Sunday, September 22, 2019

Sudan: PM orders probe into massacre of protestors

Sudanese Prime Minister orders formation of a committee to probe killing of protesters while their sit-in was being broken.

Article from Anadolu Agency.com
By MOHAMMED AMIN 
Dated Saturday 21 September 2019
Sudan to probe killing of protesters
KHARTOUM, Sudan - Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok on Saturday [21 Sep] has ordered the formation of an independent National Investigation Committee to probe the killing of the protesters in the massacre which took place in front of the army headquarters on June 3, 2019. 

The committee will have seven members to probe the killings, a statement issued by the Sudanese Council of Ministers said.

The investigation committee will include seven members representing the judiciary system, the ministries of justice, defense, interior and other independent lawyers, it added.

Human rights organizations and opposition groups said more than 100 protesters have been killed when the security officers attacked the sit-in of the pro-democracy protesters in front of the army headquarters.

Sudan has remained in turmoil since April 11, when the military establishment announced the “removal” of President Omar al-Bashir after months of popular protests against his 30-year rule.

On Aug. 21, Abdalla Hamdok became the first civilian prime minister of Sudan since 1989, when ousted President Omer al-Bashir toppled Mahdi. 

The country is being ruled under a power-sharing deal between Sudan's Transitional Military Council (TMC) and the opposition Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) coalition.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Sudan: Darfur rebel group SLM-AW absent from peace talks

News report from China News.org.cn - Xinhua
Published: 11 September 2019
Title: Sudan's ruling council, armed groups closer to reaching peace deal

KHARTOUM, SUDAN September 10, 2019 (Xinhua) - Sudan's ruling Sovereign Council on Tuesday announced that it is closer to reaching a comprehensive peace deal with the armed groups during the talks in South Sudan's capital Juba.

"The two parties to Juba talks have agreed on most of the outstanding issues between them," said the council in a press release.

South Sudan is currently hosting talks between Sudan's Sovereign Council and leaders of armed groups in Sudan's Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile regions, under a mediation initiative by South Sudan's President Salva Kiir Mayardit.

"The two parties have embarked on serious discussions that addressed the root causes of the problem, where the talks lasted for two days in Juba," South Sudan president's adviser Tut Galwak was quoted as saying.

Mohamed Hamdan Daqlu [aka "Hemeti"], deputy chairman of Sudan's Sovereign Council, is leading the council's negotiating delegation to the talks with the Sudanese armed groups.

Sudan's newly-formed government, led by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, has listed realization of peace in Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile as a top priority.

Mayardit proposed an initiative to mediate between the new-born Sudanese government and the Sudanese armed groups.

Two armed groups from Sudan's Darfur region, including Sudan's Justice and Equality Movement, led by Jibril Ibrahim, and the Sudan Liberation Movement, led by Minni Minnawi, are taking part in the talks, while the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Abdul-Wahid Mohamed Nur is absent from the talks.

Sudan People's Liberation Movement(SPLM)/Army-Northern sector, led by Malik Agar, active in Blue Nile, and the SPLM/northern sector, led by Abdel-Aziz Al-Hilu, active in South Kordofan, are also participating in the talks.  Enditem
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Sudan: W. Darfur vigil demands release of Musa Hilal (Part 13)

Article from and by Radio Dabanga.org
Dated Monday 16 September 2019 - EL GENEINA, WEST DARFUR, SUDAN
West Darfur vigil demands release of Janjaweed leader Hilal
Photo:  The families of detainees, prisoners of war, and members of the Revolutionary Awakening Council led by Musa Hilal staged a vigil in El Geneina, capital of West Darfur, to demand the release of Hilal and his comrades who were arrested two years ago in Darfur. Hilal and his sons and followers are currently facing a court martial in the Sudan capital (Picture: Social Media)

The families of detainees, prisoners of war, and members of the Revolutionary Awakening Council led by Musa Hilal staged a vigil in El Geneina, capital of West Darfur, to demand the release of Hilal and his comrades who were arrested two years ago in Darfur. Hilal and his sons and followers are currently facing a court martial in the Sudan capital.

The protesters chanted slogans demanding the release of the detainees and freedom.

