Mideast: Who Is Supporting Sudan’s Hellish Civil War?
Kypros/Kryssia Campos
April 15 is the two-year anniversary of the Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF) first attacks against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), beginning a brutal civil war. An anniversary not to be celebrated. April 15, 2025, marks two years of brutal incessant violence, killing thousands and displacing millions. By many measures, it is the worst conflict and the largest humanitarian disaster on earth. In January of this year, former US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken recognized RSF actions in Sudan as genocide.
The story of how this war began is muddy and chaotic. In 1989, Omar al-Bashir, then an officer of the army, overthrew a democratically elected president and installed himself as Sudan’s dictator. He ruled until 2019 when the SAF, aided by the RSF, deposed him and created a new provisional government. Two years later, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the commander of the SAF, seized power. Hemedti, leader of the state militia RSF, did not readily accept his rule.
The rivalry between these once-allied generals has since escalated into the civil war we witness today.
To its devastation, Sudan is no stranger to civil war. Many of the ten million Sudanese currently displaced have been displaced before. The RSF was born out of the Darfur crisis in the early 2000s from fighters then called the Janjaweed. The Janjaweed, with the protection and permission of al-Bashir, committed genocide against non-Arab ethnic minorities in Darfur. Al-Bashir was the first sitting leader in history to be charged with genocide and issued an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court.
The Janjaweed, or horsemen, were brutal. From 2003 until 2005, they systematically targeted and killed 200,000 non-Arab Sudanese living in Darfur. Bashir's government ordered and assisted this violence.
The Janjaweed remained and eventually became the RSF, occasionally carrying out security operations for the Sudanese government. In 2017, al-Bashir legitimized them as an independent security force.
Due to his administration’s violence and corruption, protests calling for Bashir's removal grew into a deafening roar. SAF and RSF leaders deposed the dictator in 2019. Dissatisfied with the power of the civilian prime minister they empowered, SAF General al-Burhan removed him. When the dust settled, al-Burhan was Sudan’s de facto head of state. In 2023, however, Hemedti of the RSF saw his opportunity to attack and empower his faction.
In the ensuing destruction, Sudan fractured. The SAF holds Eastern Sudan including Port Sudan, parts of Northern Sudan, and as of last week, Khartoum. Across battlelines, the RSF holds pieces of Southern and Central Sudan and most of the Darfur Region.
There are 13 million displaced persons in Sudan and neighboring countries due to the violence. Casualty estimates range from 100,000 to 500,000, depending on if the kids who've died of starvation count as casualties of war. The wider world has yet provide an official count.
As dismaying as it is predictable, several countries are taking advantage of the conflict to increase their influence and line their pockets. Russia, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the UAE are all participant outsiders.
The SAF recently brought charges against the UAE for aiding genocide and enabling crimes against humanity to the International Court of Justice, which the Emiratis forcibly deny. The UAE claims its only involvement is as a source of humanitarian aid. Although, with each passing week, the evidence becomes overwhelming that the UAE arms the RSF.
The UAE-built hospital in South Sudan, nominally meant to treat refugees of the war, is a recovery outpost for injured RSF militiamen. Emiratis also built an airstrip in Chad, used for importing weapons despite what they may bluster on about humanitarian aid.
Why is the UAE so set on supporting genocidal soldiers? Sudan, for better or worse, and in this case the latter, has incredible gold stores. The mineral wealth attracts unsavory profit seekers who smell an opportunity to sell weapons to the militants for gold. The US became aware under President Biden and sanctioned Emirati companies they accused of laundering gold from the RSF.
Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, is supporting the SAF. Saudi, often recently in opposition to the UAE, supports states over non-state actors. Saudi’s long coastline on the Red Sea and ambitious economic plans for the coming decade incentivize a peaceful region. It went from an active belligerent in Yemen to a peace-focused powerbroker. The role of peacemaker it plays again in Sudan. Multiple times it has attempted to broker a lasting ceasefire and failed. This month, the SAF reconquered Khartoum and the Saudi state invited General al-Burhan to Riyadh to discuss the future of the conflict.
From Somalia to Sudan, and Yemen to Libya, the UAE is taking a risky gamble by backing non-state actors in pursuit of financial and political gain. More and more it finds itself on the other side of the fence from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and others of its former allies. They are instead going on a blitz of risky foreign investments, particularly on the African continent. In the last two years, UAE investments in the continent surpassed those of China.
It is deeply unsettling for two of the most powerful economies and militaries in the Middle East to butt heads. The last thing the region needs is more powerful belligerents.
Countries outside of the Middle East are also playing important roles in Sudan. Both Russian and Ukranian mercenaries have appeared fighting in Sudanese battles; Russians for RSF and Ukranians for SAF. The US, while lacking a military presence, took immense responsibility in Sudan.
Under President Biden, the US Agency for International Development (commonly USAID) ran massive campaigns to feed the famine-struck population in Sudan. Of the USD 1.8 billion contributed to humanitarian action in Sudan by the world in 2024, the US contributed a whopping USD 805.7 million. For 2025, the UN raised their estimate of dollars needed in Sudan by USD 1.4 billion. The US-run Famine Early Warning Systems Network predicted 5 million people at risk of starvation in the next year even with the USAID support.
Then, the Trump administration eliminated the programs. Now, data is hardly being collected. Food shipments in warehouses across Africa, sent by America to feed Sudan, are rotting as Trump cut the funding for its delivery.
Perhaps because the conflict is so sparsely covered in global media, or because of other crises competing for attention, those with the power to intervene pay little mind to the belligerents in Sudan or their backers. Countries that can benefit from the conflict see no reason not to. While America is distracted by a trade war against China, they missed the UAE overtaking China in African investments. While investigating Israel and Gaza, they failed to notice Russian and Ukranian troops treating Sudan as another proxy battle.
Sudan is in dire straits. The nasty leaders of the RSF and SAF have long brutalized and abused their populations with unchecked violence. Women have borne the brunt of the pain, suffering poor medical care, constant displacement, and the ever-present threat of sexual violence. This last threat is so horrifying and so widespread in the country it is difficult to digest. UN representatives report “staggering” levels of sexual violence, which they refer to as “sexual terror” and “sexual slavery.” The statistics are so horrifying they do not belong in this article but the UN report is available here.
Yet despite the clear and present need for intervention and assistance, the strongest powers of the world have taken a back seat, or worse, poured fuel on the fire. It is an awesome and improbable responsibility to bring peace to the living hell in Sudan; but the power of the modern era is equally awesome and improbable. Rarely in history have there been more disastrous threats to innocent life. Sudan’s civil war is a challenge to the people of the world to rise to the greatest of their expectations. For the millions of Sudanese children without food or homes, the women imprisoned and without protection, the people without hope, the war games must end.
