Putin using Sudan for gold as his cronies allied with militia groups

Putin appears to limp amidst speculation over his health

Fighting in Sudan entered its fourth day on Tuesday as the world realises the extent and severity of what is soon growing into a bloody civil war. Both sides are thought to have brokered a 24-hour ceasefire starting at 6pm local time (4pm GMT). Fierce clashes have been reported from around the country, including the capital Khartoum, and nearly 200 civilians are thought to have been killed.

The fighting is between army units loyal to the de factor leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), an infamous paramilitary group accused of killing countless civilians in years gone by, commanded by Sudan’s deputy leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

Tipping the country into war is believed to be the plan to incorporate the 100,000-strong RSF into the army as Sudan transitioned to a civilian-led democracy. The two leaders are also said to have disagreed over who would take command of the new military setup.

Sudan has been blighted by autocracy in one form or another for decades. When al-Burhan led a coup against President Omar al-Bashir in 2019, millions around the country hoped for a better future. For now, that hope has disappeared.

This week, snippets of reports suggest that the burgeoning civil war isn’t only concerned with domestic matters and that outside influence has been niggling away at Sudan for years.

Last year, it was reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin was extracting vast amounts of Sudanese gold in order to fuel his war machine.

It is no surprise: the Russian mercenary Wagner Group is believed to be present in Sudan, standing guard over goldmines and other lucrative natural resources enterprises.

According to a CNN investigation, Dagalo and al-Burhan colluded with Putin on the gold export operation which deprived Sudan, one of the poorest countries in the world despite being one of the world’s largest gold producers, of the valuable resource.

Michael Jones, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) told Express.co.uk: “There is an existing relationship with Wagner and the RSF, and as I understand it, the Sudanese army has cooperated to a certain degree with Wagner, and there’s indications and reports around business activities in Sudan, around securing gold mines, mineral deposits, and supporting the military and paramilitaries in various sort of respects.”

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In return for their help, Putin is believed to have provided military and political backing to help the now-warring leaders to hamper Sudan’s transition to democracy.

In 2022, reports emerged about what local Sudanese were calling the “The Russian Company” — an outfit guarding a gold mining plant. The company was of course the Wagner Group, which is soon becoming not only a military arm of Russia’s underground mercenaries but a full-blown business force, one that is quickly expanding across Africa.

Wagner has obtained lucrative mining concessions that produce streams of gold, which will, according to the New York Times, add hundreds of billions to the Kremlin’s gold stash that US officials worry will be used over the long term to overcome Western sanctions.

On December 1, 2020, Russia signed an agreement with Sudan allowing it to create a repair and resupply naval facility in Port Sudan, in the country’s east, on the Red Sea. Plans were revisited last month when al-Burhan welcomed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and agreed to host a Russian Naval base in the port.

Wagner is believed to be heavily involved in the deal as it will use the base as a launchpad for its mercenary operations in neighbouring countries. It is also thought that the eastern region of the country is rich in uranium and so the port will also act as the perfect base and export channel for the heavy metal.

Russian and Sudanese customs and corporate documents, obtained through the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, a nonprofit in Washington, show the extent to which Wagner’s business interests are rooted in Sudan.

In a statement on May 24, 2022, the US State Department said the Wagner Group has “spread a trail of lies and human rights abuses” across Africa.

As part of its investigation, the New York Times wrote to Yevgeny Prighozin to ask about Wagner’s various mining interests in Sudan. The letter was sent before Mr Prighozin admitted he had established the group, and in a reply, he wrote: “I, unfortunately, have never had gold mining companies. And I am not a Russian military man. The Wagner legend is just a legend.”

The group’s operations in Sudan first began in 2017 after a meeting between Putin and former Sudanese President al-Bashir at the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.

It was here that al-Bashir proposed Sudan as Russia’s “key to Africa”, offering a new alliance in return for Moscow’s help — an offer Putin couldn’t resist.

Russian geologists and mineralogists were on Sudanese soil within weeks, surveying the land and scouting out new gold reserve locations. A new company purporting to be Sudanese called Meroe Gold was established, which the US Treasury Department says is controlled by Prigozhin.

Customs records from Russia show that over the next 18 months, Meroe Gold imported some 130 shipments into Sudan, mostly mining and construction equipment, but also military trucks, amphibious vehicles, and two transport helicopters.

One of the helicopters was later photographed in the Central African Republic (CAF), where Wagner troops have helped to protect the country’s President Faustin-Archange Touadéra.

Business soon turned to politics, as Russia and Wagner began advising al-Bashir on how to go about appeasing the public. When revolts broke out and risked toppling the government in late 2018, Wagner advisors sent a memo urging the Sudanese government to launch a social media campaign in order to undermine and discredit the protestors.

The memo is said to have advised the former president to execute some members of the protests in order to send a message to the public.

When al-Bashir was overthrown, the Russians changed tack. A week after the 2019 revolution, a plane carrying Prigozhin and a delegation of Russian military officials arrived in Khartoum.

They are believed to have met with senior Sudanese defence officials, according to flight data obtained by the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta.

Of those present included a brother of General Hamdan who was at the time emerging as a post-revolution power broker. Six weeks later, on June 3, 2019, General Hamdan’s troops launched a bloody attack on pro-democracy protestors in the capital, killing at least 120 people over a two-week period.

At this time, Meroe Gold is thought to have imported 13 tons of riot shields, also sending helmets and batons for a company controlled by General Hamdan’s family, documents show.

From this point on, Russian activity in Sudan increased tenfold, with multiple Russian military cargo flights landing in Port Sudan, as well as gold flows bound for Russia.

Despite their early alliance and pro-Russian stances, al-Burhan and Dagalo’s clash has sent the country into a conflict not experienced for decades.

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