Sudan Burns with Foreign Fuel

Charlotte

11 min read

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Just now

Sudan is a country in northeast Africa that has been torn apart by violence between two powerful military groups: The Sudanese Armed forces (SAF) and a brutal paramilitary force known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Currently, the RSF are carrying out what many experts describe as genocide: wiping out entire, mostly black-African communities through murder, rape, and starvation. Millions of people have been forced from their homes, and whole towns destroyed.

What makes this tragedy worse, if such a thing is possible, is that filthy-rich countries like the United Arab Emirates, the United States, and “Israel” (always at the scene of the crime) are to blame for its continuation; through money, weaponry, and silence. Sudan’s suffering is not just a local disaster, but something the world’s most powerful nations have profited from, contributed to, or chosen to ignore.

The world is very good at pretending not to see the underprivileged burn. Sudan is on fire again… though “again” is doing too much work her. The word suggests repetition, something noticed before. But there are little to no headlines, no breaking-news banners, no celebrity hashtags. Just silence. And in that silence, entire families are being erased. So, let me rephrase, Sudan has always been on fire.

In El Geneina, western Sudan, mothers bury their children in shallow graves while the Rapid Support Forces hunt anyone who looks Masalit. The air smells of iron and rot. A child’s body lies in the road because no one is left to move it. This isn’t a war of equals. It’s a slaughter. And the world knows it.

I’m supposed to call this a “conflict,” a “power struggle,” something distant and complicated enough to make us all feel excused from caring. But the truth is simple: it’s a genocide, and it’s being funded, armed, and ignored by some of the richest nations on earth. The United Arab Emirates sends planes full of weapons and drones to the extremists. The United States looks away, because the UAE is a “strategic partner”. And “Israel”? “Israel” quietly shakes hands with Sudanese generals, hoping for a new ally against Iran, even as Darfur’s soil turns red again.

The irony is unbearable. The nations that speak loudest about peace, democracy, and “never again” are the ones keeping the war alive. Their hands aren’t just tied, they’re busy… and stained. Busy trading gold, signing arms deals, maintaining “regional stability.” Busy helping the fire spread.

What’s happening in Sudan isn’t chaos; it’s choreography. A genocide sustained by money, diplomacy, and Western convenience. The planes that fuel this terror still fly from the Gulf. The silence that allows it still hums from Washington to Tel Aviv. There are no polite words for what that means.

In 2019, the people of Sudan rose up. After 30 years of rule under Omar al‑Bashir, a coup toppled him, and hopes of a new beginning burst into view. Protesters and young people shouted for democracy and a future not rooted in violence. But that moment of hope was quickly demolished.

By April 15th, 2023, open war had broken out between the SAF and its former ally turned rival, the RSF. The latter’s rise to power has brought with it a legacy of terror.

This isn’t simply “two armies fighting each other”; it’s a struggle for who owns the state, who owns the people, and who owns life. And in the middle of that struggle, civilians are the fuel.

From the capital, Khartoum, to Darfur’s scorched villages, the violence has been potent, ruthless and selective. Human rights groups now say the RSF, especially in Darfur, are carrying out what can only be labelled ethnic cleansing. Genocide.

In Darfur, specifically among the non Arab Masalit population, entire neighbourhoods are attacked, homes burnt, survivors raped, families hunted. The Human Rights Watch found that from April to November 2023, the RSF and allied militias “targeted the predominantly Masalit neighbourhoods of El Geneina … with the apparent objective of having them permanently leave the region.” As I said: ethnic cleansing.

The human cost is massive. By late 2024, at least 11.8 million people had been forcibly displaced, including 9.3 million internally, and 2.5 million who fled abroad. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that nearly 25 million people are in need of urgent assistance. Children are particularly at risk: in Darfur alone the number of children killed or injured jumped by 450% from 2023–24.

Let’s be clear. Genocide is not just a word for the history books, as we know from Gaza, it is real, and it is happening now. According to the International Criminal Court and UN investigators, the situation in Darfur meets the definitions of genocide, most prevalently: when a group is targeted for destruction based on their ethnicity.

The backdrop you need to picture is a fractured state, a military dictatorship unravelling, paramilitaries empowered, resources looted, and ordinary people vanishing. While the rest of the world debates “what to call it,” towns like El Geneina are emptying, children are starving, women are defiled, everyone is dying, and the sound of bombs is the new normal. What started as hope after Bashir’s fall has turned into one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.

We are witnessing the collapse of civilization in real time. And we, sitting in our comfortable school, sipping from our Stanley cups, doing assignments, are watching it unfold. It’s not enough to say “my thoughts are with them.” Our thoughts should demand action.

