Al-Marsad Newspaper: After the overthrow of the Sudanese President, Omar al-Bashir, the military council assumed power, and all the members of this council belong to the military establishment except for Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo, nicknamed Hamidati, who held the rank of first lieutenant general by a decision of al-Bashir himself.
Hamidti comes from the Rizeigat tribe of Arab origins that live in the Darfur region in western Sudan. In his twenties, he worked mainly in the camel trade between Libya, Mali and Chad, in addition to protecting commercial convoys from bandits in the areas controlled by his tribe.
He became famous and gained a great fortune in the nineties of the last century, which prompted Al-Bashir to approach him, especially since he was leading a large militia to protect commercial convoys, and he also participated in the battles of Darfur.
Al-Bashir legitimized this militia by naming it the “Rapid Support Forces” according to a presidential decree he issued in 2013. Its main strength was made up of 5,000 members who had been armed and active long before that.
2017, Hemedti’s forces arrested a militia commander who was seizing gold mines, and the RSF seized Sudan’s most profitable gold mines.
Overnight, Hemedti became the country’s largest gold dealer and – by controlling the borders with Chad and Libya – its largest border guard force.
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In the aftermath of Bashir’s ouster, Hemedti appeared on the news every week distributing money to policemen to return to work on the streets, to electricity workers to return to their workplaces, teachers to return to school, or cars to clan chiefs.
In 2019, Lieutenant General Muhammad “Hamidti” was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General, and he was appointed as Vice President of the Transitional Military Council, which was headed by Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, following the dismissal of Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir on April 11.
On August 20 of the same year, the Sovereign Council was formed to lead the transitional period for a period of 39 months, consisting of 11 members – six civilians and five military personnel. Hamidti became the first vice president of the council, which was also chaired by Al-Burhan.