The protesters also handed over a memorandum demanding their release, criticising their prosecution for their opposition to the former regime.

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.

Sudan: Campaign in Khartoum for release of Hilal (Part 12)

Article from and by Radio Dabanga.org
Dated Thursday 12 September 2019 - KHARTOUM
Campaign for release of Hilal, followers at Sudan Justice Ministry
Photo:  Protest calling for release of Revolutionary Awaking Council leader Musa Hilal in Khartoum (Social media)

The families of members of the Revolutionary Awakening Council led by detainee Musa Hilal staged a protest in front of the Justice Ministry in Khartoum on Wednesday to demand the release of Hilal and his comrades who were arrested two years ago in Darfur. Hilal and his sons and followers are currently facing a court martial in the Sudan capital.

The protesters held pictures of their leader, his sons, and his fellow detainees, and banners demanding their immediate release.

The families of the detainees handed over a memorandum to the Minister of Justice, Nasreldin Abdelbari, demanding the release of the detainees and the abolition of all procedures and trials, according to the constitutional document.

Khartoum North
The people of Wad Ramli north of Khartoum North held a vigil on Wednesday, to denounce the non-surrender of the land of a housing plan since 1998 and demanded the Prime Minister to respond quickly to their demands for the plan.

The Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC) announced the launch of two protest marches, one going to the Presidential Palace on Thursday and another to the judiciary on Thursday to demand the appointment of the Chief Justice and the Attorney General.

The FFC field work committee said in a statement yesterday that the new revolutionary agenda aims to achieve the goals of the revolution.

The committee said that the ‘march of millions’ demanding appointment of the head of the judiciary and the public prosecutor will start from El Soug El Arabi in downtown Khartoum to the Presidential Palace to deliver a memorandum.

The statement pointed out that the revolutionary schedule will continue next week with a campaign to hold accountable and prosecute symbols of the former regime by publishing their photos and opening reports against them and gathering information and documents proving their involvement in the crimes, while the campaign will end next Thursday with a march of millions to the Judiciary demanding trials of regime symbols and the National Congress Party.

Diaspora
On the international level, Sudanese nationals in Western Europe on Wednesday concluded their peaceful march in the name of justice, which started on foot from London in the UK on Saturday, concluded yesterday in the city of The Hague in the Nethrlands, where hundreds demonstrated in front of the International Criminal Court demanding that the perpetrators of crimes in Sudan be brought to justice. On top of the list is ousted President Omar al-Bashir.

One of the organisers of the march, Ziaeldin El Mubashshir, told Radio Dabanga that the march moved from the Dutch parliament to the International Criminal Court, where a memorandum was handed to the criminal court. The march aims to draw the attention of the free world, to achieve justice and impunity.

Sudan: Central Darfur prince ‘dies of torture’ in Khartoum (Part 11)

Article from and by Radio Dabanga.org
Dated 29 November 2017 - KHARTOUM
Central Darfur prince ‘dies of torture’ in Khartoum
Photo:  Musa Hilal, chairman of the Revolutionary Awakening Council, arrives as captive in Khartoum on Monday (RD)

The family of Adam Khatir, the Prince of the Awlad Eid in Central Darfur, have accused Sudan’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) of torturing him to death. Prince Khatir was one of those arrested in Darfur and transferred to Khartoum on Monday along with Musa Hilal, former janjaweed leader and chairman of the Revolutionary Awakening Council.

The son of Khatir’s brother accused the security apparatus of torturing his uncle to death. He said Khatir was arrested with Musa Hilal at Misteriya and transferred with him to Khartoum. The family was notified of his death after arriving in Khartoum.

The Sudanese Communist Party has warned of the transformation of Darfur into an arena of regional and international conflict and massive wars, as well as bearing the danger of tearing apart the rest of the country in the wake of events in Misteriya, where Hilal, his sons, brothers, and many followers were detained in a raid by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The party said in a statement that the latest developments in Darfur have confirmed the party’s view that the collection of weapon without addressing the reasons that led to holding them and the availability of security in the province will lead to further civil strife.

The party called for holding accountable all those responsible for committing crimes against Darfur people, stopping sending the sons of the province to the war in Yemen and arming the civilians outside the armed forces.

