Militia Commanders … between Dead, Wounded and Moving away (5-6)
Gedo Abunshok is one of the richest men in Darfur and owns three gold mines
Since ancient times, a military commander has borne the responsibilities of fighting, and several factors may combine in the success of the commander and thus the success of his forces in winning battles. In the case of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Militia, commanders are not chosen randomly, as they are commanders according to a tribal system, always relying on the elements of his tribe in war and they have tribal influence. So when the militia loses its commanders, it is difficult to replace them. The outlaw RSF lost important commanders in its war against the Sudanese people, some of whom were killed, others were injured, while a third group moved away due to internal disputes as a result of competition over commandership or a feeling of marginalization and greed for spoils at other times, which caused a weakening of the grip and control over the members of the militia, which turned into armed robbery gangs, whose concern is (Shafshafa), which is a term that is considered one of the secretions of this war.
Through this report, we discuss in a series of models of these commanders, focusing on their influence and backgrounds about their biographies.
Gedo Abunshok
When the battles intensified between the army and the Rapid Support Forces in Neyala, Al-Geneina and El-Fashir, the commander of the Rapid Support Forces in North Darfur Sector, Brigadier Gedo Hamdan Ahmed Abunshok, was the key driver of those battles. He is a person with a special status, as he is a member of the Hemeidti clan, and is in the inner circle of the military commandership of the force under his command. Abunshok joined the guard force that was formed in 2003 by former President Omar al-Bashir, and was composed of fighters from the Arab tribes of North Darfur led by Musa Hilal.
One of the (repentant)
Abunshok was one of those known as the repentant, a term given to individuals who had criminal behavior such as robbery, looting, highway robbery, and drug trafficking, and then announced their repentance. Abunshok’s fame began when he participated in the 2006 battle of Gereida between the Rapid Support Forces and Menawi’s forces, after which he was granted the rank of colonel and appointed deputy commander of the training camp in Fatasha. Following the killing of the camp commander, Colonel Ibrahim Ahmed, in the battles of Troji in the Nuba Mountains, Gedo Abunshok was appointed commander of the Fatasha camp and was promoted to the rank of brigadier general with 50 of his cousins from the sons of the Mahariya Awlad Mansour, to which the commander of the outlaw RSF militia, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemeidti), also belongs. He was then promoted to the rank of major general.
The Wealthy of Darfur
Abunshok is one of the richest people in Darfur, as he owns companies working in the field of exploration, more than 30 commercial vehicles that transport passengers, and 5 camel stables other than sheep and cows, in addition to owning a number of houses, two of which are in the airport neighborhood in Neyala, a villa in the Riyadh neighborhood, Khartoum, and a building designated for furnished apartments in the Kober neighborhood in Khartoum Bahri. Abunshok commanded the Rapid Support Forces in South Darfur until 2021, and then he took over the commandership of the Rapid Support Forces in North Darfur. Abunoshok participated in the campaign to suppress protests against Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum in late 2018. He appeared in videos posted on the Internet shaving the heads of some young demonstrators. He was behind the Rapid Support Forces’ rejection of a request from the Public Prosecution to seize his property when a Rapid Support Force intercepted, on October 17, 2022, the police investigations team tasked with seizing the equipment of a company working in gold exploration in North Darfur State owned by him personally based on a decision from the Public Prosecution.
Chadians perished
Commander-in-chief of the Chadian FACT movement, mercenary Idriss Barkai, perished in the Sahara axis, a Chadian mercenary Brigadier General Hamdan Al-Daak, and the commander-in-chief of the Chadian Al-Mazloum movement, Brigadier General Hussein Al-Amin Jojo, perished in Yarmouk.