Latest news with #MohamedDagalo
The National
04-04-2025
- Business
- The National
UAE says companies sanctioned by US over Sudan war not operating in the Emirates
The UAE on Friday said seven companies facing US sanctions for alleged links to the civil war in Sudan do not hold active business licences in the Emirates and are not operating in the country. The US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control said in January it would take action against the entities due to their association with Gen Mohamed Dagalo, the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The US accuses the RSF of engaging in a 'brutal armed conflict with the Sudanese Armed Forces for control of Sudan, killing tens of thousands, displacing 12 million Sudanese, and triggering widespread starvation'. The companies have been identified as Capital Tap Holding, Capital Tap Management Consultancies, Capital Tap General Trading, Creative Python, Al Zumoroud and Al Yaqoot Gold & Jewellers, Al Jil Al Qadem General Trading and Horizon Advanced Solutions General Trading. They are accused by the US of having ties with Gen Dagalo and the RSF, in some cases providing money and military equipment to support its war effort. The UAE said it had carried out its own investigation into the companies after the US said they were to be sanctioned. 'Upon notice of the sanctions designations, the UAE initiated its own investigation into the entities and related individuals, seeking additional information from US authorities to support these investigations,' state news agency Wam reported. 'The Ministry of Justice has confirmed that none of the seven entities hold an active business licence in the UAE, nor are they currently operating in the UAE. Relevant UAE authorities continue to monitor any potential suspicious activity in accordance with applicable UAE laws.' Sudan has been at war since April 2023, with a power struggle between the Sudanese Army and RSF causing millions to flee the fighting. The UN said in 2024 that both sides may have committed war crimes. About 150,000 people are estimated to have been killed during the war, with 12 million Sudanese displaced.
The National
16-03-2025
- Politics
- The National
Sudan's RSF leader Dagalo threatens to march on government-controlled Port Sudan
Mohamed Dagalo, the leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary, is threatening to attack the seat of the military-backed government in Port Sudan on the Red Sea, along with northern cities that have so far been untouched by the country's two years of civil war. The threat coincides with witness accounts of heavy fighting in the capital Khartoum, where the army and its allies are advancing slowly towards the presidential palace and government ministries. 'Monday is the anniversary of the creation of the Rapid Support Forces and we will turn it into a day of regret and grief for the army,' Gen Dagalo said in a video posted on social media on Saturday. 'Fighting will be different and we will come from any and everywhere and will at the end triumph over the army.' He had threatened in the early days of the war to march on Port Sudan, where army chief and Sudan's de facto ruler Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and his senior staff have been based for more than a year. On Saturday, however, Gen Dagalo threatened to march on cities north of the capital, including Atbara, Shindi and Dongola, to capture the 'criminals' there, an apparent reference to those who once supported ousted dictator Omar Al Bashir and are now allied with the army against the RSF. The north and east of Sudan had not been affected by the war between the army and the RSF, which broke out in April 2023 after months of tension between the two generals vying for control of the country. However, the RSF made rapid advances in the early days of the conflict, capturing the capital's international airport, government ministries, the presidential palace and most of the armed forces' headquarters, as well as a string of military bases and industrial complexes. The paramilitary continues to control most of the western Darfur region and parts of Kordofan to the south-west of the capital, but its forces have been thrown out of large parts of the greater capital's three sister cities – Khartoum, Bahri and Omdurman – as well areas south of the capital in central Sudan. Gen Dagalo vowed in his latest address to defend the presidential palace from the army. He also encouraged Sudanese citizens in the impoverished east of the country to rise up against the military. Witnesses on Sunday said troops and volunteers have advanced to within two kilometres of the palace, capturing a complex of office and residential towers called Abrag El Neilein and the landmark site of the national archives. Videos posted online purported to show volunteer fighters celebrating at each site. Gen Dagalo was visibly angry in the 13-minute address. 'It appeared to be disjointed and not focused,' prominent analyst and publisher Osman Al Mirghany said. 'It's very clear that he's reached an advanced stage of despair. He was unable to give an address that makes a point or delivers a clear message.' The war in Sudan has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 10 million people. Additionally, it has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis, with about 26 million, more than half the population, facing acute hunger. There are pockets of famine, mainly in the west, and are forecast to spread unless a major relief operation gets under way soon. Gen Dagalo's address and the army's battlefield advances in Khartoum came as residents of the capital and central regions reported large-scale abuse against them by volunteers allied with the army, as well as a wave of looting by armed criminal gangs. They said the worst abuse was taking place in Wad Medani, capital of the agriculture-rich Al Gezira state that was retaken from the RSF last year. Other areas that have suffered a near-total breakdown of law and order are in the capital, especially in Omdurman, where residents are reporting widespread looting by gangs in military uniform. The lawlessness in the capital prompted one of Gen Al Burhan's senior aides, Yasser Al Atta, to order immediate steps to combat crime during a meeting last Tuesday with members of the capital's security committee. On the same day, the committee called on the police and members of security agencies to return to their prewar jobs within 48 hours. 'It's a very serious problem, especially in Wad Medani, where some residents, who had earlier been displaced, returned home after the army retook the city, only to leave again because of the abuses against civilians by the volunteers,' said Mr Al Mirghany. 