Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo—better known as “Hemedti,” or the “Butcher of Darfur”—now controls roughly 40% of Sudan. His path to power wasn't exactly conventional. Camel trading and gold mining built his fortune. Now he commands the Rapid Support Forces, Sudan's most dangerous non-state army.
The numbers tell a grim story. Over 20,000 dead. More than 15 million displaced. The RSF holds four out of five Darfur states, entrenched from the Chadian border to the heartlands. Since June 2025, they've seized the Sudan-Libya-Egypt border triangle—a crucial trade and resource hub. El-Fasher fell recently, tightening the noose on government forces in the west.
Hemedti helped orchestrate Sudan's 2021 coup. Then internal rifts erupted. In April 2023, he declared war on the very army he once partnered with. Turns out ambition and ruthlessness make for unstable alliances.
The RSF's rise is funded by cold economics. Gold mining operations. Border smuggling. Taxation of local economies. That border triangle seizure? It controls lucrative cross-border commerce and mineral wealth. Camel trade still flows through RSF territory, along with less legitimate enterprises. Money keeps the guns firing.
Foreign backing helps too. The UAE, Russia's Wagner Group, Libya's LNA—all provide weapons, helicopters, logistics. RSF fighters cut their teeth in Darfur's earlier conflicts, some as mercenaries in Yemen. They fight mobile, opportunistic campaigns. Territory shifts constantly in what analysts call a “give-and-take situation.”
But territorial control means systematic violence. Mass displacement. Infrastructure destruction. Humanitarian access gets denied routinely. Darfur suffers especially—atrocities pile up in regions under RSF authority. Sudan ranks among the world's worst humanitarian crises, and the RSF shoulders substantial blame.
In July 2025, Hemedti formed a governing alliance with SPLM-N in Nyala, consolidating authority and adding political veneer to military conquest. International analysts remain blunt about his character: power-driven, ambitious, ruthless.
The man who started with camels and gold now grips half a country in chaos. His nickname says plenty. The body count says more. Sudan's ongoing conflict has created severe currency challenges that mirror economic instability patterns seen in other African nations facing prolonged internal strife. The Sudanese pound's collapse reflects broader patterns affecting emerging market currencies, including the South African Rand which faces volatility from regional instability and commodity price fluctuations. Forex traders monitoring African markets recognize Sudan's situation as an extreme case of emerging market volatility, where political instability and armed conflict amplify currency risk factors.