The opposition Popular Congress Party (PCP) has described what happened in Misteriya as “war launched by the National Congress Part in the name of collection of weapons”.

Kamal Omar of the PCP leadership held the government responsible for what is happening in Darfur, explaining that it has distributed weapons to the militias. He condemned the resolution of conflicts through use of violence and weapons.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Sudan: Janjaweed's international path to power (Part 10)

"He [Hemeti] has a mercenary force that he’s now willing to rent out to the region" -Cameron Hudson, former CIA analyst.  Read more below.

Article from Middle East Eye.net
Dated 28 August 2019 14:25 UTC
Gold, weapons, fighters: Sudanese Janjaweed's international path to power
Now better known as the RSF, Sudan's fearsome paramilitary group has a long history of involvement in foreign countries that has continued unabated since the uprising
Photo:  Sudan's Janjaweed have moved gold, guns and fighters across borders as they have grown into one of Sudan's most powerful forces (MEE/AFP/Illustrated by Mohamad Elaasar)

Perched on pick-up trucks adorned with machine guns and baskets of rocket-propelled grenades, the notorious Rapid Support Forces (RSF) were an unsettling sight for Khartoum when they began fanning out across the Sudanese capital earlier this year.

Already infamous for their origins in the Janjaweed militias - the “devils on horseback” accused of genocide in Darfur - the now-formalised paramilitary group was no longer rampaging through Sudan’s margins, but dominating street corners in the heart of the capital. 

Amid a tussle over Sudan’s future following months of protests that brought down three-decade ruler Omar al-Bashir, the RSF has become one of the country’s most powerful forces, and many consider their commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagolo, otherwise known as Hemeti, to be Sudan’s de facto leader. 

Removing them has appeared impossible, despite the demands of protesters who despise the RSF for the deadly violence it has unleashed on demonstrations.

The joint civilian and military government now taking shape secures Dagolo’s position as a leader and his RSF as effectively equal to the army within the military. 

The RSF's rise involved doing Bashir’s bidding domestically, but also becoming an enforcer for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, transforming its image from a militia that raided villages mounted on horses and camels to one of a significant regional actor. 

Yemen was not, however, the first time the Janjaweed played a role with implications beyond the limits of Darfur.
Photo:  Heavily armed RSF fighters have been stationed around Khartoum and Sudan since Hemeti's rise to power (AFP)

The path Janjaweed leaders have followed to wealth and power has also involved moving weapons and fighters over borders with Libya and Sudan’s other neighbours, exporting the products of a gold mining monopoly to the United Arab Emirates and taking advantage of Europe’s desire to stem the flow of refugees from Africa

That international inclination does not appear to have been tempered by the increased burden of controlling Sudan’s capital, with more than 1,000 troops reportedly deployed to Libya and sales of weapons to militias in neighbouring Central African Republic continuing over recent months. 

“[The RSF] is another name for the Janjaweed, repackaged in a new form, with more resources, which it managed to get both domestically and also from abroad,” Professor Ali Dinar, a senior lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania's Department of African Studies, told Middle East Eye. 

“The RSF is a country inside a country. It has its own economic investment, it has its own political relations with countries. There is a lot going on.”

Along the borders: Libya, Chad, Central African Republic
Darfur’s long borders with Libya, Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR) are not nearly as hard as they appear to be on the map. They are porous, traversed by both traders and herders whose tribes span across boundaries and do little to halt the movement of transnational militias. 

So when Hemeti signed a $6m lobbying deal in May that proposed sending military support for east Libya-based Khalifa Haftar, it was far from the first time fighters or weapons would be moving across those borders.

The fall of Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 and the subsequent division of the country led to a surplus of weapons that often made their way south. But long before that, in the 1980s, Gaddafi was linked with the flow of weapons south of the Sahara. 

“Gaddafi, both before and after he fell, was a fountain of weapons for the greater Sahel region,” said Sudan researcher Eric Reeves, describing how even now much of the RSF’s modern weaponry seems to have come from Libya. 

When Gaddafi launched a series of wars against Chad throughout the 1980s, he stationed in Darfur his Islamic Legion, a paramilitary force founded to Arabise the Sahel. There, they were hosted by the Um Jalul tribe and the father of future Janjaweed leader Musa Hilal.

