Senior Sudanese commander defects, accuses Hemedti's family of running RSF as a 'family business'

A senior commander in Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has defected and accused relatives of the group's leader of treating the militia as a family enterprise, according to an exclusive interview published by Al Jazeera on Friday. The departure of Siddiq Ander is the latest in a widening string of senior-level breaks from the RSF, which has fought Sudan's regular army since April 2023 in a war that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions.

In video obtained exclusively by Al Jazeera, Ander said relatives of RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti, exercise tight control over the group's finances, weapons supplies, troop movements and military promotions. He described the organization as functioning like a family business rather than a national fighting force, and said internal dissent is dealt with harshly.

"Anyone who speaks out and tells the whole truth faces expulsion, imprisonment or a hidden death," Ander said.

A Chain of Departures

Ander's defection is not an isolated case. Sudanese military and RSF-watcher reporting over the past seven months has tracked a series of senior officers abandoning the paramilitary group, several citing internal power struggles around the Dagalo family. Major General al-Nour Ahmed Adam, known as al-Qubba, defected to the army in April after being passed over for a military governorship in North Darfur; Hemedti responded by stripping him of rank and sentencing him to death in absentia. Brigadier Ali Rizqallah, known as "Savannah," announced his own departure in May. In September, commander al-Tayeb al-Wahidu crossed to the army in Omdurman with roughly 50 fighters, and in early October a lieutenant colonel said he was leaving with nearly 300 personnel and dozens of vehicles.

Hemedti's brother, Abdul Rahim Hamdan Dagalo, serves as the RSF's deputy commander and has been described by the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and the United Nations Security Council sanctions regime as the group's de facto field commander in Darfur, as well as a controlling figure in the family's gold-trading businesses. He was among the Dagalo relatives the UK has previously sanctioned over the RSF's conduct, alongside allegations that the family's network of UAE-registered companies has helped finance and arm the paramilitary force, according to the US Treasury's sanctions designation of Hemedti and associated firms.

A War Still Displacing Millions

The conflict, which erupted in Khartoum in April 2023 after a power struggle between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Hemedti over integrating the RSF into the regular military, has since spread through Darfur, Kordofan and parts of the capital region. The United Nations migration agency's displacement tracking system recorded more than 9.1 million people displaced inside Sudan earlier this year, a toll that has fluctuated as fighting has flared and eased in different regions; millions more have fled across borders into Chad, Egypt, South Sudan and elsewhere. The US government determined in January 2025 that the RSF had committed genocide in Darfur.

Most recently, the UK government imposed a sixth round of sanctions on 26 October against 15 commanders from both the RSF and the Sudanese army, citing conflict-related sexual violence and other atrocities tied to the RSF's October 2025 seizure of the Darfur city of El Fasher, alongside a package of new humanitarian funding for survivors. Rights groups and UN officials have separately documented a sharp rise in drone warfare by both sides this year, which the UN has said is now the leading cause of civilian deaths in the conflict.

Why the Defections Matter

Analysts tracking the war have said the accumulating defections are deepening divisions inside the Dagalo family's leadership structure and could erode the cohesion of the RSF-aligned political and military alliance known as Tasis, even as the RSF continues to hold large parts of Darfur and Kordofan. Hemedti was sworn in as head of the Tasis administration in August 2025, pairing the RSF with the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North, which controls territory in South Kordofan and Blue Nile. No government has recognized Tasis, and the African Union's Peace and Security Council has continued to treat only Sudan's transitional Sovereignty Council and its Port Sudan-based civilian government as legitimate.

Arab News, citing Al Jazeera's reporting, noted that each departure has chipped away at the appearance of unity the RSF has projected since consolidating territorial control in the west of the country last year. Whether disaffected officers can translate individual defections into a broader realignment on the battlefield remains unclear, and Hemedti's leadership has moved quickly in the past to brand defectors traitors and strip them of rank.

Al Jazeera's report included no response from the RSF to Ander's specific allegations, and Sudan's Rapid Support Forces has consistently denied accusations of family control over its command structure and of systematic abuses documented by rights groups and Western governments. The claims in Ander's interview are his own account and have not been independently verified.

What Comes Next

No ceasefire talks between the army and the RSF are currently active, and mediation efforts led by the United States, Saudi Arabia and others have repeatedly stalled over the past year. Humanitarian officials continue to warn that funding for Sudan's response plan remains a fraction of what is needed, even as famine conditions persist in parts of Darfur. Whether Ander's defection prompts further departures from the RSF's command, or sharpens Hemedti's crackdown on internal dissent, is likely to become clearer in the coming weeks as other commanders weigh their own positions inside a force whose unity is now openly in question.