The Sudanese Civil War between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) broke out in April 2023. It has now led to over 150,000 direct deaths, and suspected famine in perhaps 17 regions across the country, where some 25.6 million people are starving out of a total population of 50.4 million. Competing imperialist powers are supporting the warring parties clandestinely while publicly denying involvement. They intend to control Sudan’s strategic and geographical position near the Red Sea and Yemen, the oil choke point of Bab el Mandeb, and Sudan’s abundant natural resources, particularly gold, uranium and oil.
Power struggle leads to war
The RSF, set up by former President Omar al-Bashir in 2013 to counter any coup attempts, was formed from the Darfuri Janjaweed militias which were used to suppress the British-backed ‘rebels’ in Darfur in 2003-2005. They were then organised into a paramilitary ‘Border Intelligence Unit’. In 2019, a Transitional Military Council took power following a coup by the SAF and the RSF against al-Bashir. This council is chaired by the head of the SAF, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. The imperialists had backed the army which opposed the demands of the 2018-2019 mass protests that called for the army to be excluded from any democratic elections that followed the 2019 coup. The SAF and RSF fell out over who would hold real power from behind the scenes following any ‘elections’ and they began fighting.
Deepening crisis
Since then, a further 2 million people have joined the 26 million people who were already living below the poverty line in 2019. Since 2023 the economy has collapsed. The only economic sector that still functions and has been boosted is mining, particularly gold mining. It employs 2 million people directly and 10 million people indirectly. The war has intensified the looting of Sudan’s resources. 50% of gold production is smuggled abroad through neighbouring countries such as Kenya and Chad. Sudan loses $7bn worth of gold revenues annually through smuggling.
The role of UAE
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) supports the RSF, which has been documented attacking schools, hospitals, and aid warehouses and stands accused of committing war crimes, ethnic cleansing, genocide and atrocities including rape and use of child soldiers. The UAE is motivated by gold mining that is dominated by the RSF – $2.3bn worth of Sudanese gold was imported into UAE in 2023 alone. The UAE has military bases in Chad from which arms are secretly supplied to RSF. Chad is motivated by a June 2023 Emirati loan of $1.5bn, almost three times its national spending of $550m.
More broadly, the UAE invested over $97bn in 2022-2023 across the African continent in mining, infrastructure, logistics (ports, railways) and agriculture (land), gaining significant leverage over neocolonial governments such as Kenya which now also supports the RSF. Kenya’s economy is drowning in unsustainable debt and it has now turned to the UAE, signing three ‘free trade’ agreements in January 2025, and finalising a loan of $1.5bn.
The UAE nevertheless is itself a client state of imperialism, with strong ties to Britain and the US. It is one of the signatories of the pro-Zionist 2020 Abraham Accords, and played a key role in the so-called ‘normalising’ of relations between Arab states (Morocco, Bahrain, Sudan) and Israel. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair helped to facilitate secret meetings that led to the signing of the accords between UAE and Israel. The UAE was designated a ‘Major Defense Partner’ in September 2024 by the US and a ‘super ally’ in the US containment strategy vis-à-vis China. However, the UAE is also attempting to assert strategic and economic independence by deepening trade with Russia and China, joining the BRICS bloc in 2024. It has financed the Russian mercenary Wagner Group in Libya alongside arming General Khalifa Haftar who controls eastern Libya.
Shifting alliances
The RSF is backed by UAE, Kenya, Chad, Libyan National Army (controlling eastern Libya) and, until July 2024, Russia. The RSF had been supplying gold in return for Russian arms. The SAF is supported by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, Ukraine, Turkey, Iran and now Russia. With
the British and EU imperialists pushing the new al Qaeda-linked government in Syria to close Russian military bases, the expected loss of the Tartus naval base in Syria has prompted Russia to seek another naval base on the Red Sea. In February 2025, Sudan’s foreign minister Ali al-Sharif announced that Sudan had agreed to allow a Russian naval base on the Red Sea coast in Port Sudan. This switch aligns Russia more closely with its ally Iran and has severed SAF cooperation with Ukraine.
In 2016 Sudan and other Arab states cut off relations with Iran. In 2015, Sudan supported the UAE-Saudi war in Yemen. However, following the failure of that war to achieve its objectives, the Chinese-brokered rapprochement between Saudi and Iran, and now the civil war, the SAF has sought Iran’s help. The SAF feared losing the war, as it lost more and more territory to the RSF, and was close to being driven out of the capital, Khartoum.
Iran is incentivised to work with the SAF due to its Yemeni ally Ansar Allah’s shipping blockade of the Red Sea in response to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The Sudanese government is now distancing itself from Israel, and Iran has been supplying drones to the SAF, which has proved decisive in helping it to retake territory from the RSF. On 26 March, the SAF fully re-captured Khartoum from the RSF.
Due to UAE support for the RSF, the SAF is being pushed closer to Russia and Iran, giving the British and US imperialists an even bigger problem than they anticipated when they began interfering in Sudan’s internal affairs by attempting to overthrow President al-Bashir; attempting to break off Darfur; and breaking Sudan into two parts by aiding the secession of South Sudan from Sudan in 2011. These imperialists are responsible for giving political legitimacy to the very forces whose civil war is now tearing Sudan apart.
Charles Chinweizu
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 305 April/May 2025
