The Transitional Military Council (TMC) has decided to try and finish with the popular movement of Sudan. Its Vice President Mohamed Dagolo, better known as Hemeti, is suspected of orchestrating the Monday, June 3rd massacre of protesters at the central Khartoum sit-in. Beyond his poisonous reputation, the recent trajectory of the ousted president Omar al-Bashir’s one-time underling reveals the dynamics of a regime in crisis, and illustrates the terrible danger Hemeti and Sudan’s “deep state” pose to the uprising six months in.

“My patience with politics has limits,” said Hemiti sometime in April, not long after this former leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia was promoted to Vice President just days after the dismissal of Omar al-Bashir. Despite his reputation as a marauder and war criminal, Hemeti has since imposed himself as the undisputed face of the TMC without even being a member of the regular army—a coup de force in the eyes of most Sudanese.

As leader of the RSF, Hemeti is amongst the principal beneficiaries of the regime’s recent engagement with international questions over migration and border controls. Additionally, alongside General Abdel Fatah Burhan, the President of the TMC, Hemeti has been a key promoter of the Sudanese contingent’s involvement in the Saudi-led coalition’s war in Yemen. Hemeti himself went to Saudi Arabia on 24 May, and met with Prince Mohamed Bin Salman.

In mid-April he grabbed a bit of international attention in an on camera debate with Jean-Michel Dumond (representative of the European Union), the French, British and Dutch ambassadors, as well as US representatives—establishing himself as “the man of the hour.” Since the uprising began in December, he has come to embody executive power in Khartoum; present at every front, a participant in every decision, and making multiple appearances and announcements—with several notable rhetorical variations, however.

Contradictorily we’ve seen him freeing about a hundred prisoners following an official visit to the infamous Kouber prison, and on the other hand threatening the insurgents and the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), a trade union confederation playing a leading role in the uprising during their general strike of 28-29 May. It was his troops that blocked critical journalists’ access to the national television headquarters—summoning police whilst blaming some NGOs for “instigating the trouble,” exactly what was done in Darfur. Hemiti is now presenting himself as the ultimate arbiter after the impasse of the TMC’s negotiations with the Forces for Freedom and Change (FFC), the coalition of opposition forces that includes the SPA.