New report uncovers RSF-Linked UAE business empire

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Sudan’s notorious militia, and its leadership have built and maintained a vast business empire. A new report by The Sentry reveals that, even as the RSF wages a brutal war at home, its financial lifeline runs through Dubai, where companies linked to the militia have quietly moved money, gold, and supplies in recent years.

General Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, who has been accused of war crimes and targeted by international sanctions, once extended his reach across Sudan’s economy, trading cattle, building infrastructure, banking, and running tourism ventures alongside close family members. However, following his rise to prominence and successive waves of international sanctions, that diversified empire has reportedly collapsed inward.

Today, the RSF depends almost entirely on gold smuggled from Darfur, funneled through corporate fronts in the United Arab Emirates. The gold is melted down, traded, and sold on international markets, with the profits allegedly feeding back into the militia’s war chest, while Sudan endures one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

At the center of this hidden network is a small cast of businessmen acting as fixers, financial engineers, and frontmen. Among them is Abozer Habib, who in 2024 took control of Capital Tap Holding, a UAE-based holding company that, according to the U.S. Treasury, supplied the RSF with “money and weapons.” Another, Mazin Fadlalla, once purchased nearly 200 Toyota pickup trucks for the militia, vehicles often converted into armed “technicals.” He has since been linked to multiple gold-trading ventures in Dubai and has managed companies now sanctioned for supporting RSF operations. Naser Alhammadi, the founder of Capital Tap, ran a sprawling portfolio of firms that offered management and financial services to RSF-linked companies such as Al Junaid. His businesses even appear to have helped the RSF polish its international image, designing materials used in a lobbying push in the UK, according to the investigation.

Two other figures, Ahmed Hashim and Essa Al Marri, are also mentioned in the investigation. Hashim, a Sudanese businessman, was tied to RSF procurement operations, though he denies knowingly acting as a proxy. Al Marri, a UAE national with connections to dozens of local firms, repeatedly appeared as a shareholder or director in companies co-owned with Fadlalla. Two of those ventures, Tradive General Trading and Al Zumoroud & Al Yaqoot Gold Trading, were later sanctioned for their RSF ties. Investigators warn that Al Marri’s corporate footprint is so vast that his presence on company records should be treated as a red flag.

Meanwhile, the dynamics of the conflict in Sudan, particularly regarding advanced weapons, have been dramatically increasing with the arrival of new advanced weapons. The Washington Post recently reported that the RSF now appears to possess a truck-mounted Chinese surface-to-air missile system, allegedly used to shoot down high-altitude military drones.

The war has also seen the spread of portable anti-aircraft missiles (MANPADS), such as the SA-7. The RSF has been documented deploying “suicide drones,” nearly identical to those used by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, along with other sophisticated arms. Seized RSF caches inspected by journalists have included guided anti-tank missiles, 120mm mortars, 40mm phosphorus rounds, and advanced jamming systems, evidence of a rapidly modernizing militia arsenal.

These revelations, the RSF’s financial web in Dubai and its growing access to advanced weapons, underscore the risk of intensifying humanitarian crisis in Sudan. More than 10 million people remain internally displaced, while key areas, including the city of Al-Fasher, are under siege with no access to aid. Although U.S. senior advisor for Africa Massad Boulos has expressed optimism about a possible humanitarian truce, the combination of illicit money flows, escalating military capabilities, and a worsening civilian toll paints a dire picture of a war that shows no sign of abating.