A US-sanctioned Sudanese national said to be a procurement official with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has been exposed as holding a Kenyan passport, creating a diplomatic storm, several Kenyan media houses reported.
On 19 February, Algoney Hamdan Dagalo Musa, the brother of Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti, had his U.S. sanctions listing updated to include a Kenyan passport and a United Arab Emirates (UAE) identification number, according to a memo by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He was previously sanctioned in October 2024 by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
The revised listing now includes details of a Kenyan passport and a UAE ID number. A second version of the sanctions entry has been issued to incorporate the new identifying information, providing more precise documentation tied to Abdulrahim Hamdan Dagalo and potentially limiting his ability to circumvent sanctions.
The update comes amid heightened scrutiny of regional actors’ roles in Sudan’s ongoing civil war.
Kenya has firmly denied allegations that it is arming or supporting the RSF. President William Ruto has repeatedly described such claims as “absolutely false,” maintaining that Kenya’s role is to act as a neutral facilitator in Sudan’s crisis. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Ruto dismissed accusations of arms smuggling and reiterated Kenya’s commitment to dialogue and peace efforts.
Ruto also suggested that Hemedti and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) commander Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan are “cut from the same cloth,” implying that neither offers a viable solution to the conflict.
The Standard, Kenya’s second most popular, reported on Thursday that US records showed that Algoney Daglo Musa is the holder of a Kenyan passport number AK1586127. He is also said to hold two different Sudanese passports.
RSF, which has waged a war against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) since April 2023, has been fingered for grave human rights abuses in the ongoing bloody war that has displaced millions internally and as refugees in neighboring countries.
According to The Standard, Kenyan Immigration officials had aided one of Sudan’s most powerful warlords to secure a passport to facilitate his movements while evading sanctions. The revelation threatens to intensify scrutiny over Kenya’s engagements with RSF, which is accused of genocide, money laundering, and illegal weapons procurement.
The Standard said efforts to get a comment from the Kenyan Immigration Department officials proved futile, though one officer, who requested to remain anonymous, said the issue was now ‘a big deal at the registry department”.
The Standard cited the US Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), revealing that Algoney Hamdan Daglo Musa, a key figure in the RSF operations, was facing US sanctions.
It further revealed that official records showed that he was born on August 7, 1990, in Sudan’s Nyala North. His role, according to US sources, was offering logistical support and procuring weapons and vehicles.
Last year, Kenya’s President William Ruto hosted the RSF chief, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo (Hemedti) in Nairobi, prompting local and international backlash. The Kenyan leader was accused of providing political and logistical support to the warlord.
The gesture greatly offended the Sudanese government, which promptly recalled its ambassador, accusing Nairobi of interference in its internal affairs. Khartoum also banned Kenyan tea imports, occasioning the East African state huge foreign earnings losses.