Sudan’s Hemedti Reveals Receiving Death Threats

Sudan’s Deputy Head of the Sovereign Council Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo | Getty Images
Sudan’s Deputy Head of the Sovereign Council Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo | Getty Images
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Sudan’s Hemedti Reveals Receiving Death Threats

Sudan’s Deputy Head of the Sovereign Council Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo | Getty Images
Sudan’s Deputy Head of the Sovereign Council Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo | Getty Images

Sudan’s Deputy Head of the Sovereign Council Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, accused unnamed parties of threatening his life and warned against gold trafficking mafias and groups that are working to put a stoke in the wheel of the country’s economy.

Hemedti, speaking on the occasion of exporting two tons of gold and inaugurating the Sudanese Gold Exchange, said that there are parties working to disrupt the progress of the Sudanese economy.

Hemedti accused the ‘mafia’ of working to lower the value of the Sudanese pound and of buying foreign currency at any price.

“The country is controlled by a ‘mafia,’ a huge mob, and we must fight this mafia because the country’s progress is at stake,” Hemedti said.

It is worth noting that Hemedti heads the emergency economic committee which was established last March to help the country’s economy recover from a downturn. The committee is tasked with undertaking strict and decisive measures to help fix economic imbalances.

Hemedti warned groups he said had delivered life threats against him and said they were working to destroy the country, its social fabric, and unity. He vowed to stand up to these groups and to fight them no matter what.

Hemedti called on confronting the mafias and gangs in the country who are working to sabotage progress and to present them to trial. He also warned of plans to divide Sudan.

He violently attacked those criticizing his position as head of the emergency economic committee.

Hemedti reaffirmed that he doesn’t support any political party and that his only target was to save the country from collapsing.

He called on uniting the national front in the fight against corruption, criticizing companies that work in mining gold and which evade taxes and deny the economy the proceeds of exports.

Hemedti revealed steps that include strict policies to prevent tampering and smuggling gold, starting with the activation of the principle of accounting, reviewing laws and legislations related to gold production and export, and reviewing licenses of foreign concession companies.



US Envoy Reaffirms Backing for Damascus, Rules Out ‘Plan B’

US Ambassador to Türkiye and Special Envoy for Syria, Thomas Barrack, arrives for a meeting with the Lebanese prime minister at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, 07 July 2025. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH
US Ambassador to Türkiye and Special Envoy for Syria, Thomas Barrack, arrives for a meeting with the Lebanese prime minister at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, 07 July 2025. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH
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US Envoy Reaffirms Backing for Damascus, Rules Out ‘Plan B’

US Ambassador to Türkiye and Special Envoy for Syria, Thomas Barrack, arrives for a meeting with the Lebanese prime minister at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, 07 July 2025. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH
US Ambassador to Türkiye and Special Envoy for Syria, Thomas Barrack, arrives for a meeting with the Lebanese prime minister at the government palace in Beirut, Lebanon, 07 July 2025. EPA/WAEL HAMZEH

The United States will keep backing Syria’s government and has no “Plan B” to working with it to unite the war‑scarred country back together, still reeling from years of civil war and wracked by new sectarian violence, US envoy Tom Barrack said on Monday.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Barrack – Washington’s ambassador to Türkiye and special envoy for Syria, who is also on a short assignment in Lebanon – called last week’s Israeli strikes inside Syria “badly timed” and said they had “complicated efforts to stabilize the region.”

Barrack spoke in Beirut after more than a week of clashes in Sweida province between Druze militiamen and Sunni Bedouin tribes.

Over the weekend he brokered what he described as a limited ceasefire between Syria and Israel, aimed only at halting the fighting in Sweida. Syrian government troops have since redeployed in the area and evacuated civilians from both communities on Monday, he said.

Barrack told the AP that “the killing, the revenge, the massacres on both sides” are “intolerable,” but that “the current government of Syria, in my opinion, has conducted themselves as best they can as a nascent government with very few resources to address the multiplicity of issues that arise in trying to bring a diverse society together.”

Regarding Israel’s strikes on Syria, Barrack said: “The United States was not asked, nor did they participate in that decision, nor was it the United States’ responsibility in matters that Israel feels is for its own self-defense.”

However, he said Israel’s intervention “creates another very confusing chapter” and “came at a very bad time.”

Prior to the violence in Sweida, Israel and Syria had been in talks over security matters, while the Trump administration had been pushing them to move toward full normalization of diplomatic relations.

When the latest fighting erupted, “Israel’s view was that south of Damascus was this questionable zone, so that whatever happened militarily in that zone needed to be agreed upon and discussed with them,” Barrack said. “The new government (in Syria) coming in was not exactly of that belief.”

The ceasefire announced Saturday between Syria and Israel is a limited agreement addressing only the conflict in Sweida, he said. It does not address broader issues including Israel’s contention that the area south of Damascus should be a demilitarized zone.

In the discussions leading up to the ceasefire, Barrack said “both sides did the best they can” to reach agreement on specific questions related to the movement of Syrian forces and equipment from Damascus to Sweida.

He suggested that Israel would prefer to see Syria fragmented and divided rather than a strong central state in control of the country.

Later Monday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz posted on X that Israel’s strikes “were the only way to stop the massacre of the Druze in Syria, the brothers of our brothers the Israeli Druze”.

Katz added: “Anyone who criticizes the attacks is unaware of the facts,” he continued. It was not clear if he was responding to Barrack’s comments.

Damascus has been negotiating with the Kurdish forces that control much of northeast Syria to implement an agreement that would merge the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces with the new national army.