RSF’s Shadow Economy in Dubai – How the UAE Became the Lifeline of Sudan’s Militia

A leaked investigation obtained by Dark Box exposes a vast, covert business empire linking Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to companies operating from Dubai. While Sudan burns under one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, RSF leaders have allegedly built a hidden financial network in the United Arab Emirates, allowing them to smuggle gold, move money, and procure weapons.

Gold and Money – The Core of the RSF’s Network

Once a diversified economic powerhouse, RSF leader Gen. Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) controlled cattle trading, banking, construction, and tourism in Sudan. But successive international sanctions collapsed much of this empire. Today, according to leaked documents reviewed by Dark Box, the militia’s survival depends almost entirely on gold smuggled out of Darfur, melted down, and traded through Dubai corporate fronts.

Profits from these operations allegedly circle back into the RSF’s war chest, funding the purchase of weapons and logistics that sustain its brutal campaign in Sudan.

The Fixers and Frontmen

At the heart of this Dubai network is a small cast of businessmen:

Abozer Habib – Took over Capital Tap Holding in 2024, a UAE-based holding company flagged by the U.S. Treasury for supplying RSF with “money and weapons.”

Mazin Fadlalla – Procured nearly 200 Toyota pickup trucks for RSF, vehicles later converted into armed “technicals.” Fadlalla has since shifted to multiple gold-trading ventures in Dubai, some now sanctioned for supporting RSF operations.

Naser Alhammadi – Founder of Capital Tap, ran a sprawling portfolio providing management and financial services to RSF-linked firms such as Al Junaid. His businesses even created materials used in a lobbying push in the UK to rebrand RSF’s image.

Ahmed Hashim – Tied to RSF procurement operations, though he denies knowingly acting as a proxy.

Essa Al Marri – A UAE national appearing repeatedly as shareholder or director in firms co-owned with Fadlalla. Two of those ventures — Tradive General Trading and Al Zumoroud & Al Yaqoot Gold Trading — were sanctioned for RSF ties. Investigators warn Al Marri’s corporate footprint is so vast that his presence on company records should be treated as a red flag.

Weapons and War

While this financial lifeline sustains the RSF, the militia’s arsenal is growing alarmingly sophisticated. Leaked caches and journalist inspections reveal truck-mounted Chinese surface-to-air missile systems, portable anti-aircraft missiles, “suicide drones” similar to those used by Yemen’s Houthis, and advanced jamming systems. These acquisitions signal a rapidly modernizing militia and deepen the humanitarian crisis.

Humanitarian Collapse

With over ten million displaced and cities like Al-Fasher under siege, aid cannot reach the most desperate. Despite U.S. efforts to broker a truce, the RSF’s access to illicit funding and weapons, enabled by Dubai’s corporate infrastructure, fuels an escalating war without accountability.

The leaked Dark Box documents reveal not just a financial network but a shadow government-in-exile for the RSF, run through UAE-based firms that provide money, lobbying, and legitimacy. These operations show how war economies flourish beyond sanctions, hidden behind corporate fronts in global financial hubs.