highlighting is mine.

See the second photo: a captive’s shoulder appears to be newly bruised, his shirt is being roughly pulled, he looks dazed and exhausted, the arm of a lowlife RSF thug seems to be raised in a violent manner.  

The eyes of the captives look strange, like they have been through hell. Surely they feel shocked, devastated, humiliated and ruthlessly betrayed by Messrs Bashir and Hemeti. 

Hemeti inveigled himself into Bashir's life who treated Hemeti like the son he never had. Bashir felt protected by Hemeti. Together, Bashir and Hemeti protected themselves. 

The arrest took place during the Bashir era. Hemeti ordered the RSF to bring Musa Hilal to Khartoum "dead or alive". Musa Hilal sought peace for Darfur, had the skills and gold to do so, posing a threat to Bashir's regime and Hemeti's lust for power in Darfur and its gold.

Musa Hilal is a warrior, for 16 years he has known the truth about his former underling Hemeti, the RSF and Janjaweed, what went on in Darfur and Khartoum, and the policing of vast areas far away from Khartoum. 

Musa Hilal’s daughter is married to Chad’s president Idriss Deby. Hemeti hires men from Chad for his RSF. 
Musa Hilal and his relatives and affiliates have been locked up in Omdurman prison for almost two years.  Have they been given a fair trial? Who is checking that they are being properly treated and cared for?

Could the UN/International Criminal Court (ICC) arrange to transport Musa Hilal and his relatives and affiliates to the safety of the ICC in The Hague where the truth could be told to help bring peace to Sudan?

Musa Hilal and his relatives and affiliates must be kept safe, treated respectfully and taken good care of now and in the future as they could help bring peace to Darfur and Sudan - and, in turn, South Sudan.

Article from and by Radio Dabanga.org
Dated 27 November 2017 - MISTERIYA / KHARTOUM
Musa Hilal, Revolutionary Awakening Council leadership arrested in Darfur
Musa Hilal, chairman of the Revolutionary Awakening Council, arrives as captive in Khartoum on Monday (RD)

Musa Hilal, former janjaweed leader and chairman of the Revolutionary Awakening Council, as well as his sons, brothers, entourage, and senior members of the Council’s leadership, were arrested on Sunday and arrived today in Khartoum.
The official Sudan News Agency (SUNA) reports that the Commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemeti), has affirmed that Hilal was arrested on Sunday at Misteriya area, North Darfur. Gen. Hemeti, says that Musa Hilal was “involved in a plot against Sudan which has external dimensions”.

Hemeti said that in addition to Hilal, a number of his aides and three of his sons have also been detained. He also referred to detention of “a person who holds a foreign nationality among the forces of Musa Hilal”, indicating that this man had advanced communication equipment, “a matter which confirms the involvement of foreign parties in the acts for undermining the security and stability in Darfur”.

Hemeti affirmed stability of the security situation at Mustariha area, reiterating determination of his forces to continue implementing their duties.

Sons and brothers
Sources from the area also confirm the Hilal’s sons Habib, Fathi, and Abdel Basset were also held, along with his brothers Omar Hilal, Adam Ramadan, and Mohamed Barma Yusuf.
Brothers, sons and affiliates of Hilal were also captured (RD)

The arrests seem to verify claims made by Hilal’s Council last month of a plan for the RSF to capture him and send him “alive or dead” to Khartoum. In a statement, the Council accused “influential parties” within the government of “seeking to punish Hilal”, who has refused to cooperate with the government’s current campaign of arms collection.

Witnesses have told Radio Dabanga that at least 11 members of the Border Guards militia were killed in Sunday’s clashes. Callers said that civilians, including at least three women, were also killed during Sunday’s clashes, but exact numbers have not yet been ascertained. The area is reportedly under siege – all roads in and out are controlled by the RSF. Large military reinforcements have arrived with “tanks, armoured vehicles, and 500 armed vehicles”.

Arms collection
A spokesman for the RSF, Colonel Abdelrahman El Jaali, confirmed the death of the RSF director of general supplies, Brigadier Abdelrahim Gumma, in Hilal’s heartland of Misteriya during the confrontations that led to the arrest. Col. El Jaali told SUNA that Gumma was killed when he went to investigate an ambush on two vehicles transporting Hilal-led militia elements arrested within the framework of the forcible arms collection campaign.

He stressed that the state will go ahead in its project for collecting weapons and confronting those who tend to undermine the national security.

Also on Sunday, a spokesman for the RSF, Colonel Abdelrahman El Jaali, announced the arrest of Haroun Mahmoud Madikheir, the spokesman for the Revolutionary Awakening Council at Wadi Bari south of Misteriya of Kutum locality in North Darfur. Madikheir was reportedly on his way to Chad with his bodyguards.

El Jaali said in a statement to SUNA that the rapid support militia managed to arrest the most important person in the leadership and the founder of the Revolutionary Awakening Council accompanied by his personal guard.