Gruppe Wagner: That’s why the mercenaries are now active in Sudan

Analyse

Carl-Philipp Frank / watson.ch

At least 185 people have died in Sudan since Saturday, and around 2,000 have been injured, some seriously. There is talk of a (renewed) impending civil war. The reason: The two most powerful military in the country compete in armed battles – and terrorize the civilian population across the country.

It is rumored that not only the two aforementioned military men are involved in this conflict, but also the well-known Russian mercenary group Wagner.

What is the background of the conflict?

In 2019, the then incumbent dictator Omar al-Bashir was overthrown after decades of rule. The coup plotters were military men – ironically put into power by the dictator. Also involved in the coup: the paramilitary RSF (Rapid Support Force, Rapid Response Force). This was also officially announced by al-Bashir in 2013 Life was summoned, but was de facto formed out of the Janjaweed militia.

The commander of the RSF – both then and now: Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, also known as Hemetti. The son of Chadian cattle traders grew up in the troubled Darfur region of southern Sudan and joined the Janjaweed at an early age. The militia was notorious for mass atrocities against civilians during the 2003-2007 war in Darfur.

Daglo rose through the ranks and used his local power to build a business empire, becoming one of the wealthiest Sudanese. After the end of the Darfur conflict, he turned the Janjaweed into a mercenary force that also operated in Libya and Yemen – and was ultimately hired by al-Bashir as the RSF.

Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, SRF leader, mercenary, warlord and now putschist.Image: IMAGO / SNA

After the coup in 2019, depending on the political situation, sometimes the military and sometimes civil society prevailed in the struggle for power in Sudan. The military staged another coup against the compromise government in 2021, but was forced to make a final transition to a civilian government in 2022 due to ongoing protests.

And indeed, in December 2022, the most important ones signed parties a corresponding framework agreement – ​​representatives of civil society, trade unions, associations, militias, Daglo and the commander-in-chief of the regular troops, Lieutenant General Abdalfattah al-Burhan, were involved. Al-Burhan thus became the official head of state.

Abd al-Fattah al-Burhan.Bild: IMAGO / ITAR-TASS

An important part of the document: the army should be subordinate to the government, while paramilitaries and militias would be incorporated into the army. Daglo thus became al-Burhan’s deputy. A disgrace for the leader of a group of mercenaries who had been doing what they wanted for the longest time.

And since last Saturday, Daglo wants to restore and expand the power of the RSF. The country is once again caught between two fronts: “A national-conservative right-wing that is mainly based on the old elites” around President al-Burhan. As well as “a younger generation military elite that dreams of a revival of Arab socialist ideals under the rule of a strong man” around Daglo. So designated the German Islamic scholar Reinhard Schulze the situation in the East African country. In between stands (and suffers), as usual, civil society.

What are Wagner mercenaries doing in Sudan?

And now to the Wagner mercenaries. These have gained wide notoriety in the wake of Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, where they are believed to have committed a number of war crimes.

That Wagner troops in Africa work is nothing new. In the Libyan civil war, the mercenary troops under Yevgeny Prigoshin support the insurgent General Khalifa Haftar. Wagner was also active in Mali and the Central African Republic, reports “Al Jazeera“. And also in Sudan.

For the first time Wagner troops under dictator al-Bashir in Sudan became active. In 2017 he visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. goal of Travel was to be able to sell Sudan to the Russian ruler as the “gateway to Africa”. In addition, the rule of al-Bashir was already controversial in his own country, perhaps al-Bashir hoped for the support of Russia to get hold of.

Political support, but also material. Russia is (along with China) one of the most important arms suppliers to Sudan. Russia abstained from the recent UN Security Council resolution to extend the arms embargo on Sudan China the voice.

Shortly after the state visit, Meroe Gold, a gold mining company under Russia’s M Invest, began flying Russian experts to Sudan. The mined and processed gold is then transported by military aircraft Syria smuggled to Russia. This reported the CNN in July 2022.

In 2020 M Invest was founded by the USA sanctioned. The reason: Treasury Department investigations revealed that M Invest is an alias for the Wagner Group. The Wagners were sanctioned by the US in 2017 and by the EU in 2021.

But what exactly were the Wagner soldiers supposed to do in Sudan? Samuel Ramadi, author and expert on Russian-African relations, told Al Jazeera: “They were primarily used to guard the mineral resources, especially the gold deposits.”

During the protests against dictator al-Bashir in 2019, Wagner would also have been given the task of actively suppressing protesters and breaking up demonstrations.

But after a massacre in Khartoum, the mercenary force was “shut down” again. So back to guarding gold mines.

But not only al-Bashir, but also Warlord Daglo is an old acquaintance of Prigozhin. The two are said to have been working closely together since 2016 – back then in Libya.

Are Wagner troops actively fighting now?

There have been no independently verified reports that Wagner soldiers directly intervened in combat events.

But Ashok Swain from Uppsala University in Sweden told Al Jazeera that Wagner is “very likely” active in the political struggle – one wants to protect the business (gold) interests. The United States had recently urged the incumbent military government to expel the mercenary force from the country: “Therefore, the Wagner group has a great interest in who wins the power struggle,” says Swain.

Ramadi agrees. Wagner is currently in a more defensive position:

Incidentally, there is no official Wagner presence in Sudan: Yevgeny Prigozhin announced on Tuesday about the official Wagner Telegram channelthat there was never a single Wagner soldier in Sudan.

Like the United States and other countries, Russia has called on both parties to the conflict to settle the fighting. An active participation of Russian mercenaries in the fighting would reflect badly on an already badly diplomatized country.