{"id":38560,"date":"2024-12-14T22:46:45","date_gmt":"2024-12-14T19:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=38560"},"modified":"2024-12-14T22:46:45","modified_gmt":"2024-12-14T19:46:45","slug":"al-qouni-in-the-hague","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/14\/al-qouni-in-the-hague\/","title":{"rendered":"“Al-Qouni \u2026 in The Hague”"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mohammed Wada’a<\/strong><\/p>\n

On December 6, 2024, the Dutch Foreign Ministry issued a statement distancing itself from a workshop held in The Hague titled “Wars and Prospects for Building a New State in Sudan: Challenges and Opportunities.” The event was organized by The Hague Peace Projects in collaboration with the Institute of Social Studies and Alfanar Organization. The ministry clarified that it had no involvement in organizing the workshop, inviting participants, or facilitating attendance. It denied any connection to the event, which allegedly involved members of Sudan\u2019s National Umma Party supporting the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to Nabd platform.<\/p>\n

The Dutch Foreign Ministry refuted \u201cmisleading information\u201d circulating about the event and stated that no ministry representatives participated in any capacity, nor did they receive or host any speakers involved in the workshop.<\/p>\n

On December 11, 2024, The Sudan Conference \u2013 The Hague Peace Projects released a statement saying that they organized a conference on December 6\u20137 titled \u201cWars and Prospects for Building a New State in Sudan: Challenges and Opportunities\u201d at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, in collaboration with Sudanese individuals. The conference aimed to facilitate discussions on sustainable peace.<\/p>\n

According to the organizers, visa applications for several key speakers from outside Europe were rejected, and some had to cancel at the last minute. To avoid canceling the event, one of their partners, Alfanar Organization, suggested inviting speakers already in Europe for another workshop in Geneva. These individuals had valid visas, though the organizers did not know them personally. One of the speakers, who introduced himself as \u201cAhmed Musa,\u201d was later revealed to be a political figure operating under a false identity. The organizers later discovered that this individual was on the U.S. sanctions list, and they regretted giving him a platform to speak.<\/p>\n

Although the statement avoided explicitly naming the individual, it became evident that \u201cAhmed Musa\u201d was none other than Al-Qouni Hamdan Dagalo. His accomplices in this deception included Alfanar Organization, led by a prominent National Umma Party member, Fathi Ibrahim. The scheme was exposed by Sudanese activists and politicians in The Hague, who alerted the university administration about Al-Qouni\u2019s use of a false identity. Questions remain about whether his passport bore the name \u201cAhmed Musa\u201d or \u201cAl-Qouni Hamdan Dagalo,\u201d especially given his designation by the U.S. Treasury.<\/p>\n

Al-Qouni\u2019s Sanctions and Actions<\/p>\n

On October 9, 2024, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Al-Qouni Hamdan Dagalo under Executive Order 14098 for leading efforts to supply arms to perpetuate the war in Sudan. The U.S. Treasury stated that Al-Qouni had been involved in purchasing weapons and military equipment that enabled RSF forces to carry out operations, including attacks on El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur.<\/p>\n

U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller added that Al-Qouni\u2019s actions fueled the war and led to brutal atrocities by RSF forces, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing. Al-Qouni allegedly controlled several RSF-affiliated companies, including Tradive General Trading, which imported arms and vehicles for RSF. He also served as the RSF\u2019s procurement director.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Treasury regularly circulates its sanctions decisions to global partners to monitor compliance. Given the scope of these sanctions, questions arose about how Al-Qouni managed to travel internationally, including his use of passports and aliases.<\/p>\n

The Workshop Fallout<\/p>\n

The Institute of Social Studies halted the workshop, but its recommendations were still issued. It remains unclear whether legal action was taken against Al-Qouni or Alfanar Organization. There is speculation that the Trump administration might question Dutch authorities\u2019 leniency regarding U.S. Treasury sanctions, applying pressure on institutions like the International Court of Justice in The Hague.<\/p>\n

Al-Qouni reportedly traveled from Nairobi to South Africa, then to Geneva, and finally to The Hague within a few weeks. The exact number of passports and identities he used during these trips remains unknown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mohammed Wada’a On December 6, 2024, the Dutch Foreign Ministry issued a statement distancing itself from a workshop held in The Hague titled “Wars and Prospects for Building a New State in Sudan: Challenges and Opportunities.” The event was organized by The Hague Peace Projects in collaboration with the Institute of Social Studies and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38560"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38561,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38560\/revisions\/38561"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}