'Regrettably, some of the volunteers are finding themselves in a position where they can take advantage of being armed in the face of innocent, unarmed civilians.' Neighbours of Khartoum resident Hamed Othman were caught in the crossfire between the army and the RSF in the southern Khartoum district. Mr Othman, however, said life has become just as harrowing after the army and its allies rid the area of the RSF. 'We are being subjected to chaos and lawlessness the like of which we had never experienced before,' he said. 'We are getting robbed by armed men wearing different military fatigues. There are no police to protect us and there's also a total absence of the rule of law. Ironically, there is an entire market now in our district that sells furniture and electric appliances looted from our homes.' Both the army and the RSF face accusations by the UN and international rights groups of committing abuse against civilians in the war, with the International Criminal Court investigating war crimes and crimes against humanity by the paramilitary in Darfur. Both Gen Al Burhan and his one-time ally Gen Dagalo are under US sanctions because of their role in the war. Al Shafie Ahmed was reporting from Kampala, Uganda
The National
26-02-2025
- Politics
- The National
Sudanese military aircraft crash near Khartoum kills at least 46
Civilian and military personnel killed as Russian-made Antonov crashes during take-off At least 46 people were killed when a Sudanese military transport plane crashed into a residential district on the outskirts of Khartoum, the local government said on Wednesday. It said the Russian-made Antonov aircraft went down on Tuesday night near Wadi Sayedna airbase, one of the army's largest military hubs in the capital's greater region. A technical malfunction has been cited as the most likely cause of the crash. The army said the plane crashed during take-off, killing and injuring military personnel and civilians. 'After a final tally, the number of martyrs reached 46, with 10 injured,' the Khartoum regional government's media office said in a statement. It said the crash caused a fire, which was put out. Witnesses described hearing a loud explosion and seeing several homes damaged near the crash, which also caused power cuts. A day earlier, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which have been at war with the armed forces since April 2023, claimed responsibility for shooting down a Russian-made Ilyushin aircraft over Nyala, the capital of South Darfur. The army has not commented. The war in Sudan is essentially a power struggle between army chief and de facto president Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and his one-time ally RSF commander Gen Mohamed Dagalo. The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced at least 12 million people. It has also created a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, with 26 million people facing acute hunger and pockets of famine surfacing across the vast and resource-rich Afro-Arab nation. With additional reporting by AFP
The National
31-01-2025
- Politics
- The National
RSF resistance stalls Sudanese army advance in Khartoum
Stiff resistance by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces is stalling the advance of Sudan's army and allied militiamen in the capital, witnesses said on Friday. They reported fierce street battles taking place in Bahri, one of three cities that make up the capital's greater region along with Khartoum and Omdurman, following the army's swift advances in the area over the past week. The army and the militia fighters were bogged down in several Bahri districts, witnesses said, including Kafuri, where the city's richest and most powerful families lived in villas on leafy streets. In the south of Bahri, repeated attempts by the army and the militiamen to cross the Al Mk Nemer Bridge over the Blue Nile into Khartoum have been thwarted by RSF snipers. Crossing the bridge would put the army within a short distance of the RSF-held presidential palace, several ministries and the commercial hub of the capital. Street battles also raged on Thursday and Friday as the army tried to advance on the presidential palace from the armed forces headquarters in Khartoum, the witnesses said. RSF commander Gen Mohamed Dagalo vowed to repel the army's offensive in the capital, urging his fighters not to dwell on the territory they had lost but to focus on what they could capture, in recorded comments posted online on Friday. 'You're as good as gold. You're lions,' he told his fighters in an apparent bid to lift morale after a string of battlefield defeats. In cryptic comments directed towards army chief Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, he said: 'You are not quite out yet of the trap we have set up for you.' Gen Al Burhan said on Sunday that his troops would throw the RSF out of Bahri within days, then head to Omdurman and Khartoum, both of which remain mostly in the hands of the RSF. Outside the capital, the RSF controls most of the vast Darfur region in the west, large swathes of Kordofan in the south-west and areas south of the capital. The army remains in full control of northern and eastern Sudan as well as regions to the south-east of the capital. The army's recent battlefield gains in the capital are significant, including last week's recapture of the armed forces headquarters in Khartoum; breaking the siege of the Signals Corps base in Bahri; and retaking a major oil refinery north of the city where the paramilitary had kept a large contingent of fighters. The war broke out in April 2023 when the rivalry between Gen Al Burhan and his one-time ally Gen Dagalo boiled over into street fighting in the capital that soon spread out across much of the vast Afro-Arab nation. The pair are competing to dominate the resource-rich country, where the civil war has killed tens of thousands and forced more than 10 million people to flee their homes, three million of whom left Sudan. The fighting has also created the world's most serious humanitarian crisis, with 26 million people, more than half the population, facing acute hunger and pockets of famine surfacing in various parts of Sudan. Both Gen Al Burhan and Gen Dagalo stand accused of war crimes by the UN and international rights groups. They were sanctioned by the US government in the final days of former US president Joe Biden's administration earlier this month. However, the pair insist they are fighting to defend Sudan and its people. Al Shafie Ahmed reported from Kampala, Uganda
