T he journey of Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, from the deserts of remotest Darfur to a gilded mansion on the banks of the Nile in Khartoum, Sudan’s embattled capital, is hard to fathom. Once a lowly camel rustler and small-time businessman, he started out with neither formal education nor military training. Yet by the late 2000s he was the most powerful militia commander in all of Darfur, the country’s vast western region, holding a key to Sudan’s future. His infamous force of fellow camel-herding Arabs, known as the Janjaweed, was accused of committing genocide against the region’s African tribes on behalf of the country’s long-serving dictator, General Omar al-Bashir. As a veteran Sudan-watching diplomat puts it, Hemedti was like “a Mafia don who started on a street corner and then took over the city”.
穆罕默德·哈姆丹·达加洛（Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo）的旅程，更名为hemedti，从最遥远的达尔富尔（Darfur）的沙漠到苏丹四面楚歌的首都喀土穆（Khartoum）的尼罗河（Nile）河岸上的镀金大厦很难理解。他曾经是一个低矮的骆驼鲁斯勒和小型商人，他既不接受正规教育也不是军事培训。然而，到2000年代后期，他是该国全国庞大的西部地区达尔富尔全部最强大的民兵指挥官，拥有苏丹未来的钥匙。他臭名昭著的骆驼同胞阿拉伯人（称为Janjaweed）的力量被指控代表该国长期服务的独裁者奥马尔·贝希尔（Omar al-Bashir）对该地区的非洲部落施加种族灭绝。正如老将观看苏丹外交官所说的那样，Hemedti就像是“一个在街角开始，然后接管这座城市的黑手党唐”。
