Putin seeks to control Sudan - journalist Farajallah

He said this on Espreso TV.

"Unfortunately, the West has left Africa to be torn apart. Over the past 30 years, Russia has gained a strong foothold in more than 9 African countries. It steals gold, mines diamonds, and recruits mercenaries. If Russia has the goods, gold and diamonds, then Western sanctions are meaningless. Russia took advantage of the moment when Europe and the civilised West left Africa unattended. Accordingly, Russia has come in very strongly. In addition, the Arab world does not share Europe's position towards Russia for many reasons, but it saw Russia in Syria and the fact that Moscow wanted to return Muammar Gaddafi's son to Libya (leader of Libya in 1969-2011 - ed.). However, Russia began to build its own strategy based on the West's mistakes with the Arab world," noted the editor-in-chief of the Ukraine in Arabic portal.

Mohammad Farajallah said that three weeks ago, before the military confrontation in Sudan intensified between General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (head of the army, which is subordinate to the military government, the Sovereign Council - ed. ) and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Vice President, who is in charge of the Rapid Support Forces - ed.), al-Burhan learned that a military cargo from Russia with a large amount of Russian eavesdropping equipment had arrived at one of the Sudanese airports. Now everyone realized that Dagalo is not just a general who wants to keep his seat, but he is much more dangerous. They also remembered when the Wagner PMC helped the rebels in Chad to eliminate the legitimate president. Therefore, the Arab world has made it clear that they will not recognize Dahalo, but they will not help the regular army yet.

"Russia should not be underestimated. Russia has entered Yemen, Iran, Libya, Sudan, and Central Africa, where there are diamonds. Therefore, we have very serious problems that need to be eradicated. Russia is ready to offer Iran or Sudan anything. Putin is now getting very worried because he expected that if Sudan was in his power, absolutely pro-Moscow, and became a second Syria, only even better, he would get a military base in the Red Sea with nuclear submarines to terrorise Saudi Arabia in the future. In addition, he will have inexhaustible access to gold, as Sudan is the third largest country in Africa in terms of gold reserves, and the ability to recruit a large human resource. In addition, Putin will have the support of the Sudanese military industry, which is quite close to Soviet standards. Let me explain: if Putin has access to Africa, he will not care how Europe behaves, whether it buys gas or not, because in Africa he will be able to extract whatever he wants," Farajallah explained.

• On April 15, in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, the army surrounded one of the bases of the country's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), after which shooting started in the city. The shelling of Khartoum airport damaged one of the planes of the Ukrainian airline SkyUp. In total, at the time of the outbreak of hostilities, there were two planes and 36 employees of the carrier working under a contract with Sun Air.

• As of the morning of April 17, at least 97 people were killed and 595 injured in clashes between the armed forces and RSF units.

• The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said that the European Union ambassador was attacked in Sudan on April 17 in his own residence.

• Subsequently, a Maxar satellite showed what a SkyUp Boeing 737 plane looks like at Khartoum Airport, destroyed during the unrest in Sudan.