Method
How this file is built, and what it cannot tell you
The dossier records the companies, officials, armed groups and states documented as supplying, financing or fighting alongside the Sudan Armed Forces since April 2023. It holds 192 actors, 645 relationships, 448 graded records about those actors, 151 findings that are not about one actor, and 195 dated events.
Being listed is not an accusation. The file includes ordinary commercial counterparties, lawyers and lobbyists on public registers, and states where no support was found. Each actor shows the basis for listing it.
Evidence grades
A grade describes the quality of the source for one record. It is not a verdict on the actor. Read the record to see what it establishes.
- Grade A: Official record
- Official recordSanctions listing, UN finding, court filing, official register, or an official body announcing its own action. Can be stated as fact, attributed to the source.
- Grade B: Corroborated
- CorroboratedSeveral independent, credible investigations. Can be reported with attribution.
- Grade C: Single source
- Single sourceOne credible outlet, or media aligned with a party to the conflict. "According to" only. Hidden by default.
- Grade D: Unverified lead
- Unverified leadPartisan, social-media or forum claim. A lead to check, not a finding. Hidden by default.
- Grade A: Official record actors whose strongest record is A
- 99
- Grade B: Corroborated actors whose strongest record is B
- 36
- Grade C: Single source actors whose strongest record is C
- 53
- Grade D: Unverified lead actors whose strongest record is D
- 4
The “Evidence shown” control at the top of every page starts at A–B. Grades C and D are in the file and can be shown, but they are single-source claims and unverified leads, and are labelled as such wherever they appear.
Why an actor is listed
The basis for inclusion is separate from the grade. It decides how the actor is drawn.
- Part of the SAF or state-controlled44
- Allied force or mobilisation network17
- Documented supplier or backer13
- Reported or alleged link, not established60
- Commercial or professional counterparty36
- Context only22
Filled marks are bodies that are part of the SAF, fight alongside it, or are documented suppliers. Rings are reported links that are not established. Faint rings are commercial counterparties and context. Small dots are the 192 companies named in a relationship that have no record of their own.
Relationship kinds
The research records each relationship in its own words. The 645 relationships were sorted into these kinds by rule and then reviewed one by one.
Ownership and control
Shareholdings, parent companies, directors and officials acting for a body.
Arms and supply
Arms, explosives, components, uniforms and the flights and brokers that move them.
Money
Gold, banking channels, payments, donations, trade deals, lobbying and legal retainers.
Fighting forces
Fighting alongside the army, training, basing, recruitment and mobilisation.
Political ties
Agreements, official visits and declared political support between states and state bodies.
Other recorded relations
Recorded, but not a tie of support: seizures, disputes, cancelled deals, identity notes. Listed on records and not drawn on the network.
What is derived, not found
Derived from the documented records by network analysis. Nothing here is a finding: chains are sequences of documented relationships, and inferred links are hypotheses.
“Steps from the SAF” counts documented relationships along the shortest chain. The count of entities connected to the SAF changes with the evidence setting: 81 on official records alone, 253 when corroborated reporting is added, 293 when everything on record is counted.
The 182 “possible links” are pairs with no documented tie that share an intermediary, a source, or a mention. They are leads to check and are never drawn unless you switch them on in the explorer.
Limits
- Named parties have not been asked for comment. Where a party has responded publicly, the response is shown above the records (90 of 192 actors).
- 20 actors are flagged for legal review before publication. The flag appears on their records.
- 387 source citations were read through a summary, mirror or search result, and 48 could not be opened. Both are marked on the record.
- The scope is the SAF side only. The Rapid Support Forces appear for contrast and are not profiled.
- Coordinates are approximate country centroids, capitals or town centres. "base" comes from the actor's recorded jurisdiction; "footprint" counts other countries named in its records. Country and place tags come from pattern matching over the record text.
- No dates of birth, identity numbers or home addresses are held, and private individuals are not named.
Where the evidence comes from
1930 citations · 300 sites- Read directly
- 1,056
- Read via summary
- 387
- Not opened
- 48
- Access not recorded
- 439
| facebook.com | 134 | |
|---|---|---|
| home.treasury.gov | 80 | |
| sudantribune.com | 74 | |
| sudantransparency.org | 59 | |
| sudansce.c4ads.org | 56 | |
| x.com | 56 | |
| ohchr.org | 40 | |
| t.me | 39 | |
| chathamhouse.org | 37 | |
| docs.un.org | 35 | |
| 3ayin.com | 34 | |
| c4ads.org | 34 | |
| opensanctions.org | 33 | |
| dabangasudan.org | 30 |
Social-media posts are used for what an official body announced about itself, and for claims that were then checked. A post alone never grades above C.
Editorial log
Corrections applied by the desk review: downgrades, removed names and changed bases.
