Sudan’s Hemedti Meets Hamdok, Civilian Leaders in Ethiopia 

Hemedti shakes hands with Hamdok during his visit to Addis Ababa on Monday. (X platform)
Hemedti shakes hands with Hamdok during his visit to Addis Ababa on Monday. (X platform)
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Sudan’s Hemedti Meets Hamdok, Civilian Leaders in Ethiopia 

Hemedti shakes hands with Hamdok during his visit to Addis Ababa on Monday. (X platform)
Hemedti shakes hands with Hamdok during his visit to Addis Ababa on Monday. (X platform)

The leader of the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo met on Monday with civilian pro-democracy politicians in Addis Ababa, the latest stop in a foreign tour as his troops take the upper-hand in a devastating nine-month war.

The meeting comes as General Dagalo, known as Hemedti, has appeared to present himself as a possible leader of a country now home to the world's largest displacement crisis, with little aid reaching millions in need amid threats of famine.

He has also been received by leaders in Uganda, Ethiopia, and Djibouti, which army head and Sudan's head of state Abdel Fattah al-Burhan described as "acts of hostility."

The threat of further expansion of the RSF, which has taken hold of the center and most of the west of the country, has prompted calls for civilians to take up arms, with observers warning of all-out civil war.

The local pro-democracy, anti-military resistance committee has accused the RSF of killing hundreds of civilians, kidnapping, and looting in Wad Madani, capital of Gezira State, which it took over late last month.

Hundreds of thousands had sought refuge there from the capital Khartoum to the north. Civilians in the farming villages of the state reported similar activity, including RSF soldiers raiding homes.

That pattern, repeated throughout the war, prompted the US last month to say that the RSF has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In a speech before the meeting on Monday, Hemedti apologized for the violations in Gezira and said that RSF leadership was rounding up "rogue actors."

"We ask the regional and international community to look optimistically at our struggle... towards Sudan's new future after achieving peace," echoing calls for equality and democracy long-espoused by the civilian politicians he met with on Monday.

Many in the group, including former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, had been ousted from power in 2021, when the army and RSF led a coup ending Sudan's democratic transition after the 2019 downfall of Omar al-Bashir.

In a speech late on Sunday, Burhan said that those who made allowances for the RSF were complicit in its crimes.

Referencing previous talks in Jeddah, Burhan said that the way towards ending the war would be the exit of the RSF from Sudanese cities and Gezira state and the return of looted property.

The two leaders have accepted invitations by regional body IGAD to meet, but the details of a meeting have not been announced.



Iraq Holds Kurdish Government Legally Responsible for Continued Oil Smuggling

Kurdish protesters block the road in front of trucks carrying oil in the Arbat area near Sulaymaniyah, Iraq February 23, 2025. REUTERS/Ako Rasheed/File Photo
Kurdish protesters block the road in front of trucks carrying oil in the Arbat area near Sulaymaniyah, Iraq February 23, 2025. REUTERS/Ako Rasheed/File Photo
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Iraq Holds Kurdish Government Legally Responsible for Continued Oil Smuggling

Kurdish protesters block the road in front of trucks carrying oil in the Arbat area near Sulaymaniyah, Iraq February 23, 2025. REUTERS/Ako Rasheed/File Photo
Kurdish protesters block the road in front of trucks carrying oil in the Arbat area near Sulaymaniyah, Iraq February 23, 2025. REUTERS/Ako Rasheed/File Photo

Iraq's oil ministry said on Thursday it holds the Kurdish regional government (KRG) legally responsible for the continued smuggling of oil from the Kurdish region outside the country.

The ministry reserves the right to take all legal measures in the matter, it added.

Control over oil and gas has long been a source of tension between Baghdad and Erbil, Reuters reported.

Iraq is under pressure from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut output to compensate for having produced more than its agreed volume. OPEC counts oil flows from Kurdistan as part of Iraq's quota.

In a ruling issued in 2022, Iraq's federal court deemed an oil and gas law regulating the oil industry in Iraqi Kurdistan unconstitutional and demanded that Kurdish authorities hand over their crude oil supplies.

The ministry said the KRG’s failure to comply with the law has hurt both oil exports and public revenue, forcing Baghdad to cut output from other fields to meet OPEC quotas.

The ministry added that it had urged the KRG to hand over crude produced from its fields, warning that failure to do so could result in significant financial losses and harm the country’s international reputation and oil commitments.

Negotiations to resume Kurdish oil exports via the Iraq-Türkiye oil pipeline, which once handled about 0.5% of global oil supply, have stalled over payment terms and contract details.