According to a CIA dispatch in 1986, Libya sent convoys of military equipment, technicians, special forces and other individuals, described as aid workers but who had military training. 

The New York Times reported two years later that Chadian officials accused Libya of “smuggling in rifles in sacks of flour” by using roads built under the pretence of aid to transport weapons.

Around the same time, tensions were growing between nomadic Arab communities like Hilal’s, who were losing their traditional grazing lands to a changing environment, and indigenous agricultural communities like the ethnic Fur. 

The tensions had by 1987 led to the creation of a group named the Arab Gathering, which in a letter to Sudan's then-president Jaafar Nimeiri, promoted a vision of Arab supremacy that reflected Gaddafi’s pan-Arab ideals.

“Dating back a long time ago, [there was] a kind of war between different Arab groups who settled in the region and the Fur who were there," Dinar said. "There was this conflict throughout the 80s with a lot of destruction from both sides, and this issue intensified with access to arms during the Chadian war.”

The Sudanese government, he said, did little to intervene and even potentially benefited from the tensions. Later, the government would tap into these Arab communities to form the Janjaweed. 

Hilal was one of those Arab Gathering members, and by the 2000s he was telling his Janjaweed fighters to "change the demography of Darfur and empty it of African tribes” - playing a crucial role in a state-sponsored campaign the UN estimates killed at least 300,000 people.
Photo:  A picture taken in April 2004 shows the village of Khair Wajid after being burnt by Janjaweed militias in the western Darfur region of Sudan (AFP/Photographer Julie Flint)

Two decades after Gaddafi’s incursions into Chad, another Chadian rebellion launched from Darfur in 2008 would help cement Hemeti's ties to Bashir’s government - at a time when various Janjaweed militias were fracturing and even rebelling against the government after their initial campaign against Darfuri rebels slowed down. 

Hemeti himself briefly defected, before returning to the government's side and being deployed with 4,000 men near the border to support Chadian rebels trying to topple President Idriss Deby - who himself had come to power with Khartoum’s support. 

According to a cable sent by the US charge d’affaires at the time, Khartoum’s need for fighters to support the Chad offensive led it to agree to Hemeti's conditions which it had previously rejected, including the formal integration of his forces, the promotion of his commanders and a payment of 3bn Sudanese pounds, then worth close to $120m. 

By 2012, another Janjaweed leader was recruiting fighters to leave Darfur for a foreign war: Moussa Assimeh.

Assimeh gave himself the title of general when he became one of the leading commanders of a grouping of militias known as the Seleka, which drew mostly from Muslim inhabitants of the CAR to topple the government in Bangui. 

The Seleka temporarily achieved their goal, but the violence unleashed on Christian Central Africans along the way prompted a backlash against Muslims, and the Seleka coalition soon fell apart. More than 5,000 were killed in fighting between communities, according to a count by the Associated Press. 

Though Assimeh was not part of Hemeti’s Janjaweed faction, Africa Confidential reported that some of the fighters who fought in CAR were later absorbed into the RSF

According to UN reports, the RSF has continued to sell weapons, equipment and pick-up trucks used to transport fighters to CAR militias, despite a peace agreement signed with the government. These sales have continued to involve Assimeh and even Hilal, despite the latter's imprisonment in Sudan since 2017.

The reports detail how militias take their vehicles for repair in southern Darfur’s town of Nyala, while Hemeti has himself met with Noureddine Adam, one of the most influential leaders of the Seleka rebellion. 

Across the Red Sea: Gold, weapons and the war in Yemen
When Bashir needed fighters to send to Yemen to support his Saudi and Emirati allies in 2015, it was to Hemeti he turned. 

The RSF was in the perfect position to provide troops to fight on the ground in Yemen, providing a physical presence to complement Saudi and Emirati air strikes, by recruiting in Darfur and reportedly, even across the border in Chad. 

“It’s not a secret. People were recruited specifically from south Darfur, from Nyala, to Yemen and were promised a lot of money,” said Dinar. “When you think of the unemployment rate in Sudan in general and that region of Darfur in particular... Instead of going and working as a civilian, you go and maybe you won’t come back.”