›Show 90 entries
Editorial log: third pass and desk review (3 October 2026)
omdurman_mining: UK quotation restored to the list wording
el_nilein_bank: Chatham House quotation completed
mafi: period corrected to the complaint dates
red_rock: typo in EU quotation fixed
baykar: names of two employees removed
williams_group: names of individuals removed; the firm is the registrant
chemtrade: employee name removed
new_way_cargo_astraway_fzc: representative name removed
emiral_kush: founder name removed
iran: name of a person with no stated official post removed
popular_resistance: name of the vehicle seller removed (private trader in that passage)
azhari_al_mubarak: unverified partisan characterisation deleted
azhari_al_mubarak: role corrected to Northern State
ports_engineering: manager name removed (press-only); chlorine separated from the sanctions basis
ukraine: sentence joining Ahmad Abdalla to the Ukrainian state removed: nothing links them
state_governments_war_effort_as_first_spending_priority: inference not stated by the source removed
turkiye: unsourced link to a later strike removed
al_misbah: single-source detention detail marked as such
dis claim 4: A -> C (press report only)
ports_engineering claim 3: A -> C (press report only)
sbl_energy claim 3: A -> C (press report only)
smt_giad claim 3: A -> C (press report only)
tmac claim 3: A -> C (press report only)
bbmb claim 2: A -> C (press report only)
gibril claim 2: A -> C (press report only)
mirghani_idris claim 3: A -> C (press report only)
al_misbah claim 1: A -> C (press report only)
keikal claim 1: A -> C (press report only)
sudamin claim 3: A -> C (press report only)
smb claim 1: A -> C (press report only)
zadna claim 3: A -> C (press report only)
saf_armament_committee claim 0: A -> C (UAE prosecution allegation relayed by the press)
ariab claim 2: A -> C (one report)
sudamin claim 2: A -> B (reporting, not an official record)
baykar claim 0: A -> C (the registration is official record; the Sudan contract rests on one investigation)
baykar claim 1: A -> C (company figures are self-reported; the Sudan contract rests on one investigation)
baykar claim 2: B -> C (one investigation, repeated by other outlets)
baykar claim 4: B -> C (one outlet relaying the same investigation)
baykar claim 5: B -> D (statements by a party to the war)
cbos claim 2: B -> C (one report citing one central-bank contact)
etegahat claim 0: B -> C (identification is an inference)
egyptian_sudanese_for_development_and_multiple_investments claim 0: B -> C (most sources read through a summariser; see the pass-3 record for the shareholding)
sudatel_telecom claim 0: A -> C (identification of the chairman rests on a name match)
heavy_industries_taxila claim 0: C -> D (maker disputed by another record)
18 claims marked "mixed": the grade applies to the best-sourced element only; weaker elements are in the grade note
ten donation entries: regraded to C (state media alone), basis set to "reported", category "finance"; the 2021 Khartoum employers' donation is pre-war and set to "context"
national_aerospace...: UN mission report removed as a source (it names no manufacturer)
eritrea: claim citing sponsored content regraded to D
ariab: record deleted (attributes Sudamin's "both sides" wording to Ariab): Ariab Mining Company
ahmad_abdalla: record deleted (superseded by the confirmed record): Ahmed Abdullah (SAF-linked procurement official, as described in UK li
atlas: record deleted (empty record): Atlas International Business LLC
chemtrade: record deleted (empty record): Chemtrade International Corporation
libya_gnu: record deleted (contradicted by the better-sourced record): Libya (Government of National Unity, Tripoli)
emiral_kush: record deleted (duplicate of the same sentence at a lower grade): Alliance for Mining Co. / Kush for Exploration and Production Co. Ltd
norinco: record deleted (the "Narinco" sentence most likely refers to Norin Mining and is kept there): Norinco (reported as 'Narinco')
belarus: basis supplier -> reported
china: basis supplier -> reported
saudi_arabia: basis supplier -> reported
chemtrade: basis supplier -> commercial
karmetal: basis supplier -> reported
aviacon: basis supplier -> reported
new_way_cargo_astraway_fzc: basis supplier -> context
kyrgyzstan: basis reported -> context
marble_engineering: basis reported -> saf
omdurman_mining: basis saf -> supplier
advanced_engineering_works: basis saf -> commercial
sudan_gold_refinery: basis saf -> context
sur: basis saf -> context
sudanese_cotton_lt_gen_abu_bakr_dambalab_appointed_head: basis saf -> reported
eastern_sudan_liberation_forces_leader_ibrahim_dunya: basis allied -> reported
sama_sudan_network: basis allied -> reported
al_zawaya_for_development_and_investment: basis reported -> context
dickens_madson: basis commercial -> context
nelson_mullins_riley_scarborough_llp: basis commercial -> context
meroe_gold_m_invest_al_solag_mining: basis commercial -> reported
Canada added to six sanctionedBy lists; Salah Gosh's list filled from his record
nafie_ali_nafie_verified_presence_in_turkiye: actor removed (concerns a person's whereabouts in a medical setting and says nothing about support for the SAF)
sudan_s_external_counsel_in_sudan_v_united_arab_emirates: actor removed (names private professionals acting as counsel; lawful representation is not support)
kabbashi_sufi_order_food_convoy_to_armed_forces: actor removed (a religious community listed on the strength of one food convoy)
deep_metals_for_mining: actor removed (the record itself says to keep it out of the public database unless confirmed)
asawer: actor removed (an unidentified company from one sentence: a lead, not an actor)
tamazuj: actor removed (the record says the group is RSF-aligned)
arca_defense: actor removed (documented only in contact with the RSF)
relationships: 8 edges moved from the DIS subsidiary Etegahat to the Egyptian-Sudanese Company, where the sources place them
pass 3 ownership: record withheld (marked do-not-publish) for zadna
pass 3 procurement: record withheld (marked do-not-publish) for madani
pass 3 merged: {'actors': 29, 'claims': 42, 'relationships': 101, 'findings': 38, 'timeline': 51}
duplicate pass-3 actors merged: Advanced Mining Works, Hypokwan Mining Company, Rida Engineering
sea logistics finding: unverified vessel and owner names withheld
pass 4 merged (facebook, registers, x): {'actors': 12, 'claims': 48, 'relationships': 32, 'findings': 19, 'timeline': 44}
What stayed open: the gap ledgerClaims rated falseOpen the explorer