by Roberta Rivolta. Original post here
Properly understood, the atrocities in Sudan are from another US proxy war. “Far from being a civil war, Sudan’s is yet another imperialist proxy war, aimed at balkanizing and destroying an already divided Sudan.”
When talking about Sudan we should start with the statement by Sudan’s representative to the UN, Al-Harith Idris, on October 30, when Sudan formally accused the United Arab Emirates of fueling the war by providing support to the Rapid Support Forces, the militias that have been committing massacres of civilians since before April 15, 2023, the start of this new escalation of a conflict that was already underway.
The words of Sudan’s representative to the UN were, I quote verbatim:
“There is no civil war in Sudan. It is a war of aggression launched by the Emirates through its regional proxies, the Rapid Support Forces.” He then turned to the UAE representative: “You are the ones who fuel the war with weapons and money; you are the ones who send drones that bomb civilians in Darfur. RSF steal Sudanese gold and send it to the UAE.”1
Idris specified that he had repeatedly presented documents to the UN Security Council proving the UAE’s backing of the Rapid Support Forces, and stated that this support included military aid, drones, ammunition, mercenary recruitment, and media coverage.
Sudan had already filed a formal complaint with the International Court of Justice last March.
It accused the Emirates of complicity in genocide for their military, financial, and political support of the RSF.
The International Court of Justice responded that the case was outside its jurisdiction and dismissed it.
A real shame if it’s true, as several analysts have argued, that if the RSF were not supported from abroad, the war in Sudan would have ended long ago.
This new escalation of war broke out because the RSF demanded integration into the regular army.
The RSF then occupied the western region of Darfur and in April created a parallel government. According to the editor of a news website dedicated to Africa, this government consists only of an airport and a prison, but it repeats methods of delegitimizing central governments already tested elsewhere (as in the former Yugoslavia or in Syria).
The Sudanese army claims that the RSF, which the UAE has also deployed in Libya and Yemen, make use of advanced strategic weapons that are supplied by the UAE.
And although they deny it, the UAE’s involvement is well established, and now confirmed by a UN report, as well as by US intelligence agencies (including the Defense Intelligence Agency and the State Department’s intelligence bureau), as per a Wall Street Journal report.2
According to independent investigators and human rights groups, weapons from the UAE are being smuggled through their regional allies, namely Chad, the Central African Republic, Uganda, Somalia, and Libyan militias.
The Middle East Eye writes: “Today, Sudan offers the UAE an arena from which to project its power across the Red Sea and east Africa. The UAE holds significant interests in Sudan’s agricultural and mineral resources, many of which are untapped, including gold. The UAE has become a global trading hub in gold, in its attempts to diversify its oil-dependent economy. RSF networks help facilitate and secure these exports: Hemedti and his family own a gold company that operates on lands seized by the RSF in Darfur in 2017. His youngest brother, Algoney Dagalo, is a businessman based in the UAE.
The UAE also controls several land and farming operations in Sudan, a country it has, for decades, positioned as an agricultural trade partner, amid fears of food insecurity across the Gulf.”.3
The UAE is currently the world’s second-largest gold exporter, and much of this gold comes from Sudan.
Via the Emirates, mercenaries came to Sudan even from Colombia.
Colombian investigative journalists have reconstructed the recruitment process. The mercenaries were formally hired to protect oil infrastructure, but when they arrived in the Emirates, they were instead sent to Puntland, Somalia, to the port city of Bosaso, a key base for the entire Emirati-run operation.
In August 2025, the Sudanese army destroyed an Emirati plane that was landing in the RSF-controlled Darfur region, carrying military equipment and Colombian mercenaries.
Furthermore, the Colombians are responsible, by their own admission, for training child soldiers between 12 and 15 years old.
The Sudanese army has also denounced the presence of Ukrainian mercenaries, and commented that “by backing the armed rebel groups responsible for terrorist attacks in Libya, Somalia, and Niger, Ukraine is doing all the “dirty work” on behalf of the West”.
Also “the governments in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have reported Kiev’s activities aimed at abetting ‘terrorism’ in the Sahel region, by lodging a joint complaint against Ukraine with the United Nations Security Council”.4
Meanwhile, the West condemns the massacres, files complains to the UN, cries and despairs, but secretly fuels the conflict, as always.
