Dubai holdings worth £17.7 mln traced to Sudan paramilitary leaders accused of genocide
Sentry, a US research group, has revealed that Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the leader of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and popularly known as ‘Hemedti’, is closely linked to a £17.7 million property portfolio in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Family members, sanctioned individuals and entities linked to Hemedti purchased more than 20 luxury properties in the area.
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“As well as arming militias, the UAE is also allowing the RSF to set up part of its paramilitary-industrial complex in Dubai. Our research shows that the Dagalo family has also found a safe haven for its wealth in the Emirates,” The Guardian reported, citing Sentry senior researcher Nick Donovan.
The ongoing war between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces, which started in 2023, has caused the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, with 12 million citizens, a quarter of Sudan’s population, fleeing their homes as of January 2026. US sanctions against Hemedti and his links to multiple properties are in stark contrast to the homelessness caused by war in Sudan, which has killed over 1,00,000 people.
Sentry’s latest findings reveal that the UAE provided a “safe haven” for the militia group’s family and their fortune, much of which is believed to come from gold smuggled from Sudan. So how does the family accumulate wealth in the region?
The publication reported that Hemedti took control of a gold mine in Darfur in 2017, with exports allowing him and his partners to accumulate significant assets, adding that a network of firms based in the UAE had assisted the leadership in converting smuggled gold into real currency, with Dubai being a major hub for the precious metal.
Sentry’s analysis of leaked property records found that properties owned by RSF-linked entities and members of Hemedti’s family were worth around £7.4 million, while properties owned by sanctioned individuals linked to RSF were worth £10.3 million.
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The report stated that Hemedti purchased three flats in the eastern suburbs of Dubai, close to the UAE’s Al Minhad military air base, in March 2020, and that the properties were first purchased in his own name and then sold to UAE-registered Prodigious Property Management Audit Services (“Prodigious”) in July 2022.
It also added that Prodigious’ past and present executives and owners are closely linked to other companies sanctioned for their links to RSF.
Prodigious is currently 100% owned by Abo Zer Abdelnabi Habiballa Ahmmed, also known as Abozer Habib, who was sanctioned by the US for operating other companies linked to Dubai’s gold trade and accused of providing financing and military equipment to the RSF.
According to the report, Hemedti’s relatives have purchased several luxury properties in Dubai; these include six-bedroom villas in a gated community near the Meydan racetrack close to the city centre. These villas were purchased through Prodigious. Further analysis showed that several relatives of the Dagalo family were located in the same gated community.
The investigation also revealed that Hemedti’s wife bought land worth £627,000 from a luxury development near Trump International Golf Club during Sudan’s war. Others named included Mustafa Ibrahim Abdel Nabi Mohamed, who was sanctioned by both the EU and the UK for allegedly providing financial advice to RSF and the Dagalo family. He reportedly owns a flat in the Burj Khalifa worth £516,000.
The Dagalo family declined to comment on whether its members still own specific properties but said any private residences or assets were legally acquired, according to The Sentry’s report. The family also emphasized that owning property did not constitute a crime and said its members had engaged in legitimate business activities, such as animal trade, for generations.
Mohamed told Sentry that he was not RSF’s financial advisor, but had served as the “financial director assigned to the Rapid Support Forces” since 2017, when RSF became a legally constituted organization under Sudanese law. He added that there has been no activity that would harm peace and stability in Sudan since the war began.
The UAE has previously said it “categorically denies” allegations that it provided weapons, funds, trainers or logistical support to the RSF. But as international scrutiny around Hemedti and the RSF intensified, the contrast between Sudan’s deepening humanitarian crisis and the family’s luxury properties in Dubai has drawn greater attention to the financial networks that underpin the militia’s power beyond the battlefield.
