22 Facts About Hemedti

Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, generally referred to mononymously as Hemedti, is a Sudanese military officer and the current head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Hemedti was considered by The Economist to be the most powerful person in Sudan as of early July 2019.

On behalf of the Transitional Military Council, Hemedti signed a Political Agreement on 17 July 2019 and a Draft Constitutional Declaration on 4 August 2019, together with Ahmed Rabee on behalf of the Forces of Freedom and Change, as major steps in the 2019 Sudanese transition to democracy.

In September 2019, Hemedti helped negotiate a peace deal between groups in armed conflict in Port Sudan.

Hemedti took part in the 2021 Sudan coup d'etat, but has since distanced himself from it; in February 2023 he called it a "mistake".

Hemedti asserts his birthplace as Sudan, yet according to the BBC, The Guardian and Al Jazeera his family, who are part of a Chadian Arab tribe known for camel herding and trading, migrated to the Darfur region in western Sudan in the 1980s, escaping from war and drought in Chad.

Hemedti attended primary school up to third grade and received no other formal education.

Hemedti moved to North Darfur and then settled in South Darfur in 1987.

Hemedti is a member of the Awlad Mansour sub-section of the Mahariya tribe, which is part of the camel-herding Northern Rizeigat tribal confederation.

Hemedti was one of the perpetrators of the Darfur genocide.

Hemedti became a leader of the Janjaweed during the War in Darfur that started in 2003 and an "amir" in the Border Guards in the same year.

Sudanese political cartoonist Khalid Albaih claimed that the soldiers commanded by Hemedti "committed countless war crimes" during the war.

Hemedti was the leader of one of the Rizeigat militias who killed 126 villagers in Adwa in South Darfur in a methodical, systematic attack starting on 23 November 2004 at 6am.

Hemedti stated to African Union officials that the massacre had been planned in coordination with government soldiers over several months.

Hemedti used the RSF to take over gold mines and arrest rival Janjaweed leader Musa Hilal in November 2017, with the result that Hemedti became the biggest gold trader in Sudan via his company al-Junaid.

Hemedti was on the Al Junaid Board of Directors in 2009.

The UAE had helped Hemedti to strengthen his military through many business deal that channeled through Dubai.

UAE had paid huge sums of money to Hemedti to send thousands of troops to Yemen to fight their proxy war.

Hemedti visited Russia during Ukraine's invasion to sign a partnership deal with the Wagner Group in exchange of giving them the license to mine gold in Sudan.

Hemedti became Deputy head of the Transitional Military Council after using the RSF to detain former president al-Bashir during the 2019 Sudanese coup d'etat.

In September 2019, Hemedti helped groups in Port Sudan from the Beni-Amer people and the Nuba peoples who had been in armed conflict to reach a conciliation deal.

In January 2025, US government imposed sanctions against Hemedti, stating that this was in response to the RSF's role in committing genocide during the ongoing conflict in Sudan.