Sentry investigation reveals £17.7 million Dubai property portfolio linked to Sudan's RSF leadership

Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo's family has built deeper roots in Dubai's property market than previously documented. The Sentry, a US-based investigative group, says relatives, sanctioned individuals and entities tied to the leader of Sudan's Rapid Support Forces have amassed more than 20 luxury properties in the United Arab Emirates worth roughly £17.7 million.

Dagalo, known across Sudan as Hemedti, commands the paramilitary group the United States has accused of committing genocide and which the United Nations has said shows the "hallmarks of genocide" in its assault on El Fasher. The Sentry's report frames the UAE as a "safe haven" for the leadership's wealth and family.

The portfolio splits into two pools, according to the investigation. A company linked to the RSF and Hemedti's relatives accounts for around £7.4 million, while individuals under sanctions for ties to the group hold another £10.3 million in real estate.

Much of the activity lands inside a small gated community near Dubai's Meydan racecourse. The investigation says relatives of Hemedti acquired six-bedroom villas there through Prodigious Real Estate Management Supervision Services, a UAE-registered firm whose owner the United States has sanctioned for running other companies that funded and equipped the RSF. Phone records and passport data, the Sentry said, place several Dagalo relatives in the same enclave.

Other holdings sit elsewhere in the city. Hemedti's wife bought a £627,000 plot of land in a luxury development near Trump International Golf Club Dubai roughly six months into Sudan's war. Mustafa Ibrahim Abdel Nabi Mohamed, sanctioned by both the European Union and the United Kingdom for his role as a financial adviser to the RSF and the Dagalo family, owns an apartment in the Burj Khalifa worth around £516,000, the report says.

The Sentry traces much of the wealth to gold. Hemedti seized control of Darfur's largest goldmine in 2017, and a network of UAE firms has since turned smuggled metal into hard currency, with Dubai serving as a major bullion hub at a moment when prices sit near record highs.

The Dagalo family told the Sentry it would not comment on specific properties and said members had properly obtained any private residences or assets, pointing to legitimate trade activities going back generations. Mohamed told investigators he is not a financial adviser to the RSF but a "financial director seconded to the Rapid Support Forces" since 2017. The UAE has rejected accusations that it has provided weapons, funding or training to the RSF.