UAE Intelligence Accused of Spreading Misinformation About Hemedti’s Life and Death
Testimonies provided by defectors and prisoners captured by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia have revealed new details deepening the uncertainty surrounding the fate of the force’s commander, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as “Hemedti.”
The defectors and prisoners said they had never seen Hemedti “in person, face to face” at any of the armed combat fronts where they had been present in Sennar, Al-Gezira and Khartoum, up until their departure from Jebel Aulia Bridge towards the vast plains of Kordofan of Greater Kordofan in early 2025. They stressed that their knowledge of his activities or movements was limited to what circulated on social media platforms about meetings and gatherings in Nyala or Nairobi, or to conversations circulating among his relatives.
The speakers pointed to what they described as “intensive media disinformation” overseen by United Arab Emirates (UAE) intelligence to conceal the truth about his condition, whether he was dead or still alive.
The prisoners and defectors described Hemedti’s previous promises to meet his forces on the front lines of the battlefield—following the example of army leaders such as Al-Burhan, Al-Kabbashi and Al-Atta—as an expression of a chronic “inferiority complex.” They said this stemmed from his status as a “desert commander” who lacked academic qualifications and experience in military planning and tactical operations management.
The testimonies considered this lack of military knowledge a major reason for the failure of what they described as the “UAE separatist project” for the Darfur region, and the beginning of the RSF’s military downfall in the face of operations by the Sudanese Armed Forces and forces supporting them.