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Who leads the RSF and how large is the group?

The RSF is led by Vice President Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known universally as Hemedti.

Analysts say the group probably has about 100,000 members. Over the past two years, Hemedti ran a rapid recruitment campaign that helped grow the RSF’s ranks. Its troops come largely from western Sudan, near Darfur, and areas long neglected by the government, including regions in the east near the Red Sea and along the border with South Sudan, experts say.

Before its rapid expansion, a 2019 Congressional Research Service report said that RSF had as many as 50,000 troops, allegedly including child soldiers.

The group’s leader, Hemedti, has humble origins as a camel herder from a minority tribe in Darfur and was once a rebel. He eventually switched sides and turned the RSF into a powerful mercenary group. As he gained influence and wealth in Sudan, Hemedti grew his regional reach as well, deploying troops in Yemen on behalf of Saudi Arabia and in Libya on behalf of the United Arab Emirates.

Hemedti has also gone into business with the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary outfit, in gold mining and security operations in Sudan’s gold mining areas, according to Hudson.

Hemedti’s principal goal is to survive, Hudson said, and to be given a constitutional role in the country. He’s hired public relations firms in Canada and the United Kingdom as he tries to better his image — and the image of the RSF — in Sudan and around the world.

Who are the Rapid Support Forces clashing with Sudan’s military?

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The Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar helped to prepare the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a militia now fighting for control of Sudan, for battle in the months before the devastating violence that broke out on 15 April, the Observer has been told by former officials, militia commanders and sources in Sudan and the UK.

The involvement of Haftar, who runs much of the eastern part of Libya, will raise fears of a long-drawn-out conflict in Sudan fuelled by outside interests. Analysts have described a “nightmare scenario” of multiple regional actors and powers fighting a proxy war in the country of more than 45 million people.

Hemedti and Haftar have also collaborated on a range of highly profitable smuggling operations, with middle-ranking commanders in both their militias forging close links as they manage the transit of valuable illicit cargos between the two countries, experts told the Observer.

Only days before the conflict erupted, Haftar ordered the arrest of a deputy of Musa Hilal, a Sudanese militia commander who is a bitter enemy of Hemedti.

Hilal’s forces were responsible for inflicting heavy losses on Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group – another ally of Haftar – in the neighbouring Central African Republic in an ambush near the Sudanese border earlier this year.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Haftar had sent at least one shipment of arms to Hemedti, a claim denied by the LNA, while CNN described flights from LNA-run airbases organised by the Wagner group, which has a presence in both Libya and Sudan.

Russia has built close ties with both Haftar and Hemedti, but Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner group, denied the report.

The Guardian

Quote:Libya’s Haftar denies providing military support to Hemetti

April 20, 2023 (KHARTOUM) – Eastern Libyan military leader Khalifa Haftar has denied claims that his Libyan National Army (LNA) provided support to the Rapid Support Forces of Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, also known as “Hemetti,” in Sudan.

In a statement read by LNA spokesman Ahmed Al-Mismari and signed by General Haftar, the General Command refuted reports from some media outlets that the Libyan Arab Armed Forces were backing one party against another in Sudan.

“We were, are and will continue to support the stability and security of the State of Sudan and the safety of its authentic Arab-African people,” emphasized Al-Mismari.

The Wall Street Journal had reported on Wednesday that General Haftar sent military support to the paramilitary forces led by Hemetti.

According to the report, General Haftar dispatched at least one plane to fly military supplies to Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, citing anonymous sources. The report also mentioned that Egypt sent warplanes and pilots to back the Sudanese military.

Previously, a Sudanese general who is a member of the Sovereign Council had stated that two neighbouring countries, one of which shares a border with western Sudan, provided support to the militia leader.

In response, Al-Mismari said that they are in touch with the belligerents, supporting efforts to reach a cessation of hostilities in Sudan.

“We are currently conducting urgent contacts with the concerned parties, and we are ready to play a mediating role between the brothers in Sudan to stop the fighting immediately and open the way for peaceful dialogue,” he said.

Haftar’s son visited Sudan, ten days ago, after his designation as honorary president of the Sudanese Mareekh Club and his donation of two million dollars to the club. During his visit, al-Sidiq Haftar met with Hemetti.

Sudan Tribune

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GENEVA, April 25 (Reuters) - There is a "high risk of biological hazard" in Sudan's capital Khartoum after one of the warring parties seized a laboratory holding measles and cholera pathogens and other hazardous materials, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva via video link from Sudan, the WHO's representative in the country, Nima Saeed Abid, said technicians were unable to gain access to the National Public Health Laboratory to secure the materials.

"This is the main concern: no accessibility to the lab technicians to go to the lab and safely contain the biological material and substances available," he said, declining to specify which side had seized the facility.

Fighting erupted between the Sudanese armed forces and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries on April 15 and has killed at least 459 people and injured 4,072, according to the WHO's latest figures. Abid said this was an undercount, adding that he had seen two bodies in the street himself in recent days.

The clashes have paralysed hospitals and other essential services, and left many stranded in their homes with dwindling supplies of food and water. The WHO has reported 14 attacks on health facilities since the clashes began and is relocating its staff to safety.

Abid said he was transferred from Khartoum to Port Sudan on Monday as part of a large convoy that drove for 30 hours through the desert.

The United Nations humanitarian office (OCHA) has been forced to cut back on some of its activities in parts of Sudan due to intense fighting.

At least five aid workers have been killed since fighting broke out and the two U.N. agencies who lost staff, the International Organization for Migration and the World Food Programme, have suspended their activities.

"In areas where intense fighting has hampered our humanitarian operations, we have been forced to reduce our footprint," said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the OCHA. "But we are committed to continue to deliver for the people of Sudan."

Patrick Youssef, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Regional Director for Africa, urged other countries to continue pressure on Sudan to find a "long-lasting solution", even after foreigners had been evacuated.

'High bio-hazard risk' in Sudan