Sudan’s Hemedti talks up proposal for Russian Red Sea naval base after Moscow visit

Sudan’s second in command — General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo “Hemedti” — announced on Wednesday that his country is open to hosting a Russian military base on the Red Sea, or a military base for any other country.

His speech came hours after the deputy head of the ruling sovereign council landed back in Khartoum, ending a week-long trip that he began in Moscow on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

During the visit, Hemedti expressed public support for the invasion, saying that Russia “has the right to defend its people and citizens in accordance with the constitution and the law,” a position that was not echoed by the head of the coup government General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

Hemedti’s overtures to Moscow also drew censure from the civilian forces that were sidelined from Sudan’s government in the October coup, when the Hemedti-led Rapid Support Forces militia and the Sudanese Armed Forces overthrew Sudan’s transitional government. The Freedom and Change Coalition spoke out to publicly condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and accused Moscow of looting Sudan's resources, interfering in its affairs and using the country in geopolitical conflicts, particularly in the Red Sea.

The military-led sovereign council also issued statements on Monday that were at odds with Hemedti’s support for Moscow, calling for a peaceful and diplomatic solution to the crisis in Ukraine. 

Sudan’s official position on the Russia-Ukraine conflict is still ambivalent, as it was one of just five countries that abstained from condemning the invasion during a Wednesday vote at the United Nations General Assembly on a non-binding resolution calling for the exit of Russian soldiers from Ukraine.

On the same day as Russian troops set foot in Ukraine, Hemedti, at the helm of a Sudan that is increasingly economically isolated in the wake of the coup, met in Moscow with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Hemedti and Lavrov agreed on a number of deals to deepen cooperation in oil and gas, agriculture, mining and manufacturing.  

Speaking in Khartoum at the Wednesday presser, the RSF leader justified a Russian naval presence in Sudan by noting that Djibouti and Niger both have similar foreign naval bases. 

Approval for a deal on a military base would be in the hands of the coup government’s defense minister, said Hemedti. “We own 730 kilometers on the Red Sea, and there is no objection to a military base being present, whether belonging to Russia or to others, if that is consistent with Sudan's interests and to fulfilling the country's national security.” 

On his way back from Moscow, Hemedti said he discussed affairs in Sudan and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam with Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel in Cairo, which has a long-standing concern over the presence of foreign military bases on the Red Sea, since it does not have any of its own naval bases in the area it views as a backyard to the Suez Canal.

Hemedti’s overtures to Russia revive similar steps that were taken in 2017 by the struggling former regime of now-ousted President Omar al-Bashir, whose government was cut off from Western financial and security support by years of sanctions. 

An agreement with Moscow for a naval base on the eastern coast was announced by the Sudanese military in December 2020, with officials previously telling Mada Masr that the Emiratis played a key role in brokering the agreement over a year after Bashir was ousted on the back of popular protests, but the base is now in limbo following reports that Sudan was freezing construction, a claim the Russian embassy in Sudan has denied.

Now, with civilian groups sidelined by the October coup carried out by the Rapid Support Forces militia and the Sudanese Armed Forces, Sudan is once again increasingly economically isolated.

Western powers have turned off the tap on financial support that had begun to trickle into Sudan after 2019, and civilian groups have targeted trade routes as part of the ongoing protests against military rule in the country.

Since October 25, at least 85 demonstrators have been killed, while thousands have been wounded. Hundreds have been detained, including former officials in the transitional government.

Speaking to the press upon returning from his foreign tour, Hemedti described demonstrations against the coup government held by thousands of Sudanese on Monday outside the presidential palace in Khartoum as “absurd.”