If you enter in the search box in any news browser, the Arabic terms “Hamidati Donates” حميدتي يتبرع the famous name of the Vice-President of the Head of State council of the transitional government in Sudan and the leader of the Janjaweed militias, whose name correlated with many human rights cases of abuse, evils massacres, and rapes in Darfur region and the capital Khartoum, which his militia later rebranded the so-called Rapid Support Forces, the search result will show you tens of report of vast and in-kind material donations in all endeavors in Sudan indeed incorporating donations to build infrastructure projects of the state, hospitals, schools, etc. beside political, social and humanitarian donations
Almost all of these search results indicate that the crusade of donations commenced by Hamidi occurred again immediately after the overthrow of the regime of erstwhile President Omar al-Bashir in a great popular uprising where Hamidi was part of the old regime at the time and a key accused of engaging in all the misdeeds perpetrated in that era and once devoted associate to President Al-Bashir and a leading member of the security committee tasked to preserve the regime, but he declares his preference and his militias to side with the Sudanese revolution and strengthened with the army chiefs to force the former president to step down
No one knows much about the background of Hamidati, his clan, and his militias until they popped up in the catastrophes of the Darfur region when the former regime refuted its existence on the ground when its violations appeared and maintained secret till it was swiftly and covert instructed to move out of Darfur for a short span after the arrival of the UNAMID forces but appeared thereafter when it disclosed to be hailed the Rapid Support Forces 10 years later claimed by the regime that they are forces part of the Sudanese Security Service.
Until the December uprising, the state did not trumpet independently the expense of the budget of its militias, which were referred to as belonging to the account of the security service and the army in the general budget
In 2012, when foreign and local investigations into the Gold smuggling from Sudan revealed that the militias’ outlay of themselves, as well as their revenue from the government from extensive mining in gold, smuggling and trading it to the Bank of Sudan in the “Jabal Amer scandal”, the government abruptly announced at the time that the territory belonged to the Hamiditi clan before falling back and revealing through the Ministry of Mining and Mineral Resources that it has peddled the mining area to Hamiditi family
Subsequent, investigations by Global Witness, which tracks looted natural and mineral resources and corruption cases, revealed that the Janjaweed militias have a network of foreign companies through which it buys their equipment, unlike the official told being part of the security services departments and the army, and thus their dealings are through the government and their wealth is public money through the official bodies, but Hamidi went on to deny his relationship with his militia commercial network altogether
But then Hemedti denial of his responsibility in the gold trade and the custody of foreign companies in liability renewed when he was confronted by Reuters and other investigators with documents proving his involvement and the existence of his name as the owner of a foreign company in official documents, which Hamidi rebuffed any mention on to date.
After the war in Yemen that led by the coalition forces of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and the announcement of the participation of the Sudanese army in it at the beginning before Bashir regime declared that the taking part forces are the Janjaweed militias of Hamidati and until then did not reveal a separate financial exchange for them in exchange for their participation in the fighting there, again it became clear later that they receive the salaries of its taking part from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which made them fall under the list of mercenaries that the former regime completely denies it.
This was also revealed once again when officials of the former regime announced that the salaries and the financial compensation received by these militias transferred directly and entirely through the central bank, raising many questions about the budget of both the security services and the army from which Hamidi’s militias also receive a separate budget
The public presentation of Hamidati’s abundance and unparalleled generosity
After the success of the popular December revolution, scrutiny was drawn to its most crucial demands, specifically the reclamation of the many security companies established from public funds under the former regime and surrounded by complete secrecy and protection from the government and demanding accountability and capitulation to the Ministry of Finance, where the deposed President Al-Bashir had issued a previous presidential decree prohibiting them from being subject to the laws of the Government Auditing department and the Accounting authorities and therefore were not reviewed ever and no one knows anything about their financial activities throughout the period of the previous regime.
This main demand of the revolution caused a major crisisbetween the army cooperating in the transitional government and represented in the personality of Hamidati, General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, and other leaders with the civil government representing the revolution headed by Abdullah Hamdok, who repeatedly promised to implement these demands, but the leaders of the military component continued to procrastinate in subjecting these companies to financial investigations and knowing their activities and the public money to this day
But Hamidati hastened at the beginning of the transitional government, taking advantage of the difficult economic situation that the government’s general budget was going through at the time in announcing its readiness to support its imports without announcing again the sources of money, where he hastened to announce the formation of the commodity portfolio headed by him, which oversees local supply companies and capitalist traders monopoly on the supply of basic goods needed by the state at the time for the privilege of exporting gold, Here, stories of his relationship with the export of gold and accusations of smuggling resurfaced, and Hamidati was quick to announce the return of mining rights in The Jebel Amer area to the State Minerals Company in a deal deemed in the government’s interest for $50 million again without announcing his company’s financial statements for the mining period in that area announced since 2012 or any of the mining contracts and other business activities involved by his family, himself or his tax records.
Since then, after increasing popular discontent with his militias and their role in suppressing the protesters and committing hundreds of crimes against unarmed citizens again in the capital Khartoum and their involvement in what is known as the massacre of the General Command and demands for their trial, dissolution or annexation, which Hamidi rejects, he then hastened to launch a massive campaign to get closer to public opinion and improve his image and militias and buying the loyalty of political leaders, tribal and civil administrations in Sudan provinces using his legal status as first vice president of the Sovereign Council and his membership of the Security Committee in adopting many Political, economic, social, cultural and other projects, services and activities, financially and with unparalleled generosity
But in all these donations announced, he did not announce his contribution rate specifically in exchange for the participation of the state represented in the public money in it, so that no observer of financial or political affairs in Sudan knows precisely whether his announcements and adoption of projects is by the state and therefore from its future public budget or from his personal wealth, which they know nothing about
Hamidati’s financial sources are unknown and even before he declared the example of mining, no one knows its activities, regions, size, financial or tax records, and the way it obtains concessions.
As well as the money he receives in exchange for the participation of his militias in the war in Yemen, or from that have not yet been admitted like in Libya, no one knows its size, ways of receiving it, or the government’s share of it or the taxpayer
This is other than the unsubstantiated accusations that he received direct subsidies from foreign countries, including his militia’s share of the international subsidy package to take part in preventing illegal cross-border migrations.
Up to the day of this article and until the state wholly reviews Hamidati’s wealth, business activities, militia revenues, and the legal, financial, and tax rights that result from it, any single pound donated or received from him by any authority is suspicious money and the continuation of this is no doubt form of corruption
