As the Sudan Civil War completes two years this month (in April 2025), it has already claimed nearly 150,000 human lives and displaced nearly 12 million people.
Unfortunately with big money foreign powers taking rival sides, this can increase supply of deadly weapons to both sides, resulting in heavier destruction.
Such a trend should be stopped with international pressure and instead sincere efforts for peace should increase.
There have been growing signs, confirmed by UN and US reports, that the UAE has been active on the side of one of the factions called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in various ways. The UAE has been accused of supplying weapons and other help to the RSF, in return for support for its ambitions of getting access to more farmland and other resources of Sudan.
Earlier the UAE had faced criticism for supporting rebel or secessionist groups in other countries including Yemen, Libya and Somalia with somewhat similar objectives.
In March this year the officially recognized government of Sudan filed a case against the UAE at the International Court of Justice, accusing the UAE of violating the Convention of Genocide by supporting RSF which in turn had been accused in reports of carrying out genocidal actions and ethnic cleansing in West Darfur region of Sudan.
Earlier in February this year (2025), the RSF had initiated the process of setting up a parallel administration for Sudan in Kenya, a provocative act that is seen as reducing the possibilities of national reconciliation and accentuating the civil war further. As it was around the same time that the UAE had given Kenya a loan of $1.5 billion, this economic assistance was linked by observers to securing the acceptance of Kenya for hosting this.
Meanwhile Saudi Arabia’s tensions with the UAE have been increasing over several economic and strategic issues, despite the two having been key allies in the not-too-distant past.
In Sudan the role of Saudi Arabia had been initially one of a mediator and peace-maker. More recently, however, it has appeared to emerge more strongly on the side of the SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces), the other military faction involved in the Sudan civil war which appears to be in a stronger position in the conflict at present. Saudi Arabia too hopes to get important benefits, particularly in terms of its food security, farmland and wider economic ambitions, from this support. SAF’s top leader visited Saudi Arabia very recently, resulting in a significant support and friendship agreement.
With the rival sides in Sudan being supported more clearly by two of the richest countries and regimes in the world, whose rulers moreover function in conditions of lower levels of accountability and transparency and hence can take more far-reaching decisions more quickly without being encumbered by too many restrictions and questions domestically, there is a risk that the kind of support that can result directly or indirectly in higher weapon supply and increased destruction may be extended. To some extent this has already happened, it appears from several reports.
In addition this increasing activity on the side of rival factions in Sudan can also escalate already simmering tensions between previous allies in the home turf of the already volatile middle-east region.
Hence there should be increased international efforts to check the possibility of foreign involvement in the Sudan civil war and support for rival factions leading to worsening of the Sudan civil war.
At the same time there should be increasing international efforts to stop the civil war and bring badly needed peace to the people of Sudan.
To bring Sudan closer to peace and to increase the possibility of durable peace, the forces and groups within Sudan who have shown signs of deep commitment to peace and justice must get more support to enable a wider and more assertive and significant role of them, instead of the situation here being seen mainly in terms of supporting this leading faction or the other.
Foreign powers should not use the existing conflict to enter into highly questionable arrangements with one or the other faction for resource or land grab. They should be under close scrutiny internationally to prevent or minimize such possibilities.
As the distress of people of Sudan has been increasing due to disruptions in the already inadequate humanitarian aid effort, the resources and efforts for this should be increased immediately to avoid or minimize deaths and distress relating to famine and related causes. This improvement of humanitarian aid effort should take place on the basis of urgency and on the basis of treating the present situation as a very big emergency. Bread not guns should be the basis of any foreign links and involvement with Sudan just now, given the extreme distress that has already been caused by the ongoing civil war, which has come on top of several other cycles of violence and destruction in recent decades.
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Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Protecting Earth for Children, Planet in Peril, Man over Machine-A Path to Peace and A Day in 2071. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
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