Hemeti himself has claimed he has 30,000 fighters in Yemen. 

According to Cameron Hudson, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and former CIA analyst, Bashir used the RSF to deepen his relationship with the Saudis and Emiratis - but the relationship also helped Hemeti grow in stature himself. 

“He’s been on the ground in Yemen and has routinely gone through Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, meeting with military and political figures around battle plans in the Yemen campaign and has earned their trust and respect,” Hudson said. 

After Sudanese forces, apparently led by the RSF, dispersed in Khartoum a months-long peaceful sit-in in June against military rule, killing more than 100 protesters in the process, Hemeti’s forces swept across the city, some of them in UAE-made military vehicles. 
[Sudan Watch Ed: Above tweet by Christiaan Triebert @trbrtc Jun 6, 2019
"Here's a sharper picture of one of the Emirati-made NIMR Ajban 440A. It's driving north along Bashir Elnefeidi Street in Khartoum, #Sudan" 
View the original tweet and comments here: https://twitter.com/trbrtc/status/1136723968323440640 ]

After the military council took over from Bashir, with Hemeti officially named deputy leader, it was promised $3bn in aid from Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Hemeti’s relationship with the Gulf has not relied solely on weapons however. He has also found fortune in Darfur’s gold mines. 

The mines of Jebel Amer had been attracting small-scale gold miners from the area and even across the borders in Chad and Central African Republic since 2010, but they quickly fell into the hands of the Janjaweed. 

Hilal’s forces built a monopoly, making money by imposing duties on prospectors and mining, and exporting gold themselves. 


By 2017, Hemeti was in charge of those mines, having taken them over during a government-sponsored disarmament campaign in Darfur during which the RSF defeated Hilal’s forces and imprisoned the rival Janjaweed leader. 

“Gold is money, gold is power and I think that whoever controls that gold has a lot to say in politics,” said Dinar. “Though the government of Sudan knows that, instead of putting its own hand on it, it subcontracts it to Hemeti and Hemeti has to show his loyalty.”

North towards the Mediterranean
On the long route north to Europe via the Mediterranean, Sudan is both a stopping point for and a source of refugees. 

The European Union, wanting to both stem this movement of people and the numbers dying during the crossing, started the Khartoum Process in 2015 to invest in projects in the Horn of Africa.

While the projects were aimed at improving the living conditions refugees were fleeing in their countries, they also involved working with border forces to stop people from reaching Libya, the main embarkation point for Europe. 

In Sudan, it was the RSF who took on these responsibilities. Though the EU denies it ever provided funds directly to the RSF or the Sudanese government, a UN employee told MEE that the EU’s partner organisations do.

Hemeti himself has claimed the RSF works on Europe's behalf to "protect their national security” by stopping thousands of migrants.

Meanwhile, a September 2018 report by Dutch think tank Clingendael cited interviews with migrants claiming the RSF had also been involved in trafficking people to Libya.

“The EU looked the other way, it didn’t complain about this,” said Sudanese researcher Suliman Baldo, a senior advisor at the Enough Project, which campaigns for solutions to major conflicts in Africa. “It didn’t complain that the RSF were implicated in several incidences of being involved in human trafficking.”

“The EU needs to seriously subject itself to a thorough review of the negative consequences it has had, chief among them that it legitimised a deadly militia.”

Hemeti’s lobbying deal signed with Canadian firm Dickens and Madson in May promised the development of more international links beyond Africa and the Middle East, dangling the possibility of securing meetings with US officials - including President Donald Trump.

The firm also promised to lobby Russia, with which Sudan already has a strong relationship. Russian security firms train the Sudanese military and since 2018 have been operating in southern Darfur, training fighters from the CAR, according to Amsterdam-based Sudanese broadcaster Radio Dabanga. 

A mercenary force
The US charge d’affaires in Khartoum wrote in February 2008 that the “ruthless Janjaweed” militias of Darfur had shown in their dealings with the Sudanese government that they were pragmatic and concerned above all, about preserving their own political and economic interests. 
“[They] will go with whoever offers them the best deal,” he wrote. 

Over the following decade, various Janjaweed militias have continued to engage in both domestic and regional missions, serving their own interests as well as that of the government's. 

