Up to 150,000 people have been killed in the brutal war in Sudan since April 2023; over 6.7 million people are internally displaced. Much of the country is on the brink of famine and medical facilities are almost non-existent. This humanitarian catastrophe is the result of a war perpetuated on behalf of imperialist interests, fuelled in particular by the intervention of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Despite attempts by Sudanese civilian coalitions such as Taqaddum to bring an end to the fighting, with meetings between world leaders and the belligerent parties in the war, neither the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) nor the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have any intention of relinquishing their grip on power.
The RSF, led by the ruthless Mohamed ‘Hemedti’ Dagalo and funded by the UAE, have turned the capital Khartoum into an anarchic nightmare, looting shops and homes and kidnapping prominent Sudanese activists, such as Haitham Dafallah, the editor of the Sudanese Communist Party’s newspaper Al-Maydan. Darfur, the province of origin of the RSF, has been the site of ethnic cleansing of non-Arab Sudanese people, particularly the Masalit tribe.
Britain, UAE, Russia – a bloody alliance
Despite the diplomatic posturing of the British state as ‘seeking peace’ in Sudan, in practice it has entered into covert negotiations with the genocidal RSF. Britain’s actions have served to legitimise the RSF as a political force; at the same time it continues to trade extensively with the UAE, one of the biggest funders of the conflict. The UAE has historically utilised the RSF to protect its interests throughout Africa and the Middle East. The RSF was deployed to support the UAE in its war against Ansar Allah (the Houthis) in Yemen and to support the Libyan National Army in shoring up imperialist interests.
The UAE has had interests in Sudan since prior to the civil war, building close ties with military figures in the Sudanese regime following the fall of al-Bashir in 2019, particularly with Hemedti and his RSF. The UAE funnels weapons and funding to the RSF through a military base in nearby Chad, and treats wounded RSF fighters at a field hospital on the border with Sudan. Sudan is one of many countries in northern and eastern Africa which the Emirati regime has ties to, as it seeks to become a key power-broker in the region. According to The New Arab, the UAE controls the entire illegal arms trade into Sudan, through its military base in Chad and through Uganda. The UAE has also worked towards monopolising the trade in raw minerals, mostly gold, from Africa, and this, as well as its control of the arms trade, has made it an invaluable ally for the imperialist powers. Russia in particular has utilised the UAE for these links.
Russia’s attempts to gain greater influence over the African continent have drawn it closer to the UAE through the mercenary Wagner Group, known as ‘the Africa Corps’. This de facto unit of the Russian Ministry of Defence operates in nearly every warzone where Russia and the UAE have interests, most notably Libya and Yemen. Russia and the UAE were previously committed to supporting Sudan’s Transitional Military Council – through which the SAF and RSF governed Sudan prior to the civil war – as they had committed to protecting Russian trade and honouring agreements made with the previous al-Bashir regime. Following the outbreak of the civil war, the Wagner Group has been actively supporting the RSF on the battlefield and in its occupation of Darfur.
Imperialist Britain, and its partners in the United States and Ukraine (which has sent soldiers to fight in Sudan), have a complicated set of strategic interests. While Britain is keen to curb Russian influence, the UAE is one of the largest exporters of refined oil to Britain, especially following sanctions on Russia. Similarly the UAE is a vital ally to Israel and has actively helped to repress the Houthis in Yemen, with British backing. Another complication is that the RSF’s rivals, the SAF, are supported by Iran, whose influence Britain also wants to curb. Caught between a rock and a hard place, Britain has announced purely symbolic sanctions against several companies which fund both the SAF and the RSF, such as the Red Rock Mining Company and Al-Fakher Advanced Works.
The UAE, a former British colony, has always been an outpost for the imperialist powers. It supported the imperialist invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq in 2001 and 2003, while its Al Dhafra air base was used as a launching point for military operations in the Horn of Africa during the ‘War on Terror’. The state is an autocracy that thrives off its oil resources and monopolies on gold looted from Africa.
At the same time, the SAF, like the RSF, is accused of commiting genocide in Darfur prior to the civil war. It initiated the 2021 military coup which brought the SAF and RSF to power and set the stage for the civil war. It too serves as a proxy for imperialist interests, with Ukrainian Special Forces fighting alongside SAF forces against the Wagner Group. It is supported by Saudi Arabia, which has its eyes on the resources coveted by the UAE. The United Nations has documented human rights abuses on both sides, including indiscriminate attacks on densely populated areas. Neither the SAF nor the RSF represent in any way the interests of the Sudanese people.
Although the movement for peace in Sudan explicitly opposes UAE funding for the war, sections of it retain illusions in the ability of Britain and the United Nations to force a peace in the region. That movement, particularly here in Britain, needs to understand that the imperialist British state is no ‘honest broker’, but rather directly serves its own interests through the continuing conflict. We need an anti-imperialist movement that focuses on severing all ties between Britain and the UAE and ending British imperialism on the African continent.
Imperialists out of Sudan!
Jacob O’Neill
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 300 June/July 2024
