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How do Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces militia buy the Toyota 4x4s they convert into ‘technicals’ – the basis of their military power?
In this thread @MohAboelgheit, @RichyK37 and I provide an answer:
1/ https://www.globalwitness.org/en/blog/how-the-rsf-got-their-4x4-technicals-the-open-source-intelligence-techniques-behind-our-sudan-expos%C3%A9/
In this thread @MohAboelgheit, @RichyK37 and I provide an answer:
1/ https://www.globalwitness.org/en/blog/how-the-rsf-got-their-4x4-technicals-the-open-source-intelligence-techniques-behind-our-sudan-expos%C3%A9/
Today we've published and analysed a leaked RSF spreadsheet which shows how they bought hundreds of 4x4 Toyota pickup trucks in 2019 – which they could then convert into ‘technicals’ with mounted machine guns.
We are grateful to @B3shom for first publishing the spreadsheet.
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We are grateful to @B3shom for first publishing the spreadsheet.
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As part of the authentication we reviewed +100 RSF videos posted on social media, incl the militia’s official Facebook page. We then attempted to identify similar vehicles to those listed in the spreadsheet.
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https://www.facebook.com/www.rsf.gov.sd/
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https://www.facebook.com/www.rsf.gov.sd/
Tl;dr
We found pics of very similar vehicles at almost every stage of the procurement chain from Dubai car showrooms to Sudanese ports to the streets of Khartoum…
(By the way: make a note of these two stickers on the door.)
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We found pics of very similar vehicles at almost every stage of the procurement chain from Dubai car showrooms to Sudanese ports to the streets of Khartoum…
(By the way: make a note of these two stickers on the door.)
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Stage 1: Dubai showrooms
One line in the spreadsheet lists “Purchase 50 Toyota Land Cruiser Pickup car, standard, Beige colour, 2019 model with 2018 paintings”. The supplier column states “Al Karama Motors Showroom (50 cars×103000 dirham)”.
5/ https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6809004-RSF-Account-Statement.html#document/p1/a556120
One line in the spreadsheet lists “Purchase 50 Toyota Land Cruiser Pickup car, standard, Beige colour, 2019 model with 2018 paintings”. The supplier column states “Al Karama Motors Showroom (50 cars×103000 dirham)”.
5/ https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6809004-RSF-Account-Statement.html#document/p1/a556120
Sure enough, we can find the same make and model at Dubai’s Al Karama showroom website.
(Al Karama says it did not know it was selling to the RSF, as the purchasers were middlemen. There is no suggestion that Al Karama has done anything wrong).
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https://web.archive.org/web/20191024095953/https:/www.dubicars.com/2019-toyota-land-cruiser-pickup-diesel-42l-power-windows-274753.html
(Al Karama says it did not know it was selling to the RSF, as the purchasers were middlemen. There is no suggestion that Al Karama has done anything wrong).
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https://web.archive.org/web/20191024095953/https:/www.dubicars.com/2019-toyota-land-cruiser-pickup-diesel-42l-power-windows-274753.html
Stage 2: ready for transportation to a port
A video posted 20 March 2019 on social media shows dozens of beige Toyota pickup trucks ready to be shipped to Sudan.
The (sceptical) narrator states the shipping firm says they’re destined for the RSF.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2076287119091470
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A video posted 20 March 2019 on social media shows dozens of beige Toyota pickup trucks ready to be shipped to Sudan.
The (sceptical) narrator states the shipping firm says they’re destined for the RSF.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2076287119091470
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Stage 3: shipping
Remember that red sticker on the truck door?
It’s from the Red Sea Service Centre – a customs clearance firm: they use this ship.
(no suggestion of wrongdoing by the firms: they said they had no knowledge of any link to the RSF).
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https://www.facebook.com/redseasuez/posts/1549570248673025?__tn__=-R
Remember that red sticker on the truck door?
It’s from the Red Sea Service Centre – a customs clearance firm: they use this ship.
(no suggestion of wrongdoing by the firms: they said they had no knowledge of any link to the RSF).
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https://www.facebook.com/redseasuez/posts/1549570248673025?__tn__=-R
In the leaked RSF spreadsheet the Al Karama / Dignity ship is listed as having shipped 75 vehicles on 23 March 2019.
We can also verify that Al Karama left Jeddah & arrived at Sawakin, Sudan, on 23 March 2019 using shipping data from Marine Traffic.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6809004-RSF-Account-Statement.html#document/p2/a556121
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We can also verify that Al Karama left Jeddah & arrived at Sawakin, Sudan, on 23 March 2019 using shipping data from Marine Traffic.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6809004-RSF-Account-Statement.html#document/p2/a556121
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We found one picture online of about 100 vehicles lined up at Sawakin port. According to the photographer, the picture was taken from on board the Namma Express ship on 25 March 2019 i.e. just after the arrival of vehicles on the Al Karama.
