State-owned and co-opted commercial entities · Military aviation maintenance and training companies · Sudan
Safat aviation group (Safat Holding Complex; Safat Aircraft Repair Complex; Safat Training Complex; Safat Air)
مجمع صافات القابضة · مجمع صافات لتاهيل الطائرات · مجمع صافات للتدريب · صافات للطيران
Part of the SAF or state-controlled
AGrade A: Official recordStrongest record: official record
2 documented ties · 2 steps from the SAF
Part of the SAF's military industry by ownership. Its wartime role is undocumented in the sources reached.
Safat Holding Complex: Military Industry Corporation (MIC) 50%, Brouj Industry and Construction Services 50%; it owns a third of Giad Industrial Group (with Saria Industrial Complex and Blue Optics). Safat Aircraft Repair Complex (reg. 19492, 'Defense'): MIC 50%, Brouj 50% (historically 'Hamdo Foundation for Industry and Commerce' 81%, MIC 19%). Safat Training Complex (reg. 14330): Advanced Engineering Works 60%, MIC 40% (historically two individuals and 'Vega Aviation' 30%). Safat Air owns 99% of Sudan Crop Protection (reg. 1099). A Sudanese policy institute describes 'Safat Aviation' as 'a subsidiary of the Defense Industries System' with its own runway.
Response
No response is recorded. Named parties have not yet been asked for comment.
Records
4
Each record carries its own grade. A grade describes the source for that record, not the actor.
AGrade A: Official record
Wartime activity found: 'Safat 02' helicopter sold to the Civil Defence (Sept-Oct 2026); crop-spraying contracts
2025-11 to 2026-10
DIS's page (24 Sep 2026) and the police press office (23 Sep 2026) reported a contract under which DIS, 'represented by Safat Aviation Group', supplies the Civil Defence forces with 'Safat 02' aircraft. On 2 Oct 2026 the police press office reported that the Civil Defence 'received the Safat 02 helicopter', 'manufactured through the Sudanese Defense Industries System', in the presence of DIS representatives and the head of police aviation. Earlier (27 Nov 2025) Safat signed an aerial-spraying contract in Gedaref and a 'strategic partnership' in Gezira; its chief executive is a serving colonel-engineer.
Why this grade
Grade A is for the fact that the page announced this. The page was identified as official by its name and content; no verification badge was detected.
Sanctions
Not found on a sanctions list under this name in earlier passes.
›Research notes
Source alignment: official SAF-side channel. Grade applies to the fact that the announcement was made, not to its content. Page is not badge-verified on Facebook; treated as official because its output is the body's own press material (same texts are carried by the state news agency) and it is referenced by other official pages. Fills the gap recorded as 'wartime activity: nothing specific found'. The posts show Safat operating and selling aircraft in 2025-2026; they say nothing about military aircraft or drone maintenance.
Ownership inside the Military Industry Corporation
2019-2021 inventory
Safat Holding Complex: Military Industry Corporation (MIC) 50%, Brouj Industry and Construction Services 50%; it owns a third of Giad Industrial Group (with Saria Industrial Complex and Blue Optics). Safat Aircraft Repair Complex (reg. 19492, 'Defense'): MIC 50%, Brouj 50% (historically 'Hamdo Foundation for Industry and Commerce' 81%, MIC 19%). Safat Training Complex (reg. 14330): Advanced Engineering Works 60%, MIC 40% (historically two individuals and 'Vega Aviation' 30%). Safat Air owns 99% of Sudan Crop Protection (reg. 1099). A Sudanese policy institute describes 'Safat Aviation' as 'a subsidiary of the Defense Industries System' with its own runway.
Response
No response sought by this desk; none found in the sources read.
›Research notes
Single dataset: C4ADS's relay of the Sudanese Ministry of Finance inventory (2019-2021). 'Historical' rows are older filings; 'current' means current in that snapshot, not in 2026. English labels are machine translations. Not on the US, EU or UK Sudan lists in the local sanctions extracts (name search of raw/sdn.xml and the OpenSanctions export: no hit).
The same institute reports that in an April 2019 narcotics case defendants said the shipment arrived on a Kazakhstan-registered Il-76 that 'landed at the Safat Aviation Company's runway', and that the aircraft 'had operated in air freight for three years without a clear contract with Safat or the DIS'.
Response
No response sought by this desk; none found in the sources read.
›Research notes
Pre-war; single source; an allegation recorded in an investigation file, not a finding against the company.