The Russian mercenary group Wagner will provide arms to the Rapid Action Forces (RSF, for their English acronym) fighters in the war that has broken out in Sudan, which is opposed to the leader of the RSF, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, head of the Sudanese Armed Forces and De facto leader of the country, General Abdel Fattah alBourhan.
According to US broadcaster CNN, satellite imagery and information from diplomatic sources in the region suggest a Russian transport plane an Ilyushin76 made at least two flights between the Russian base in Latakia, Syria, in the past week. and two bases in Libya controlled by the forces of Libyan General Khalifa Haftar, backed by the Wagner Group.
The first trip took place on Thursday last week two days before the start of the conflict in Sudan and the second last Tuesday.
According to CNN, the Russian movements coincide with a strengthening of the military capabilities of the RSF, whose arsenal of surfacetoair missiles was fundamental to its resistance in the fighting against the Sudanese army.
News of the Libyan general’s support for RSF fighters in Sudan was broke on Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal, which also reported on Egypt’s support for the Sudanese army.
This Friday, CNN is releasing satellite images and flight logs that the broadcaster says show a Russian transport plane leaving alKhadim’s Libyan base controlled by General Haftar for the Syrian port city of Latakia where Russia has a key base.
The following day, the plane returns to alKhadim and 24 hours later flies to another base in Libya, alJufra, also controlled by General Haftar, where it was parked in a remote area a move that the expert heard by CNN was “highly unusual”.
The first flight was recorded on Thursday last week, two days before the start of the conflict in Sudan; On Tuesday, the Russian transport plane left alJufra for Latakia, then for alKhadim and again for alJufra.
According to CNN, the second arrival of the Ilyushin76 at Libya’s alJufra base came on the day Russia was providing airborne surfacetoair missiles to RSF fighters in northwestern Sudan.
The latest armed conflict in Sudan began on Saturday and has already claimed more than 200 lives, with the United Nations warning of a possible new humanitarian catastrophe in the country.
The start of the fighting comes as a result of a period of tension between Dagalo and Bourhan over the future of governance in the country following the ousting of Omar alBashir in 2019; and a military coup in 2021 that resulted in a promise of transition to civilian power.
According to another CNN investigation, published in the summer of 2022, Russian support for the Sudanese military began in 2014 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula and intensified after the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
During this period, Bourhan and Dagalo now on opposite sides of the fighting were allies, with the Sudanese army chief leading the Sovereign Council (which is the country’s de facto leader) and the RSF commander serving as vice president.
Russian support for the Sudanese military was a way for the Kremlin to gain access to Sudan’s natural resources to circumvent sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union in recent years, according to the CNN investigation.