Despite the now established fact that the Emirates arm the RSF, the US supplies 55% of the weapons purchased by the Gulf Country, France approximately 14%, and, although the British percentage is unknown, the UK’s involvement is equally proven:
“New material shows that targeting systems manufactured by Wales-based company Militec were discovered at former RSF bases in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum and the twin city of Omdurman.
Data shows that the UK has approved licenses for companies like Militec to export training systems to the Emirates since 2015.
The British government issued a new license for such products to the UAE in September 2024, three months after evidence first suggested that the products were being shipped to Sudan, according to the data.
The engines mentioned in the dossier are made specifically for a UAE-manufactured armored personnel carrier. These vehicles have also popped up in Libya and Yemen in violation of UN arms embargos” PressTV reports.5
But now let’s take a step back.
When we hear Sudan mentioned, we can’t help but think of General Wesley Clark’s famous interview in which he revealed to the world the list of countries the US intended to attack after 9/11.
“Starting with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and finally, Iran,” he said.
The plan was to design a “New Middle East” on Israel’s behalf, destroying the countries that opposed its ambitions in the region.
So why Sudan? It’s easy to say:
In 1967, Sudan was the second Arab country to host the Arab League in its capital, Khartoum, to repel the Western colony with the famous Khartoum Resolution of the 3 Nos:
1. No to peace with “Israel”
2. No to recognition of “Israel”
3. No to any negotiations with “Israel”
In 2001, Sudan’s president was Omar al-Bashir, who at the time had close relations with Iran. Indeed, according to some sources, Sudan was a transit point for weapons sent from Iran to Hamas.
Not that Sudan’s record is flawless. Far from it.
Omar al-Bashir himself, in 2015, decided to support Saudi aggression against Yemen and cut diplomatic relations with Iran. In 2020, his successor, and the current president, prepared to normalize relations with Israel.
This normalization, an African analyst points out, was illegal because Sudan’s constitution prohibits the recognition of Israel.
Among other things, the same analyst points out that the RSF’s tactics, including the bombing of hospitals and the massacres of civilians, closely resemble those of the Israeli occupation army.
I would add that they also strongly resemble those of the terrorists in Syria, another offshoot of Israel, with their summary executions, acts of brutal violence, and displays of violence on social media.
What happened then?
After testing the West’s benevolence and getting nothing good from it, Sudan backtracked and re-established relations with Iran and Russia. (PressTV reports that “Western governments, through International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, pressured Sudan to cut fuel subsidies and implement austerity measures, further deepening economic hardship. These policies increased public discontent and fueled armed conflicts, ultimately leading to the October 2021 coup”.)6
After a few months of contacts, the reopening of relations with Iran was made official in December 2024.
In February 2025, Sudan confirmed the agreement with Russia for the creation of a naval base on the Red Sea coast, negotiations for which had begun in 2017, under Bashir.
(Sudan also thanked Moscow for vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution supported by Great Britain in November 2024. A resolution that is very reminiscent of the numerous resolutions against the Syrian government that called for a “dialogue” between the warring parties, placing the regular army and terrorists on the same level. Sudan responded by reiterating its opposition to foreign interference.)
But the United States keeps its own naval forces in the waters off the Horn of Africa. And Russia’s presence in the Red Sea obviously threatens to undermine its control over trade routes and military operations in the region.
Thus, at the end of 2022, US Ambassador John Godfrey issued a threat: “there are some reports that Russia is trying to implement the agreement it signed with ousted President Omar al-Bashir in 2017 to establish a military base along the Red Sea. […] All countries have a sovereign right to decide which other countries to partner with, but these choices have consequences, of course”.7
If the US feels threatened by Russia, we can easily imagine Israel’s reaction to renewed contacts with Iran.
Recently, an article appeared in the Jerusalem Post calling for war against Sudan.
A Palestinian website wrote: “Natalia Quadros, a journalist specializing in African affairs in her article for the ‘Jerusalem Post’, noted that by aligning with Iran, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, and defying every American and Arab call for peace, Sudan’s military leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has turned his country into a new front against Israel.
‘Al-Burhan’s alliance with Iran has turned Sudan into a southern artery for Hezbollah’s network of influence that it has built in Africa over two decades, which includes financial channels across West Africa, arms depots in East Africa, and recruitment cells in the Horn of Africa.’
