President Museveni has met and held talks with Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the former Deputy Chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council of Sudan, at his country home in Rwakitura, Kiruhura District.
The two leaders discussed, among other things, ways to put an end to the continued conflict in Sudan.
Dagalo is the leader of the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that has fought the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan since April 2023.
Born in 1974 into the Mahariya tribe of the Rizeigat community in Darfur, Dagalo is a nephew of a tribal chief in the camel-trading branch of the Rizeigat.
He took up arms in the Darfur conflict when men attacked his trade envoy, killed 60 members of his family and looted his camels.
According to AlJazeera, Dagalo joined the Janjaweed, a conglomeration of Arab tribal militias mostly drawn from camel-trading tribes and active in Darfur and parts of Chad.
AlJazeera says he rose through the ranks, catching the eye of President al-Bashir, who was recruiting Janjaweed to fight non-Arab people who began revolting against his rule in 2003 in Darfur, and Dagalo soon became a commander.
Human rights groups have accused the Janjaweed of war crimes – including killings, rapes and torture of civilians – throughout the conflict in Darfur.
