Feared Sudanese paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo went from a militia chief in war-torn Darfur to the country's second-in-command -- to now battling the regular army for control of the country.
Daglo, leader of the large and heavily-armed paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), collaborated with his now arch-rival, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, in a 2021 military coup that derailed a transition to civilian rule following the 2019 ouster of hardline president Omar al-Bashir.
Often dressed in desert fatigues, the tall and slightly stooped Daglo -- widely known by his nickname Hemeti, short for Mohamed -- has crafted a distinct image for himself and his troops, positioning the RSF as autonomous from the military.
An experienced battlefield commander, he has in recent months also deployed a savvy use of social media with posts on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to address the country's overwhelmingly young population, with two thirds of Sudanese aged under 30.
