Chaos in Sudan and Repression in Tunisia: What Is the True Role of the UAE in North Africa?

The UAE’s involvement in fueling Sudan’s turmoil was revealed by several signs after violent confrontations erupted between the Sudanese army and the forces of Hemedti, a militia leader who defied the army.

One of these signs was that Hemedti’s Facebook page was run from the UAE. Hemedti has a close relationship with the UAE and receives its backing through its national security adviser, Tahnoun bin Zayed.

Gold is the main factor in this relationship, as a 2019 report by Global Witness—a human rights and anti-corruption organization—showed that Hemedti and his Rapid Support Forces control four gold mines in various parts of Sudan, making them a major player in the gold mining sector.

 

Sudanese Gold

A new report by Global Witness, an organization that investigates corruption and environmental abuses, reveals how a Sudanese paramilitary leader has been using a front company to smuggle gold from Sudan to the United Arab Emirates, enriching himself and his allies while undermining the country’s fragile transition to democracy.

The report names Abdul Rahim Hamdan Dagalo, the brother of Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, as the owner of al-Junaid (or al-Gunade), a company that was established in 2009 and has a bank account at First Abu Dhabi Bank.

According to Global Witness, al-Junaid receives cash payments from the export of gold through the bank, bypassing Sudan’s official channels and depriving the state of much-needed revenues.

Sudan is one of Africa’s largest gold producers, exporting up to $16 billion worth of the precious metal annually, 99 percent of which ends up in the UAE, the report says.

The UN Security Council has also documented the smuggling of at least 96,885 tons of Sudanese gold from 2010 to 2014, including 48 tons from the conflict-ridden Darfur region.

Hemedti, who commands the Rapid Support Forces, a notorious militia accused of human rights violations in Darfur and elsewhere, has been a key player in Sudan’s political turmoil since the ouster of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019.

He has also been a loyal ally of the UAE, sending troops to support its military intervention in Yemen and backing its interests in the region.

The report suggests that the UAE has an interest in destabilizing Sudan and thwarting its democratic transition, especially after Hemedti clashed with Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of the Sudanese army and the leader of the military council that seized power in a coup last October.

Al-Burhan had been negotiating with the pro-democracy Forces of Freedom and Change coalition to restore civilian rule and end the crisis in the country.

The report also accuses the UAE of fueling the security situation in Khartoum and complicating the political crisis in the country by supporting Hemedti and his militia against al-Burhan and his supporters.

 

Logistic Support

A new report has exposed the hidden financial dealings of Sudan’s most powerful militia, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and its leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

The report reveals how the RSF and its affiliates have used front companies in the UAE to funnel money from the Emirati government to Sudanese businesses controlled by Hemedti’s relatives, who have been accused of plundering the country’s natural resources, especially gold.

The report, based on documents obtained by Nick Donovan and Richard Kent of Global, shows that the RSF has a secret bank account at the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (now part of First Abu Dhabi Bank), which did not respond to a request for comment from the network.

The documents also show that a UAE-based company called Tradive General Trading, owned and run by Hemedti’s younger brother Algoney Dagalo, has acted as a conduit for transferring money between the RSF’s accounts in Abu Dhabi and Sudan

According to the documents, Tradive received 50 million dirhams (about $13 million) from the RSF’s account in Abu Dhabi in several installments, and then sent back 48 million dirhams to the RSF in Sudan. One of the documents described the transfers as “a transfer from a sister company.”

According to the investigation, the Rapid Support procurement record showed that it received a total of AED150 million (more than $40 million) in installments, of which more than AED111 million ($30 million) was spent to purchase vehicles and walkie-talkies, all from the UAE.

 

‘Emirati’ Tunisia

The political turmoil in Tunisia has sparked a wave of accusations and speculation on social media about the role of the United Arab Emirates in the country’s affairs.

President Kais Saied, who seized sweeping powers by suspending parliament, dismissing the prime minister, and appointing himself as the chief prosecutor, has faced allegations of staging a coup with the backing of the Gulf state.

Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of the Islamist party Ennahda and the speaker of the frozen parliament, claimed that Abu Dhabi was behind Saied’s move to undermine the constitution and end the democratic transition that began with the 2011 uprising that ousted the longtime dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.

Ghannouchi said that the UAE saw Islamic democracy as a threat to its autocratic rule and was determined to kill the idea of the Arab Spring that originated in Tunisia.

He was not alone in pointing fingers at the UAE. Moncef Marzouki, a former president and a secular ally of Ennahda, also accused the Emirates and Saudi Arabia of orchestrating a plot to liquidate the Arab Spring across the region.

In an interview with Deutsche Welle, a German broadcaster, Mr. Marzouki said that he witnessed a surge of Emirati money and influence in Tunisia during his presidency and that the Emirati intervention was clear and troubling.

The UAE has not commented on the accusations, but it has a history of opposing Islamist movements and backing authoritarian leaders in the Middle East and North Africa.

He argued that Saied was rewarded by the Gulf states for cracking down on political Islam, which he said was a product of the democratic revolutions that swept the region a decade ago.