Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the notorious private military company Wagner, has offered weapons to the paramilitaries vying for control of Sudan, according to US officials.
Mr Prigozhin, who is leading Russia’s brutal military campaign in Ukraine, said this week he wanted peace and offered to help mediate between the rival generals fighting for power. But US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said Mr Prigozhin actually intends to foment fighting between Sudan’s two military factions: the Sudanese army, under surveillance of General Abdul Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces, led by Lieutenant General Mohamed Hamdan.
Wagner, who previously sent armored vehicles and training to Sudan in exchange for lucrative gold mining concessions, has offered powerful weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, to General Hamdan’s paramilitaries, US officials said.
General Hamdan had not yet decided on Friday whether he would accept the weapons, which would come from Wagner stockpiles in the Central African Republic, the officials said.
Since 2019, Wagner has expanded his activities in Sudan, with gold mining, uranium exploration and supplying mercenaries to the troubled region of Darfur. After the two generals seized power in 2021, Wagner intensified his collaboration with General Hamdan, who visited Moscow in the early days of the war in Ukraine and has received military equipment from the group of mercenaries.