According to Hudson, the large force Hemeti now commands will always need work to keep the fighters satiated and loyal, which increases their likelihood of continuing to work beyond Sudan’s borders.

“He needs to keep them fed and he needs to keep them happy,” said Hudson. “He has essentially a mercenary force that he’s now willing to rent out to the region and that should be a concern to all the states in the region.”

“I think the message to the Saudis and Emiratis is that he may be your man in Khartoum, but be aware that one day he might sell his services to the highest bidder.”

This article is available in French on Middle East Eye French edition.


The notorious militia leader seizing control of Sudan's future

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Sudan: Hemeti's seizing control of Sudan's future (Part 9)

Article from the Middle East Eye.com
By KAAMIL AHMED in Khartoum
Dated 31 May 2019 15:00 UTC 
The notorious militia leader seizing control of Sudan's future
Hemeti led Sudan's ruthless Janjaweed militias and may now be the country's most powerful man
Photo:  Paramilitary group leader Hemeti joins a prayer before an iftar event held in Khartoum during Ramadan (MEE/Kaamil Ahmed)

Hemeti dangled an apology to his audience. He had spoken too much and would finish soon. But the answer from the crowd of Darfuri sultans was a chorus of disagreement: they wanted more from the man who has become arguably the most powerful figure in Sudan.  

The one-time Janjaweed militia commander was lauded at every possible opportunity during a recent iftar event held for the sultans - tribal leaders who, unlike the Darfuri people Hemeti is accused of waging a war against on behalf of the Sudanese government, are established allies of his.

Whenever his name was mentioned during the event, it was always in full and accompanied by his title – Mohamed Hamdan Dagolo, vice president of the Transitional Military Council (TMC) – and met with ululating, as a single hoarse voice somewhere in the back barked the name of the notorious paramilitary group Hemeti leads, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

When he arrived at the garish banqueting hall in Khartoum hosting the dinner, the first task was a collective prayer for Sudan and a request for God to bless Hemeti.

It was all part of a charm offensive launched by a man who started out as a camel trader, became a militia leader and now, in the Sudan that has emerged after three-decade ruler Omar al-Bashir was ousted on 11 April, appears to be positioning himself as a potential leader of the country. 

Remnants of the regime
Though second in command within the military council that now rules Sudan, and its only member not to come from the Sudanese army, Hemeti is also the most visible of its leaders. He appears and speaks publicly more often than the TMC's president, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

Throughout Ramadan, Hemeti has used such evening fast-breaking iftar events held by his own supporters or soldiers to address the nation. Using elaborate camera set-ups broadcasting live, the general has shared his thoughts on the ongoing stand-off between the council and protesters who have occupied the area outside the military headquarters for almost two months demanding a civilian government. 

"He's trying to depict himself as a man of the people, as a populist," said Khalid Medani, associate professor of political science and Islamic studies at Montreal's McGill University. 

Medani told Middle East Eye that while Hemeti's strategic capabilities have been underestimated because of his lack of formal education, he is in fact positioning himself to preserve the system left behind by Bashir, despite protesters' demands for civilian rule. 

"It wasn't unlikely that there would emerge a figure from the previous regime who would basically try to upgrade authoritarianism by offering some semblance of civilian rule but at the same time making sure the remnants and the most important institutions of the old regime would remain," he said. 
Photo:  Hemeti, in uniform, sits with allied sultans from Darfur (MEE/Kaamil Ahmed)

Hemeti has spoken regularly about the ongoing negotiations between the military council and protest leaders, aimed at delivering a transitional joint military and civilian authority, but he has also taken on a diplomatic role far removed from his days as a militia leader. 

The military council's social media accounts regularly show him meeting Khartoum-based ambassadors. At the iftar for Darfuri sultans, he welcomed the Saudi and US envoys. To ensure coverage, his team called Khartoum's hotels to alert the international media of his appearances. 

Last week, Hemeti flew to Saudi Arabia to meet Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, while Burhan visited Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Between them, the two managed over a couple of days to meet the three nations most supportive of the military council and most despised by the protesters, who accuse these countries of interfering in Sudan's revolution. 