UAE:

When you read about the massacre in Darfur or the bombed villages around Khartoum, you might assume the violence comes from nowhere. That it’s spontaneous, tribal, senseless. That’s exactly what they want you to think. In reality, the brutality of the RSF isn’t a wild eruption. It is carefully supplied, funded and enabled. And at the centre of that supply chain? The United Arab Emirates.

Your favourite glorified, shiny, tax haven built on slavery and misogyny… is funding a genocide. Surprising? Not really.

The RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, have evolved from the Janjaweed militias that ravaged Darfur a generation ago. Today, they operate with paramilitary speed, merciless precision, and a capitalist business model. They collect gold, run mining operations, traffic arms, and guard their turf with drones. They fight, then they trade. They kill, then they sell. Their rise is less a “rebellion” than a conversion of war into profit.

Here’s how it works: The UAE wants influence in Africa. It wants ports, logistics, reach. It also wants gold, lots and lots of gold. Sudan is one of the world’s richest sources of accessible gold. The RSF control large areas of mining territory. They harvest the metal, and the UAE buys it. And with that money comes weapons, drones, “logistical backing,” and tolerance for massacre.

Investigations have documented that the UAE has repeatedly denied arming the RSF. Yet, UN monitored reports show the RSFs new arsenals were obtained from “complex financial networks … enabling it to acquire weapons, pay salaries, fund media campaigns” and more. Suspiciously convenient. The New York Times and CNN have traced cargo flights and arms shipments flying from Gulf states into eastern Chad and Darfur adjacent airstrips; flights the RSF could not have afforded without outside help.

(Yes, the Gulf flight routes exist. Yes, they link through Libya and Chad.)

And the gold trade? That’s the money engine. In 2023 and 2024, the UAE imported tens of tonnes of Sudanese gold, even as the war raged, especially because the war raged. A Swiss NGO reported a 70% increase in gold imports from Sudan in 2024 compared to 2023. One 2025 report states that almost 97% of Sudan’s official gold exports (from areas under army control) went to the UAE, earning more than $1 billion – with a ‘B’. Meanwhile, smuggled gold… untaxed, unreported, and unpoliced… is funnelled to the same markets through Egypt, Chad and Libya. The pattern is clear.

Wars cost money. Gold exports give it. Influence gives power.

So when you read “armed militia” you need to also hear “financed by Gulf gold hubs.” When you read “paramilitary raids,” picture “planes from the UAE, drones from Gulf warehouses, gold going out the door in the opposite direction.” This is not some remote African internal crisis. It is a commercial pipeline of blood.

What makes it even more vile is the orderliness of it. The war economy machinery thrums 24/7. The RSF are running mines. They are smuggling gold. The UAE has become a central role in the trade with dubious origin: “conflict gold,” is how it’s referred to. The war in Sudan is simultaneously about ethnicity, ideology and annihilation… but also about supply chains, gold bars, logistics, business deals. And while we debate “what do we call it,” the commerce of death has already been settled.

This is not random. It is a design. The RSF want territory, power, elimination of opponents. The UAE wants access, resource leverage, strategic positioning. Money. Money. Money. Together they bridge the gap between killing and profit. Partners.

And they’re not alone.

The USA and “Isreal”:

Let’s be blunt. When the most powerful nations point at atrocities and shake their heads in condemnation, you’d expect action. Instead, in the case of Sudan, what we mostly get is silence adorned with strategic convenience… plus the United States and “Israel” holding hands.

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On the 7th of January 2025, the United States Department of State publicly declared that the RSF “committed genocide” in Darfur. They sanctioned the RSF’s leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo and several UAE linked companies. Good news, right? A clear verdict on who not to support, right?

Wrong.

The U.S. continues to maintain full military cooperation with the United Arab Emirates: approving major arms sales and maintaining training and strategic ties, all while simultaneously acknowledging that the UAE is arming the militia committing active ethnic cleansing.

To put that in terms closer to home: imagine your best friend gets caught supplying weapons to bullies who are terrorising the playground, and instead of ending the friendship or the supplies, you just lecture everyone about “respect” and say you’ll “monitor” them. That’s the level of outrage. That’s what’s happening. And the playground is burned to ash.

The U.S. largely treats the Sudan crisis as a side channel of Gulf strategy: the Red Sea, counter terrorism, regional stability. Meanwhile, millions are displaced and dying. The disconnect is deliberate.

And “Israel”. Sigh.

In 2020–21, Sudan agreed to normalise ties with “Israel” under the umbrella of the Abraham Accords, with U.S. backing. The deal was sold to the world as a “peace breakthrough.” Ha.

