Why do we think the RSF spreadsheet is genuine?

It is possible that this document is too good to be true. After all, leaked financial information for militaries or paramilitary groups is exceedingly rare. (One of the few examples known to Global Witness is this analysis, drawing on captured documents, of the finances of Al Qaida in Iraq in 2005/6, the violent jihadi group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.) Could the document be part of an elaborate misinformation campaign?

In addition to investigating the provenance of the document, contacting individuals and companies named therein, and talking to sources familiar with the RSF leadership, the spreadsheet itself contains information which can be corroborated.

There isn’t one single section of the document that indicates its authenticity. Rather, it is the accumulation of interlocking references to companies, individuals and types of vehicles which, when triangulated using other sources, led us to the conclusion that the document is almost certainly authentic.

When we investigated the companies named using corporate records and analysis of registered website domains, we found familial connections to the leadership of the RSF. When we followed up references to named individuals we found many of them easily on social media, many of them linked to family members of the RSF leadership, and some of them connected to one of the companies named in the spreadsheet. And when we examined the vehicles named in the spreadsheet we found pictures of the same make and model of vehicles, from a variety of independent sources, at almost every stage of the supply chain from Dubai to Sudan. Taken as a whole, it is our opinion that the document is highly likely to be genuine.

Where we could identify the companies or individuals, we wrote to them for comment on why they appeared in the spreadsheet. After repeated attempts to contact 42 companies, only nine companies gave full or partial responses. These responses are integrated in the blog where appropriate, and we annotated the spreadsheet with the responses we received. The majority of the responses stated that they had no knowledge, or means of knowing, that they dealt directly or indirectly with RSF or their procurement agents. Given the use of middlemen this is almost certain to be the case and we do not suggest any wrongdoing on the part of any individuals or companies mentioned in this blog or spreadsheet, unless otherwise discussed.

In two responses companies listed as suppliers in the spreadsheet told Global Witness that the goods were bought by Tradive General Trading. This is further confirmation of the authenticity of the spreadsheet. As discussed further below, our last publication revealed that Tradive is controlled by Algoney Hamdan Daglo, the younger brother of Hemedti, the leader of the RSF.