RSF commander’s adviser killed in Sudan drone attack

KHARTOUM/ISTANBUL

Hamid Ali Abubakar, security adviser to Rapid Support Forces commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, was killed along with several aides in a drone attack carried out by the Sudanese army near the city of Zalingei, the capital of Central Darfur state, RSF security adviser Al-Basha Tabiq said Thursday evening.

Tabiq announced the death in a post on US social media platform Facebook, mourning “Commander Adviser Hamid Ali Abubakar,” who also led the RSF’s “Al-Saif Al-Battar” military unit, which operates mainly in northern, central and western parts of the Darfur region.

He accused the Sudanese army of “assassinating” Abubakar and warned it would “pay a heavy price for this crime.”

Local sources said a drone struck a meeting of RSF forces in the village of Al-Firdous in the Waranga area near Zalingei in western Sudan.

They said Abubakar served as an adviser to Dagalo and a field commander leading the Al-Saif Al-Battar unit, which includes hundreds of RSF fighters. The sources added that he also played a central role in mobilizing tribes and traditional leaders in support of the RSF.

The Sudanese army has yet to comment on the incident.

The three Kordofan states – North, West, and South – have seen weeks of fierce fighting between the army and the RSF, prompting tens of thousands of people to flee.

Of Sudan’s 18 states, the RSF controls all five states of the Darfur region in the west, except for some northern parts of North Darfur that remain under army control. The army, meanwhile, holds most areas of the remaining 13 states in the south, north, east, and center, including the capital Khartoum.

Sudan’s humanitarian crisis has worsened since the war between the army and the RSF erupted in April 2023 over a dispute on unifying the military establishment, killing tens of thousands and displacing millions.