In Sudan, the Sudanese civil war continues, with the Rapid Support Forces killing and terrorising civilians, as well as wreaking havoc upon the environment, which has a huge knock-on effect for the rest of the continent. The United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia have been found to have possibly armed the Rapid Support Forces. Moreover, the siege of El-Fasher has been described as being orchestrated to deliberately exterminate the Fur and Zaghawa ethnic communities.
The Rapid Support Forces continue to attack civilians
The Guardian reported on 7 February that the Sudan Doctors Network had stated that an RSF drone attack had hit a vehicle carrying displaced families in central Sudan. This resulted in the deaths of at least 24 people, including eight children.
It was further noted that “the attack by the Rapid Support Forces took place close to the city of Er Rahad in North Kordofan province, according to the Sudan Doctors Network, which tracks the country’s war. The vehicle was transporting displaced people who fled fighting in the Dubeiker area […] Among the dead children were two infants”.
The Sudan Doctors Network also stated that “several others were wounded and taken for treatment in Er Rahad, which suffers from severe medical supplies shortages, like many areas in the Kordofan region.”
Meanwhile, a week later, Mat Nashed of Al Jazeera reported on 14 February that on the morning of October 25, Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces had stormed the town of Bara in North Kordofan state. As this took place, Sadiq Ahmed, 59, thought about what would happen to his two daughters, if he couldn’t protect them.
Sadiq told Al Jazeera that RSF fighters began raiding homes, looking for women and girls as well as anything they could loot, and that although Sadiq gave up his money, phones, and gold to the fighters, he refused to give up his daughters or nieces. “It was a red line for me. I was prepared to die to [protect my daughters],” he said to Al Jazeera. Thankfully, Sadiq was able to convince the RSF fighters to let his family and his brother’s family flee the town.
According to the United Nations, nearly 39,000 people had to flee the Kordofan region due to a huge increase in violence between 26 October and 9 November. Although Sadiq’s family survived, the Sudan’s Doctor’s Network has reported that “at least 38 civilians were killed during the RSF’s capture of Bara, while other local monitors told Al Jazeera that men of fighting age were often accused of “sympathising” with the army and killed”.
It was noted by MSN in November last year that “at least 12 million people had been displaced, uprooted and terrorised” during the present civil war in Sudan. There are even some estimates that put the figure considerably higher, at around 15 million, which would comprise a third of Sudan’s population. The brutal civil war has meant that the majority of those affected are “untraceable and unreachable by aid agencies”, and that consequently at least two million civilians are on the brink of starvation. Meanwhile, “since April 2023 and the outbreak of the latest bout of civil war, at least 150,000 Sudanese have been killed.”
Environmental toll of Sudan Civil War
Not only has the civil war in Sudan caused immense human suffering, but it has also been reported by Africanews that the war has caused huge damage to Sudan’s acacia forest, threatening the entire ecosystem. The conflict has caused a disastrous deforestation in Sudan, which will have environmental repercussions for the whole continent of Africa, not just Sudan, as the forest acts as a haven for migrating wildlife.
The links between the Rapid Support Forces and the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia
Attention has recently become focused on who is arming the Rapid Support Forces, “and the UAE has been identified as a principal RSF backer”. Indeed, MSN states that “it has been reported that modern weapons have been provided [to the RSF] by the UAE.” The UAE has regularly denied this, but “several agencies, among them the CIA, depict the Emirates as principal armourer to Hemedti. The UAE has claimed it needs to fight “Islamists” and offshoots of the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan — although it has given little proof of their presence. Caches have been identified coming through Puntland in Somalia, since the hub of Port Sudan is now the headquarters of the SAF”.
Boxes of ammunition from Bulgaria were discovered at a roadblock in northern Darfur, which had been paid for by the UAE, according to the UN.
It has also been reported that “more recently the UAE has tried to pull back from overt support of the RSF. Last week Anwar Gargash, adviser to President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi, told a conference there “the UAE has been clear, there is no military solution”. He said the war had “resulted in indescribable devastation and violence. This war must stop now.””
The role of Ethiopia in the unfolding tragedy has also been under scrutiny. MSN reported in mid-February that a recent report by Reuters had discovered that Ethiopia is running a secret camp to “train thousands of fighters for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group in neighbouring Sudan”. This news is another sign that the funding and weapons for the deadly civil war in Sudan are coming from regional powers from the Middle East and Africa.
It was further noted that “the report is the first direct evidence that Ethiopia is indeed involved in the conflict in Sudan. It is reported to provide the Rapid Support Forces with a substantial supply of soldiers and training for the paramilitary group that has been battling Sudan’s government troops since 2023”.
The siege of El-Fasher has ‘hallmarks of genocide’
Meanwhile, the siege of El-Fasher, which culminated in so many deaths last October, has been designated as having all the hallmarks of a genocide, according to a UN Mission. On 19 February, the Guardian reported that a UN report, outlining the devastating 18-month occupation of the capital of North Darfur, had concluded that the RSF and their allies had deliberately caused conditions in order to “bring about the physical destruction of the Fur and Zaghawa ethnic communities.”
Mohamed Chande Othman, the mission’s chair, who called for a thorough investigation of the perpetrators, commented: “The scale, coordination, and public endorsement of the operation by senior RSF leadership demonstrate that the crimes committed in and around El Fasher were not random excesses of war.”
How much longer?
Writing in the Guardian on 20 February, Husam Mahjoub, co-founder of Sudan Bukra, an independent non-profit Sudanese TV channel commented; “These atrocities in Sudan were entirely predictable. So why did the rest of the world fail to stop them?”.
It is hard, if not impossible, not to sympathise with Majoub’s frustrations. It will soon be the third anniversary of the beginning of the civil war in Sudan. While it has been regularly described as the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis, even bigger than the tragedy in Gaza, there has been no serious effort at ending it from the international community. Indeed, as we have seen, there are international actors who are helping to fuel the killing and the suffering.
How much longer must the people of Sudan suffer while the world looks away?
What can you do?
You can sign a petition asking the UK government to stop selling arms to the UAE here.
To find other ways you can help the people of Sudan please see:
Red Cross Sudan appeal here.
United Nations Refugee Agency for Sudan appeal here.
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