What isn’t shouted from rooftops is that “Israel” quietly eyed Sudan as a vehicle for regional power… a foothold on the Red Sea Africa axis. Meanwhile, despite the war and genocide, “Israel’s” posture has been business as usual in the region. Relations, intelligence links, strategic calculations, the typical stuff. Well, not surprising, given the record.

The moral irony is sharp. A state that claims to have built its identity on “never again” has entered the theatre of “we’ll join the winners” while mass murder unfolds in Sudan (and within “Israel” itself.). Priorities include regional alliances and strategic positioning. Accountability? Optional.

So… the architecture of silence looks like this:

• The U.S. issues a genocide determination, but makes no effort to cut ties with its corrupt allies.
• Israel normalises with Sudan (or plans to) while the war churns.
• Both act as though the slaughter in Darfur is a backdrop to bigger games, rather than the central tragedy.
• And we? We sit on TikTok reposting “Free Sudan” with a barely surface-level understanding, reading the BBC news on our chromebooks (I’m being generous), and feeling oh-so-horrified… but rarely acting as though the horror is ours.

This isn’t just a “failure to intervene.” It’s a decision to indirectly enable through alliance and silence. The genocide isn’t happening despite Western or Israeli strategy; It’s happening because of it. And until we name that clearly, we will remain bystanders.

The consequences of turning a blind eye are simply too catastrophic to imagine, but unfortunately we don’t have to imagine them; they’re right here.

Millions displaced and homeless. Families fleeing across borders into Chad, Egypt, and South Sudan, straining already fragile resources. Along these routes, human traffickers thrive, preying on desperation. Children disappear, sold and raped. Women are kidnapped and sold and raped. Men are shoved into militias they did not choose… and raped.

The UN and NGOs have repeatedly documented famine, disease, and exploitation moving in tandem with bullets, bombs, and a lot of gold.

Western inaction, otherwise known as compliance, is not neutral. Every time the UAE sews gold from blood, every time the U.S. protects its allies from sanctions, every time “Israel” pursues quiet strategic gains at Sudan’s expense, this is the message:

‘Genocide can be tolerated if it suits the interests of power, profit, and greed.’

By allowing mass murder to persist while trading weapons, resources, and alliances, these countries implicitly signal that some lives are disposable. And in Sudan, those lives are overwhelmingly Black and Muslim. That reality is not an accident. It is a reflection of global hierarchies of value.

The human price is not abstract. Hospitals collapse under siege. Children go hungry. Families cannot bury their dead because the next bomb might hit the cemetery. Every displaced village carries the imprint of foreign policy decisions made thousands of miles away.

The RSF’s brutality is fuelled not only by backwards ideology and greed but also by the knowledge that leading world powers will shield them. The conflict is modern war and colonial-style exploitation merged into one.

We like to imagine that morality travels at the speed of press releases, coverage. It doesn’t. Morality travels at the speed of action. When states, corporations, and governments choose convenience over justice, the cost is measured in broken homes, lost generations, and futures that will never exist.

And yet, in our privileged classrooms, we often discuss “global awareness” as a concept, not a responsibility. Everyone should know. Everyone should care.

The complicity of the powerful doesn’t just allow genocide to happen, it amplifies it. Every gold shipment that paves Dubai’s shiny streets, every silent handshake between Trump and the corrupt, every delayed sanction, is another blow to human life. And until the world’s conscience moves faster than its interests, Sudan’s people will continue to pay the price for our collective cowardice.

We cannot pretend that our awareness alone is enough, and for some this may be the first you’re hearing of the issue at all, which in itself is a representation of deliberately evasive Western media coverage. But that’s a topic for another edition.

To conclude: privilege carries responsibility. We are part of a generation with access to information, networks, and influence unimaginable in the past… and yet, too often, we treat atrocity as a distant spectacle, we are desensitised. Silence, in this case, kills.

Recognise the figures and understand that the real numbers are taller:

• A confirmed >150,000 dead over the span of 2.5 years.
• >12 million displaced.
• 221 reported child rapes in 2024, the true figure is estimated to be hundreds if not thousands more.
• Stage 5 famine. At least two children die every two hours from malnourishment. (According to a Zamzam camp early 2024 study)

If we truly mean to call ourselves informed, morally awake, or just human, we must act. Write, speak, demand. Share the stories of survivors beyond shallow, performative reposts. Amplify Sudanese voices. Pressure governments and institutions that enable violence. In the face of calculated inaction, apathy and ignorance are choices. Refuse.