Sudan Insurgent Is A Putin Client

As what is increasingly called a civil war in Sudan continues to spread after a week, there is mounting concern among foreign policy experts in the U.S. and Europe that a victory by insurgent warlord Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo will vastly enhance Russia's standing in Africa's third largest country.

Hamdan — widely known as Hemeti — spent several days in Moscow last year just before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. He met with Foreign Minister Lavrov and, according to several accounts, met privately with Vladimir Putin.

Since then, evidence has emerged that the notorious Russian mercenary outfit known as the Wagner Group is assisting Hemeti's RSF (Rapid Support Forces) in its battle against Army chief and head of government Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Barhan.

Wagner already controls some gold mines in Sudan, a result of its supporting both Hemeti and al-Barhan in the November 2021 coup that topple 30-year strongman Omar al-Bashir.

"But a complete triumph of Hemeti over al-Barhan would give Russia tremendous access to gold and help Putin overcome U.S. sanctions resulting from the war with Ukraine," a Sudanese source who requested anonymity told Newsmax.

The same source pointed out that the Wagner Group has a base of operations in Darfur (Western Sudan) from which it launches attacks on nearby Chad, the Central African Republican (where it runs several gold and diamond mines), and Libya — where another controversial revolutionary, Tobruk-based Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, is also reportedly assisting Hemeti.

A Hemeti regime would, in all likelihood, put the finishing touches on a Russian naval base in the Red Sea that was already agreed to by the al-Barhan government. The proposed base would almost certainly enhance the odds of the Russian forces now fighting in Ukraine.

"The Sudanese [leaders] need to sit down at a table and find some truths," Dr. Ousmane Sene, director of the West African Research Center in Senegal, told us, "It faces a situation that needs to be solved."

John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.