It is being reported by Al Jazeera Sudanese militia leader Mohamed Mamdan Dagalo, who leads the Rapid Support Forces, recently visited a memorial to the 1994 Rwandan genocide in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, in January.
Meanwhile, his Rapid Support Forces, which once served as a special forces group under the Sudanese regular army, is being accused of very similar atrocities in Sudan's civil war.
His Rwandan visit was part of a tour to meet African heads of state. He visited Uganda, Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Kenya-who literally rolled out a red carpet for him.
Rumors that he was killed or seriously wounded in the armed struggle were belied. However, his soldiers are alleged to have killed thousands of Sudanese citizens, ceased homes, looted cats, plundered international aid, robbed banks, and used rape as a weapon of war.
Sudanese citizens have testified to these war crimes, but Hemedti was still received as a head of state at every stop he made. This raised fears that he has support abroad that will enable him to maintain his war against the Sudanese central government indefinitely.
"Any efforts that aim to justify or excuse Hemedti's crimes are permitting him to continue his massacres," said Bedour Zakaria, a human rights monitor who survived mass killings in West Darfur and is now in Kampala, Uganda.
What Have The Casualties Been?
RSF fighters and allied Arab militias reportedly killed over 15,000 members of the Masalit tribe, according to Al-Jazeera. The United Nations says there are 13 mass graves that have been identified in West Darfur since the RSF began fighting the regular Sudanese army in April.
"Hemedti has committed all of the gravest crimes that you can think of on Masalit land," said Yousif Gamal*, a human rights monitor from the Masalit tribe.
"He has even forced [all Masalit] to leave our land and brought new settlers to replace us," he told Al Jazeera.
In January, Hemedti signed an agreement with Taqaddum, a civilian coalition self-declared as neutral and headed by former Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The RSF reportedly captured Wad Madani, Sudan's second-largest city, two weeks prior to the meeting, reportedly killing civilians and plundering the town.