Charm offensive
Since the protests began in December, Hemeti has put forward two images of himself - the champion of the protesters and the person to keep them in check - sometimes simultaneously.

On 25 December, in the first week of the protests and on the day of the first major demonstrations in Khartoum, he live-streamed on Facebook a speech given to his troops from the back of a pick-up truck in a dusty field, announcing his support for the protesters.

The reaction from the public, however, was still one of suspicion given his record in Darfur, where the RSF’s predecessor, the Janjaweed militias, were involved in a government campaign that killed at least 200,000 people, according to the UN. 

The militias, primarily composed of Darfuri Arab fighters, were deployed by Khartoum to fight against rebels in the area. But the Janjaweed were accused of instead targeting civilian non-Arab tribes with executions, torture and rape. Hemeti was made leader of one of the largest Janjaweed militias in 2003, and then took command of the RSF when those militias were formalised in 2013, rising through the ranks as a reward for his loyalty to Khartoum while other Janjaweed leaders rebelled. 

His forces have since been deployed against other rebellions in Sudan, including in South Kordofan and Blue Nile state, and have taken on anti-migration operations funded by the European Union, though they have themselves also been accused of facilitating smuggling. 

Even after his December speech wooing the protesters, his forces were reportedly involved in crackdowns that killed dozens of protesters. Since rising to power within the TMC, Hemeti has repeatedly spoken about not accepting "chaos" from the protesters. 

[ Tweet by Sudanese Translators for Change STC @SudaneseTc RSF leader and TMC Vice President, Himedti threatens dismissal of anyone who participates in the General Strike and Civil Disobedience to be announced by the SPA in escalation of pressure on the the TMC for an immediate transfer of power to a civilian gov.#SudanUprising 3:30 PM - May 22, 2019 ]

When protest leaders announced a general strike that has halted Sudan's private and public sectors this week, to pressure the military into striking a deal for a new balance of powers, he warned: "Whoever strikes, by God, they should go home."

In the same week, in an interview with Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram, he said negotiations were going well and the military council intended to hand over power as soon as possible. 

"When the people's movement reached its peak, I decided to align with it," he told the newspaper. "The Sudanese people appreciated this position and praised the Rapid Support Forces for siding with the masses."
Photo:  Picture taken in April 2004 shows the village of Khair Wajid after being burnt by Janjaweed militias in the western Darfur region of Sudan (Julie Flint / AFP)

In reality, protesters at the sit-in outside the military headquarters do not share that perception of Hemeti. 

On 13 May, forces dressed in the uniform of his RSF opened fire on the sit-in outside the country's military headquarters, where protesters have been camped out for two months, killing six and injuring more than 200. The next day, signs at the protest read: "RSF is the Janjaweed, and Hemeti is a new Bashir."

A major player
In Khartoum, residents often identify Hemeti's RSF forces by the supplies they always have stocked in the back of their pick-up trucks, readying them to be dispatched to any part of the country at short notice to deal with insurgencies and opposition. 

The sight of those trucks, baskets of rocket-propelled grenades hanging in the open, has become more common in Khartoum since Bashir's removal. Many see it as a sign of Hemeti's power. 

Though Burhan leads the TMC, Medani believes the two are "very, very close" and that "they work in tandem". The scholar points to their long-standing working relationship, which started in Darfur and most recently involved recruiting soldiers sent to fight in Yemen.

Medani said Hemeti may have even pushed for Burhan to become the leader of the TMC, to guard against his own opponents within the military - many of whom dislike Hemeti's forces, which they see as militiamen more than soldiers. 

And while Hemeti has recently tried to display his political abilities, some question whether a man more used to using violence will be able to deal with the challenges he is likely to face from opponents or the protesters. 

Despite denying his forces were involved in the deadly 13 May attack near the sit-in, protesters have repeatedly blamed them for other incidents of troops firing, including against a march from southern Khartoum to the sit-in this week. 

"Hemeti’s success is really in the battlefield, he devised a new form of insurgency tactic that outdid the Sudan military," said Medani. "That is a very different dynamic to confronting a popular protest...a form of organisation he doesn't even understand."

"He’s having a problem figuring out how to campaign against this."

By train and by plane, Sudan's people gather to protest for a new nation