That is why Wagner mercenaries are now active in Sudan

At least 185 people have been killed and about 2,000 injured, some seriously, in Sudan since Saturday. There is talk of a (again) threatening civil war. The reason: the country’s two most powerful militaries are fighting against each other – and terrorizing the civilian population across the country.

But not only the two mentioned soldiers are involved in this conflict, the well-known Russian mercenary group Wagner is also making the rounds.

What is the background of the conflict?

In 2019, then-dictator Omar al-Bashir was ousted after decades of rule. The coup plotters were military men - ironically brought to power by the dictator. Also involved in the coup: the paramilitary RSF (Rapid Support Force, Rapid response power). It was also officially launched by al-Bashir in 2013, but was de facto formed from the Janjaweed militia.

The Commander of the RSF - Then and Now: Muhammad Hamdan Daglo, also called Hemetti. The son of Chadian cattle traders grew up in the troubled Darfur region of southern Sudan and joined the Janjaweed at a young age. The militia was notorious for mass atrocities against civilians during the 2003-2007 war in Darfur.

Daglo rose through the ranks and used his local power to build a business empire and became one of the wealthiest Sudanese. After the end of the Darfur conflict, he turned the Janjaweed into a mercenary force that also operated in Libya and Yemen - eventually being hired by al-Bashir as the RSF.

After the coup in 2019, depending on the political situation, sometimes the military or civil society won in the struggle for power in Sudan. The army staged another coup against the compromise government in 2021, but was forced to make a final transition to civilian rule in 2022 due to continued protests.

And indeed, in December 2022, the main parties signed a corresponding framework agreement - representatives of civil society, trade unions, associations, militias, Daglo and the commander-in-chief of the regular forces, Lieutenant General Abdalfattah al-Burhan, were involved. Al-Burhan thus became the official head of state.

An important part of the document: the army should be subordinated to the government, while paramilitaries and militias should be incorporated into the army. Daglo thus became al-Burhan's deputy. Shame on the leader of a group of mercenaries who have been doing what they wanted for a long time.

And since Saturday, Daglo wants to restore and expand the strength of the RSF. The country is again caught between two fronts: "A national-conservative right, mainly based on the old elites" around President al-Burshan. As well as "a military elite of the younger generation dreaming of a revival of Arab socialist ideals under the rule of a strong man" around Daglo. This is how the German Islamic scholar Reinhard Schulze describes the situation in the East African country. In between stands (and suffers), as usual, civil society.

What are Wagner mercenaries doing in Sudan?

And now to the Wagner mercenaries. These gained wide notoriety in the course of the war in Russia, where they are believed to have committed a number of war crimes.

Wagner troops working in Africa is nothing new. In the Libyan civil war, the mercenaries under Yevgeny Prigoshin support the rebellious general Khalifa Haftar. Wagner has also been active in Mali and the Central African Republic, reports "Al Jazeera". And also in Sudan.

Wagner troops became active in Sudan for the first time under dictator al-Bashir. In 2017, he visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. The purpose of the trip was to sell Sudan to the Russian ruler as the "gateway to Africa". Moreover, al-Bashir's rule was already controversial in his own country at the time, and al-Bashir may have been hoping for support from Russia.

Political support, but also material. Russia (along with China) is one of the most important arms suppliers to Sudan. Russia and China abstained from voting on the recent UN Security Council resolution to extend the arms embargo against Sudan.

Shortly after the state visit, Meroe Gold, a gold mining company under Russia's M Invest, began flying Russian experts to Sudan. The mined and processed gold is then smuggled by military aircraft via Syria to Russia. This was reported by "CNN" in July 2022.

In 2020, «M Invest» was approved by the US. The reason: Investigations by the Ministry of Finance revealed that "M Invest" was an alias for the Wagner Group. The Wagners were sanctioned by the US in 2017 and by the EU in 2021.

But what exactly were the Wagner soldiers supposed to do in Sudan? Samuel Ramadi, author and expert on Russian-African relations, told Al Jazeera, "They were mainly used to guard the mineral resources, especially the gold deposits."

During the 2019 protests against dictator al-Bashir, Wagner was also reportedly tasked with actively repressing demonstrators and dispersing demonstrations.

But after a massacre in Khartoum, the mercenary was "shut down" again. So back to guarding gold mines.

But not only al-Bashir, but also warlord Daglo is an old acquaintance of Prigozhin. The two have been working closely together since 2016 – then in Libya.

Are Wagner troops actively fighting now?

There are no independently verified reports that Wagner soldiers directly intervened in battle events.

But Ashok Swain of Uppsala University in Sweden tells Al Jazeera that Wagner is "very likely" involved in the political struggle - one wants to protect corporate (gold) interests. The United States had recently urged the incumbent military government to expel the mercenaries: "That's why the Wagner group has a great interest in who wins the power struggle," says Swain.

Ramadi agrees. Wagner is currently in a more defensive position:

Incidentally, there is no official Wagner presence in Sudan: Yevgeny Prigozhin announced on Tuesday via the official Wagner Telegram channel that no Wagner soldier had ever been to Sudan.

Like the United States and other countries, Russia has called on both parties to the conflict to end the fighting. Active participation of Russian mercenaries in the fighting would reflect badly on an already poorly diplomatized country.