2023-09-22 11:17:55
Is Ukraine taking war with Russia to Sudan? Strange drone attacks and a ground operation against a militia supported by the Wagner Group have attracted attention in the African country where a civil war has been raging for six months in which Russian paramilitaries support one of the fighting factions.
A CNN investigation begins to answer the unknowns that revolve around those actions. As revealed, Ukrainian special services were “probably” behind the series of attacks in Sudan.
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A Ukrainian military source told CNN that “Ukrainian special services were possibly responsible” for those attacks.
An attack in Sudan that would have been carried out by Ukraine.
Specifically, the attacks targeted the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which is believed to be receiving help from the Wagner Group in its fight against the Sudanese army for control of the country.
CNN obtained video images of the attacks that have characteristics similar to the drone actions carried out by Ukraine in the context of the war with Russia.
According to the US network, at least eight of the attacks in Sudan involved commercial drones that are widely used by Ukrainians, with text in Ukrainian on the drone’s controller.
Experts consulted by CNN noted that the tactics used, that is, the pattern of drones swooping directly at their target, were very unusual in Sudan and the rest of Africa.
Wim Zwijnenburg, project manager for humanitarian disarmament at PAX, a peace organization in the Netherlands, said it was the first time the drones identified by CNN had been observed in Africa.
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A senior Sudanese military source told CNN that he had “no knowledge of a Ukrainian operation in Sudan” and did not believe it was truthful.
As for the United States, several US officials appeared unaware of the fact and expressed surprise at the suggestion that the attacks and ground operation could have been carried out by Ukrainian forces.
Ukraine also reportedly carried out ground operations in Sudan. (CNN).
“The videos, which alternate between the pilot’s view, the point of view of a drone observing from above and that of the controller himself, show a succession of drone attacks in and around Omdurman, a city located on the other side of the Nile River. from the capital, Khartoum, which has become a hotbed of clashes between the two rival factions,” says CNN.
The American network explained that drones with first-person vision (FPV) allow pilots to see the operation from the drone’s point of view, using glasses or a monitor to see the transmission in real time. What appears to be a DJI MAVIC 3 drone can be seen in videos filming the drone strikes. Both types of drones are available on the market and are widely used by Ukrainian forces, he said.
In a video showing the drone controller’s monitor, text in English and Ukrainian can be seen, including “Зупинити,” or “Stop.” The drone operator, who appears to be foreign, can also be seen in the controller’s reflection, but is wearing a balaclava and is not identifiable, CNN says.
A British researcher who runs Caliber Obscura, a website that identifies weapons, analyzed the images and recognized that the device matches those used by Ukrainian forces to control DJI MAVIC drones.
CNN says it geolocated the locations of the small-scale attacks and ground operation seen in the drone videos, but was unable to independently verify the date the videos were recorded. Several attacks on the Shambat Bridge, which connects Omdurman and Khartoum, appeared to coincide with local reports on social media of an attack on September 8 this year.
Wagner delivered weapons to the paramilitaries
According to the investigation, these attacks occurred two days after the Wagner Group facilitated a large convoy of weapons to Sudan through an RSF garrison in al-Zurug, in the southwest of the country, near the border with Chad.
A Sudanese official told CNN that a large number of vehicles, including several trucks loaded with weapons from Wagner, arrived in Zurug on September 6. CNN obtained satellite images showing more than 100 vehicles, including dozens of trucks, at the garrison on the same day that high-level Sudanese sources reported the weapons convoy.
Meanwhile, two Chadian military informants told CNN that the convoy traveled through Chad to Zurug, which would mark an expansion of Russia and Wagner’s sphere of influence in Africa, which includes Mali, Sudan, the Central African Republic and Libya. .
Six of the drone attacks targeted pickup trucks traveling on the Shambat Bridge. Eight other attacks hit parked vehicles, buildings and gunmen in Omdurman and the western suburb of Ombada, where the Sudanese army has carried out a series of airstrikes against RSF positions in recent weeks that have claimed dozens of lives. lives of civilians, indicates CNN.
As for the ground operation, one of the videos showed at least three foreign fighters appearing to storm a building. In a clip recorded with a body camera, the troops wore night goggles and one of the soldiers appeared to be carrying a rocket launcher. An aerial shot showing troops advancing towards the building was geolocated by CNN in a neighborhood of Omdurman, close to the place where the drone attacks took place.
CNN previously reported that Wagner has been supplying the RSF with surface-to-air missiles to support it in its power struggle against General Abdel Fatah al Burhan, Sudan’s military ruler and head of its armed forces.
Sudan’s military government had received support from Wagner in the past, but the Russian paramilitary group abandoned the Sudanese army when fighting broke out this year, switching to backing General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, known as Hemedti, and his fighters in the conflict.
A high-level Sudanese source indicated that “around 90% of the RSF’s weapons come from Wagner.” He further stated that the arms supply did not decrease despite the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, and his deputy, Dmitry Utkin, in a plane crash on August 23 in Moscow.
“We have repeatedly asked the Kremlin about Wagner’s support for the RSF, and they have told us that they have no information about it (…) For us, the Kremlin and Wagner have become the same thing,” said the Sudanese official.
Speaking to CNN, a Ukrainian military source described the operation as the work of a “non-Sudanese army.” When asked if kyiv was behind the attacks, the source simply said that “Ukrainian special services were probably responsible.”
Coup d’état in Sudan. (AFP).
Besides…
Two generals who were allies now dispute Sudan
The generals Abdul Fatah al Burhan y Mohamed Hamdan Dagloknown as Hemedtithey face each other for control of the Sudan. Before the outbreak of violence earlier this year, both were allies in a military junta that overthrew an internationally recognized transitional government in 2021.
After the fall of Omar al Bashir in 2019 (he had governed for almost 30 years), Burhan He led the Sovereign Council together with the civil political parties to guide the country towards democracy.
But Burhan He carried out a coup d’état in 2021 after arresting almost all of the country’s ministers and civil officials.
Its paramilitary forces, created in 2013 and integrated into the regular army, control numerous gold mines.
During the al Bashir dictatorship, General Hemedti He managed to reach the top of power.
Hemedti He led the Janjawid militias that al Bashir ordered to implement the scorched earth policy against non-Arab ethnic minorities in Darfur in 2003.
His men are now trying to seize power from the army.
Before, during the 2021 coup, Hemedti offered his help to al Burhan. Now they are enemies.
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