As Sudan’s civil war approaches its second anniversary, foreign arms and fighters have flowed in to fuel the conflict. Asked this month whether his faction was buying Iranian and Ukrainian weapons, the foreign minister for the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) told an interviewer, “We have the right to import weapons from anyone willing to sell [to] us.”
According to a Kharon investigation, the flow of dual-use technologies from Ukraine to Sudan began before the civil war broke out. At the center of one key network is a dual Ukrainian-Sudanese national, whom the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned in January.
That designation and Kharon’s research reveal hidden knock-on effects of Russia’s invasion, as growing Ukrainian defense companies search for other markets abroad. The dynamic demonstrates a risk that Western companies trading with Ukrainian firms—often with approval or encouragement from their governments—could see their products end up in other conflict zones around the world.
Backstory: Treasury designated dual national Ahmed Abdalla for serving as an official of the Defense Industries System, Sudan’s state-owned military procurement company.
The designation statement noted that, to evade sanctions, “DIS conducts procurement activities through ostensibly private companies working on its behalf.” It singled out Abdalla’s role as chief operating officer of the Hong Kong-based Portex Trade Limited, which Treasury also designated, saying it “has transacted with entities involved in the sale of military equipment.”
Abdalla also wholly owns Portex, according to corporate records. But it’s far from his only enterprise.
Inside the network: A Kharon review of trade data, corporate records and social media profiles found that Abdalla conducts business in at least four countries, with connections spanning the aerospace, defense and logistics sectors.
Abdalla is owner and chief executive officer of a maritime logistics/port services company in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa and founded two NGOs focused on bolstering Sudanese-Ukrainian relations. Simultaneously, he is the CEO of Sestema FZ LLC and was the “license manager” of Smart Link Me DMCC, two management-consulting companies registered in the United Arab Emirates. Smart Link Me DMCC controls an investment company whose chief financial officer previously served in that role for a sanctioned SAF arms company.
A review of the Dubai registry for Smart Link Me, re-accessed by Kharon on June 2 following the initial publication of this report, shows a change in the company’s record listing Smart Link Me’s “license manager” as Sitana Khalafalla Abdallah Ahmed. The Office of Foreign Asset Controls’ Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) List includes this name as an alias for the sanctioned Ahmed Abdalla.
Connecting the dots: According to bills of lading reviewed by Kharon, the now-sanctioned Portex Trading imported defense simulation software models, tensometers and satellite antennas from several Ukrainian aerospace companies into Sudan between 2014 and 2020. In 2023, Portex imported shotguns from a Turkish arms manufacturer into Sudan.
According to a Kharon investigation, the flow of dual-use technologies from Ukraine to Sudan began before the civil war broke out. At the center of one key network is a dual Ukrainian-Sudanese national, whom the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned in January.
That designation and Kharon’s research reveal hidden knock-on effects of Russia’s invasion, as growing Ukrainian defense companies search for other markets abroad. The dynamic demonstrates a risk that Western companies trading with Ukrainian firms—often with approval or encouragement from their governments—could see their products end up in other conflict zones around the world.
Backstory: Treasury designated dual national Ahmed Abdalla for serving as an official of the Defense Industries System, Sudan’s state-owned military procurement company.
The designation statement noted that, to evade sanctions, “DIS conducts procurement activities through ostensibly private companies working on its behalf.” It singled out Abdalla’s role as chief operating officer of the Hong Kong-based Portex Trade Limited, which Treasury also designated, saying it “has transacted with entities involved in the sale of military equipment.”
Abdalla also wholly owns Portex, according to corporate records. But it’s far from his only enterprise.
Inside the network: A Kharon review of trade data, corporate records and social media profiles found that Abdalla conducts business in at least four countries, with connections spanning the aerospace, defense and logistics sectors.
Abdalla is owner and chief executive officer of a maritime logistics/port services company in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa and founded two NGOs focused on bolstering Sudanese-Ukrainian relations. Simultaneously, he is the CEO of Sestema FZ LLC and was the “license manager” of Smart Link Me DMCC, two management-consulting companies registered in the United Arab Emirates. Smart Link Me DMCC controls an investment company whose chief financial officer previously served in that role for a sanctioned SAF arms company.
A review of the Dubai registry for Smart Link Me, re-accessed by Kharon on June 2 following the initial publication of this report, shows a change in the company’s record listing Smart Link Me’s “license manager” as Sitana Khalafalla Abdallah Ahmed. The Office of Foreign Asset Controls’ Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) List includes this name as an alias for the sanctioned Ahmed Abdalla.
Connecting the dots: According to bills of lading reviewed by Kharon, the now-sanctioned Portex Trading imported defense simulation software models, tensometers and satellite antennas from several Ukrainian aerospace companies into Sudan between 2014 and 2020. In 2023, Portex imported shotguns from a Turkish arms manufacturer into Sudan.
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Azerbaijan offers one final key international connection. Until 2016, Abdalla was an advisor at the Ukraine-based AA Magellan TOV, an aerospace company. Magellan’s majority owner is an Azeri national who is the president of a company in Azerbaijan that sells at least two types of drones. The Treasury designation stated that Abdalla purchased Iranian drones, which he planned to export to Sudan, from an unnamed company in Azerbaijan.
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