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Who are the foreign mercenaries fighting in Sudan?
from BBC MONITOR 30
With violence continuing in Sudan, despite peace talks mediated by the USA and Saudi Arabia, our Sudan specialists Omneya El Naggar and Beverly Ochieng consider reports of regional and foreign mercenaries – including Russia’s Wagner Group –in the country.
Observers and media reports say mercenaries are fighting alongside the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Lt Gen Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (better known as Hemedti), against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by Lt Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
European military reports estimated there were around 18,000 fighters from Chad, Niger, Mali, northern Nigeria and southern Libya in the country
Countries including Chad, Mali, Niger, the Central African Republic (CAR) and Libya have been identified as sources of mercenaries lured either by filial and tribal connections to Hemedti – or by money gained from his gold mines in Sudan’s restive Darfur region.
Senior SAF officials have alleged the involvement of Russia’s Wagner group amid reports that the mercenaries are supporting the RSF with both fighters and weapons.
The RSF has denied the claims and also accused unnamed foreign powers of backing the army.
However, the involvement of foreign mercenaries risks widening the conflict and worsening insecurity in the politically volatile region.
First reports
One of the first reports of foreign fighters in Sudan was carried by the Islamic-focused Tayba TV, which reported “foreign nationalities amongst the [RSF] militia’s dead bodies at Merowe airport”.
The channel quoted security sources in the northern city of Merowe on 30 April, saying there were 756 dead from Hemedti’s forces, most of them “foreign nationals from neighbouring countries”.
Days later, the Sudanese army accused the RSF of using West African mercenaries during the fighting.
The army did not provide proof or name specific countries, but said the mercenaries were recognised by their “unfamiliarity with the values and customs of the Sudanese people”.
Sahel states
The UN special envoy to Sudan, Volker Perthes, told the German website Qantara there was no evidence of Wagner mercenaries in Sudan, but there were “quite a number” of “bounty hunters and mercenaries” from the Sahel states.
Sudanese writer Al-Sadiq al-Raziqui explained that the wars in Darfur and Yemen led to West African mercenaries fighting alongside the RSF.
He wrote on Al Jazeera’s website that mercenaries returning from Yemen in 2019 were still in Sudan and European military reports estimated there were around 18,000 fighters from Chad, Niger, Mali, northern Nigeria and southern Libya in the country.
Chad was the largest source of these mercenaries due to tribal affiliations and the ease of movement into Sudan, as well as the two countries’ shared values and culture, he said.
Hemedti himself belongs to a small Chadian Arab camel-herding clan, which took refuge in Darfur in the 1980s.
Russia’s Wagner Group
The Wagner Group is believed to have been operating in Sudan since 2017 with an eye on economic gains from the country’s gold and mineral resources through Meroe Gold, a subsidiary of a company owned by Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Wagner has reportedly provided training to the RSF and – in the run up to the removal of President Omar al-Bashir from power in April 2019 – was seen in Khartoum during antigovernment protests.
Reports from Darfur-focused Radio Dabanga indicated that 500 mercenaries operated between Sudan and neighbouring CAR.
While a 2020 Wagner propaganda film featured Sudan as one of the countries where it operated, Prigozhin said –shortly after the fighting began – no Wagner fighters had been in Sudan since 2021.
Meanwhile, Sudan is strategically important to the Kremlin and there is a long-standing agreement to establish a Russian naval base at Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
Libya
Sudan has reportedly sent mercenaries to fight in other countries, including Yemen and Libya. The RSF's ties with powerful Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar date back to 2019 when Hemedti is believed to have deployed at least 1,000 of his fighters to fight alongside Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA).
Media reports suggested that the Libyan warlord has been supporting the RSF against the Sudanese army, sending planes with military supplies acquired from the UAE, although this has been denied by the LNA.
Media reporting
Several Arab media outlets have reported on African and Wagner mercenaries joining the RSF in its fight against the Sudanese army, with some mulling how this would impact regional stability.
The prominent Libyan privately owned Al-Wasat website said that this would diminish chances of restoring peace and stability in Libya, the main focus of UN envoy for Libya Abdoulaye Bathily’s tour of Libya's southern neighbours last April.
Al-Wasat said that the crisis in Sudan would destroy all efforts to remove foreign mercenaries, especially the Sudanese, from Libya as they would use the country's south as a base to “oppose the [Khartoum] regime militarily”.
Abdoulaye Bathily, UN Special Representative for Libya and Head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL)
Gulf-based pan-Arab channels and websites, especially Qatar-linked ones, have also highlighted the presence of foreign mercenaries in Sudan.
Doha-based Al-Araby TV published a video report on its interactive digital platform Ana al-Araby on 16 May titled “Sudan, a battlefield for different mercenaries”, in which it quoted eyewitnesses in Khartoum who observed French-speaking fighters amongst the RSF, suggesting that they were from Chad.
The report added that the RSF has been receiving weapons from parts of Libya under Haftar control.
Wider implications
The reported engagement of foreign mercenaries in Sudan casts a dark shadow over the conflict, which appears to have no end in sight.
It not only exacerbates the fighting, but also has been a cause of unrest amid accusations that these bounty hunters have been involved in human rights abuses and looting.
There is a high risk of worsened insecurity in different areas leading to ethnic unrest, especially in Darfur. The Amsterdam-based Radio Dabanga website reported on 16 May that “over 2,000 people might have died” in El-Geneina in Sudan's West Darfur State where alleged ethnic attacks had “been ongoing for 21 days”.
Regionally, there are also concerns over the operations of mercenaries that might affect stability in both Libya and Chad.
Libyan journalist and activist Ismail Bazanka told the Middle Eastfocused website Arabi21 that the military conflict in Sudan would affect the “security situation” in Libya, particularly in the country's south due to the expected influx of rebellious forces and mercenaries in camps near the border.
International relations professor Kwaku Nwamah told Voice of America that “the US is worried about Chad”.
“Chad is a strong American ally, and Russia is already in the vicinity in the Central African Republic,” said Nwamah. “If Hemedti wins this conflict, the Darfur region can become a starting base for Arab rebels who are challenging the government in Chad.”