Could they be the same vehicles?
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Could they be the same vehicles?
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Separately, a shipping document entitled a ‘cars manifest’ circulated on social media. This specifies that 53 Toyotas were shipped from Jeddah to Sawakin on 27 May 2019. The consignee name in the manifest is “RSF – Ministry of Defence”.
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This timeframe tallies approximately with the RSF spreadsheet which has an entry for “53 Toyota vehicles shipping” against a date of 6 June 2019.
Maybe they were the same vehicles?
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6809004-RSF-Account-Statement.html#document/p5/a556122
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Maybe they were the same vehicles?
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6809004-RSF-Account-Statement.html#document/p5/a556122
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Stage 4: transport from the port to Khartoum
In RSF propaganda videos we frequently see the distinctive red and green number plates used by the RSF (in Arabic: د س ق = قوة الدعم السريع = RSF).
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In RSF propaganda videos we frequently see the distinctive red and green number plates used by the RSF (in Arabic: د س ق = قوة الدعم السريع = RSF).
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There are photos from early 2019 circulating on Sudanese social media of a vehicle transporter, loaded with beige Toyota Land Cruiser pickup trucks. A close-up shows that one of the transporters has the red and green RSF number plate.
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Geolocation whizz @john_marquee pinpointed two photos of the RSF transporter carrying the Toyota Land Cruisers to Air Street, Khartoum.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/15%C2%B031'13.2%22N+32%C2%B033'36.6%22E/@15.5203639,32.5596492,194m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d15.5203278!4d32.560175
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https://www.google.com/maps/place/15%C2%B031'13.2%22N+32%C2%B033'36.6%22E/@15.5203639,32.5596492,194m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d15.5203278!4d32.560175
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But when were these photos taken?
In this photo take a careful look at the street lights – see how one of the poles leans slightly, like it’s been hit in a car accident?
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In this photo take a careful look at the street lights – see how one of the poles leans slightly, like it’s been hit in a car accident?
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By comparing imagery from 10 Jan to 22 Jan 2019, @john_marquee shows from the (faint!) shadows that the lamp post was damaged sometime between those two dates. See how the shadow of the middle pole changes?
i.e. the photos were taken at some point after 10 January 2019
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i.e. the photos were taken at some point after 10 January 2019
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By itself, this isn’t proof that these vehicle transporter(s) were carrying the exact same beige Toyota vehicles as described in the RSF spreadsheet, but it rules out the possibility that the photos were taken in previous years or in different countries.
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Many of the parked vehicles in the video at Dubai display a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Gulf Standardization Organization (GSO) energy efficiency sticker.
Remember this still from the video at Dubai?
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Remember this still from the video at Dubai?
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These stickers are pretty easy to find on individual RSF member’s social media accounts too.
[ #OSINT challenge: If you find a clear enough photo of the GCC sticker you should be able to scan the QR code, showing which year they were made - the GSO has an app.]
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![These stickers are pretty easy to find on individual RSF member’s social media accounts too.[ #OSINT challenge: If you find a clear enough photo of the GCC sticker you should be able to scan the QR code, showing which year they were made - the GSO has an app.]20/](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EU2HEStXgAEXa8m.jpg "These stickers are pretty easy to find on individual RSF member’s social media accounts too.[ #OSINT challenge: If you find a clear enough photo of the GCC sticker you should be able to scan the QR code, showing which year they were made - the GSO has an app.]20/")
[ #OSINT challenge: If you find a clear enough photo of the GCC sticker you should be able to scan the QR code, showing which year they were made - the GSO has an app.]
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Stage 5: in use in Khartoum
If you look carefully, you can see the same GCC sticker on Toyotas used by RSF and police in videos posted just after the June 3rd Khartoum sit-in killings.
https://twitter.com/ameenmohamed/status/1136657371172933632?s=20
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If you look carefully, you can see the same GCC sticker on Toyotas used by RSF and police in videos posted just after the June 3rd Khartoum sit-in killings.
https://twitter.com/ameenmohamed/status/1136657371172933632?s=20
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And here’s another, posted on 30 June 2019.
https://twitter.com/BenDoBrown/status/1145245679364845569?s=20
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https://twitter.com/BenDoBrown/status/1145245679364845569?s=20
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We can’t definitively prove that the exact same vehicles named in the leaked spreadsheet appear in all these photos and videos. But we found enough OSINT material online to make that a plausible conclusion.
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To tie it off: We wrote to every firm we could identify in the spreadsheet. Two told us that payment had been made by Tradive – one of the apparent RSF front companies controlled by Hemedti’s younger brother we named in our previous article.
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You can read that article - with more on Hemedti's family's gold company, and his younger brother's apparent RSF front companies (including Tradive), here:
/ENDS https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/conflict-minerals/exposing-rsfs-secret-financial-network/
/ENDS https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/conflict-minerals/exposing-rsfs-secret-financial-network/