It added: ‘Under the rule of al-Burhan and the Brotherhood, Sudan has become a safe haven for arms smuggling, money laundering, and covert Iranian logistics. Under al-Burhan’s rule and his alliance with Iran, the vital Red Sea artery has transformed into a major corridor for Tehran’s ambitions and the extremism inspired by the mindset of the Brotherhood.’
It emphasized that ‘the road back to peace in Sudan, and to any future partnership with Israel, begins with one action: the removal of Abdel Fattah al-Burhan from power; until that day, Sudan will remain not a bridge to peace, but a fortress of hatred.’
It concluded: ‘If Iran’s project in Sudan continues, Israelis, Jews, and Westerners in the Red Sea basin will be victims of the same ideology that burns churches in Africa and dreams of burning Jewish temples in Jerusalem.’
It stated: ‘Israel must act now, to strengthen its naval patrols, to cut off the lifeline of the military authority; if the West does not act, Israel must lead the initiative to defend the Red Sea from the consequences of the alliance between al-Burhan, the Brotherhood, and Iran”.”8
But as early as August 2025, “Haaretz noted that Israel was exploiting Sudan’s war to justify military expansion in the Red Sea under the banner of ‘protecting global shipping lanes from Houthi threats.’
Haaretz also reported that Israel has leveraged the crisis to deepen its political footprint in Ethiopia and Eritrea, as part of its broader plan to contain Iranian influence extending from Tehran to Sana’a and Khartoum.
According to a study in Tehran Times, Tel Aviv’s growing engagement in Sudan cannot be separated from its mounting anxiety over Yemen. Since the Yemeni government, led by the Ansarallah resistance movement, seized control of Yemen’s western coast, the balance of deterrence in the Red Sea has shifted decisively”.9
According to a report by the Israel Institute for National Security Studies, “Houthi control of the Bab al-Mandeb Strait since 2021 has “redefined the Israeli maritime threat,” as Yemeni missiles and drones struck Eilat and disrupted Suez Canal shipping routes.
Israel has begun treating the Red Sea as a primary security arena, second only to the Mediterranean. Within this evolving strategy, Sudan functions as a forward buffer zone.
“With the US and UAE active in East Africa, Tel Aviv has found a convenient pretext for expansion, cloaking its military buildup in the rhetoric of international maritime security. The chaos in Sudan has become both a justification and a cover for Israel’s growing Red Sea presence”. 10
And so today, while the so-called quad group (USA, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt) is proposing an unacceptable truce – because it is inconceivable that the Emirates should appear as “mediators” in a war that they are funding, because it is unacceptable that the RSF should be placed on the same level as of the regular army, and because Sudan has already made the withdrawal of the RSF from civilian areas and the surrender of weapons a precondition—Burhan has just signed a defense contract with Pakistan worth at least $1.5 billion.
Far from being a civil war, therefore, as the UN ambassador said, Sudan’s is yet another imperialist proxy war, aimed at balkanizing and destroying an already divided Sudan—a geographically vast country, strategically located and rich in oil, diamonds, and natural gas—where the goals and interests of different actors at different levels overlap, meet, and intertwine.
1https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/11/01/758015/Sudan-Conflict—-
2https://www.wsj.com/world/how-u-a-e-arms-bolstered-a-sudanese-militia-accused-of-genocide-781b9803
3https://www.middleeasteye.net/explainers/why-uae-involved-sudans-bloody-civil-war
4https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/10/03/756211/Sudanese-Armed-Forces-kill-large-number-Ukrainian-mercenaries
5https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/10/29/757782/UK-made-arms-funneled-by-UAE-to-Sudan%E2%80%99s-RSF-militants-engaged-in-genocide–Report
6https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/02/13/742741/Russia-secures-agreement-naval-base-Sudan
7https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/us-warns-sudan-of-consequences-if-it-hosts-russian-military-base/2696410
8https://www.sadanews.ps/en/news/247381.html
9https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/11/03/758130/sudan-unseen-genocide-elfasher-carnage-turn-spotlight-uae-israel-nexus
10https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/11/03/758130/sudan-unseen-genocide-elfasher-carnage-turn-spotlight-uae-israel-nexus
