New UN report dismisses presence of Sudanese militiamen in Libya

January 19, 2019 (KHARTOUM) – UN panel of experts on Darfur belittled reports about the participation of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) alongside the forces of General Khalifa Haftar in his war against the UN-recognized government.

In a report released on 9 December 2019, UN experts on Libya said that 1,000 RSF Sudanese troops were deployed to Libya on 25 July 2019 by General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo (Hemetti).

The panel on Libya further mentioned a contract signed on 7 May 2019 between Hemetti and the Canadian Canadian company Dickens & Madson to obtain funding for the Transitional Military Council from the Eastern Libyan Military Council in exchange for his military help to Haftar’s Libyan National Army LNA).

In return, the UN panel on Darfur confirmed the contract with the Canadian firm with Hemetti but stressed the lack of credible evidence about the RSF presence in Libya.

“The Panel has no credible evidence of the presence of Rapid Support Forces in Libya, and the Panel’s sources remain unaware of any such presence,” said the UN independent experts in a report released on 14 January.

They further said that “many Arabs from Darfur and Chad who fight in Libya as individual mercenaries,” hail from the same tribes as the majority of RSF fighters.

Last December, several international officials told Sudan Tribune that they were not able to get evidence on the deployment of 1,000 RSF troops in Libya.

This new report will comfort the Sudanese army which issued many statements to dismiss reports about the presence of RSF troops in Libya.

The experts, in their report, provide more details about the Libyan commanders who use the Sudanese fighters in the civil war in the north African country.

(ST)