Did Hemedti Pass away?

Report by Rabie Hamid

Sudanese Echoes – The statement of the former military commander and member of the Transitional Military Council (TMC), General Salah Abdal-Khalig, in an interview with ( Sudanese Echoes) about the death of the commander of the insurgent Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Militia, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), opened a wide door to controversy. Although he did not affirm his death, Gen. Abdal-Khalig gave indications confirming it, by saying that Hemedti was injured and taken to the East Nile Hospital, and that one of the nurses at the hospital revealed that his right leg was amputated and that he was injured in his eye and spinal cord, and “He arrived at the hospital in a state of quadriplegia.”, she added.

The military commander mentioned, during the interview, that the famous doctor, Suleiman Salih Fedail, was following up on his case – as he is one of Hemedti’s relatives – and it is said that he died days after the accident, “I don’t think a person who was hit by a warplane will recover”, he continued.

Doctor’s Testimony

Activists have been circulating on social media platforms since the first days of the war about Hemedti’s death, revealing information they said they received from a doctor who was among 13 specialists who performed a complicated surgery on the rebel RSF militia commander at East Nile Hospital after he underwent a serious injury, and that they confirmed that Hemedti was injured on April 15. The activists indicated that the renowned doctor Suleiman Salih Fadil was summoned to treat Hemedti at Al-Fouad Hospital in Al-Sahafa neighborhood, south of Khartoum, and then he was quickly taken to East Nile Hospital, and that the doctors unanimously agreed on the impossibility of the success of the operation that was scheduled to be performed on Hemedti, so they decided to amputate his leg after the failure of an attempt to take him to Germany, and that the rebel RSF militia commander passed away on April 17, and his corpse remained in the hospital’s morgue for seven days, after which he was buried on the farm of the businessman Essam Al-Sheikh, south of Khartoum.

A storm of controversy

After almost three months of war, particulary on August 30, the Sudanese ambassador to Libya, Ibrahim Mohamed Ahmed, announced the death of Hemedti. He said, in statements to Al-Jazeera Channel, that Hemedti had passed away and he borne the responsibility for his words, and his statements sparked a storm of controversy among the Sudanese people.

Artificial intelligence recordings

On December 24, and on his facebook page, the Head of the Umma Party, Mubarak Al-Fadil, wrote “If Hemedti is dead or alive, he has been absent for 7 months, and no any meeting has been announced between him and any Western American or European official, nor any international, African or Arab official”, adding that all that is said about his presence are artificial intelligence recordings, and speaking to him (by phone) from people who do not speak Arabic, and he does not speak English, are mere allegations.
Moreover, the calls are voice calls.

Apology and a Surprise Appearance

While expectations were focusing on a meeting invited for by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in Djibouti between President of Transition Al Sovereignty Council (TSC) Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forced General Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan and Hemedti, scheduled to be held at the end of December of last year, the Djiboutian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced its inability to communicate with Hemedti for technical reasons that it did not explain. Not long after Djibouti’s justifications, the insurgent RSF militia commander appeared with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in Kampala, and video clips of that meeting were broadcasted, and he then appeared in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and South Africa.

Hemeti lookalike

After that (suspicious) appearance, the former Economic Advisor to the rebel RSF militia, Khalid Abu Bakr, blew up a new kind of surprise. The guy officially announced Hemedti’s death, saying that the person who appeared in the media was a lookalike of (Hemedti) named Mohamed Osman Al-Nour from Niger. Khalid underlined, in a post on his facebook page, that he met this man in Nairobi, “the Rapid Support Forces paid more than $2 million for voice matching operations between him and Hemedti, and making some changes to the appearance.”, he unveiled.

The Decision of a Non-existent Man

Commenting on the news of his dismissal from the position of political advisor issued by the Rapid Support Forces, former advisor Yousuf Ezzat said “I do not recognize the decision of a man who is not alive”.

Did Hemeti Pass away ?

General Al-Burhan, in a meeting with journalists in Port Sudan, sent a message to the rebel commander in which he said (I will not kill you and you will remain a fugitive). The message implied what suggests that the man is still alive, and at the same time gave indications that he did not appear and that he will remain a fugitive. So the question remains:

Did Hemedti Pass away?