Atlanta, United States (CNN) — The Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group, occupies a prominent position in Sudan. Its leader – Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) – achieved a rapid rise to power that began in the Darfur conflict in Sudan in the early 2000s. twenty.
At the time, he was the commander of the notorious Sudanese Janjaweed forces implicated in human rights abuses and atrocities.
In the face of international outcry over the actions of the Janjaweed in Darfur, then-Sudanese dictator Omar al-Bashir formalized the group into paramilitary forces known as the Border Intelligence Units. It was the beginning of an illustrious and controversial military career.
In 2007, Hemedti was appointed brigadier general and his forces became part of the country’s intelligence services. In 2013, al-Bashir formally created the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group commanded by Hemedti and directly supervised by al-Bashir.
He was widely known by his family name, Hemedti. The former dictator has openly referred to him as a variant of this title “Hemeti”, which means “protector”.
Wealth and growth of forces: Hemedti’s consolidation of power was accompanied by the rapid accumulation of wealth. The paramilitary commander has captured major gold mining sites in the Darfur region. By 2017, the country’s gold sales accounted for 40% of exports.
Hemeti was also developing important foreign connections. In 2015, when Sudan joined a Saudi-led coalition to fight the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, Daglo sent the RSF to Yemen. Among other tasks, the troops are assigned a key security file – guarding Saudi Arabia’s borders with the war-torn country.
Dagalo’s forces were growing rapidly to number tens of thousands, including thousands of armed pickups, that regularly patrolled the streets of the capital, Khartoum.
Dagalo would continue to betray al-Bashir and help overthrow him. Sources told CNN at the time of Bashir’s ouster that he personally told Bashir that “the time has come to step down”. At this point, he was one of the most powerful and richest men in Sudan.
After the overthrow of al-Bashir: In June 2019, Dagalo’s forces opened fire on an anti-Bashir pro-democracy sit-in in Khartoum, killing at least 118 people. They allegedly burned protesters’ tents, killed sit-in participants and, according to several accounts, raped female protesters.
Later that summer, Dagalo was appointed vice-chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council that governed Sudan in partnership with the civilian leadership.
He also inherited a key relationship Bashir nurtured — a working relationship with the Russian paramilitary Wagner Group, which a CNN investigation found helped thwart democratization and exploited Sudan’s gold wealth in order to break Western sanctions on Russia and help fund Moscow’s invasion. Ukraine.
Relationship with the Army Commander: Sudanese military commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Dagalo were — until Saturday’s clashes — comrades. Together, they have been linked to the 2021 coup and the overthrow of al-Bashir before that.
Sources in the Sudanese civil movement and Sudanese military sources told CNN that the main points of contention included the timeline for merging the forces, the place given to RSF officers in the future hierarchy, and whether the RSF should be under the command of the army commander – rather than the commander-in-chief. For Sudan – which is currently proof.