The Forgotten African War

Just like the rest of the world, extempers and question writers alike have focused on two conflicts currently going on in the world: one in Ukraine and one in Israel. However, there is another, largely unknown conflict going on in Africa. It is just as bloody. It is just as consequential. And it is time we understood it properly.

Since April of last year, a civil war has erupted in the Northeast African country of Sudan between the rebel Rapid Support Forces, led by Hemedti, a former tribal leader turned militant, and the internationally recognized government and their military, the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by general Abdul Fattah al-Burhan. But this isn’t a black and white war- both sides have committed war crimes since fighting began last year, and The International Organization for Migration found that already, over 9 million refugees have been displaced internally, with over a million more forced out of the country entirely. But the history of this civil war, and why it has begun again, is a long one. Here’s all you need to know about it. 

Meet the RSF! (You don’t actually want to) 

The Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, has its roots in the notorious Janjaweed militia group, which was originally formed in 2003 by Omar al-Bashir’s government (ruled in a dictatorial fashion for over thirty years since the 1980s) in order to deal with uprisings in the largely non-Arab region of Darfur. The force was largely made up of members of the Arab ethnic tribes of Northern Darfur, and had the purpose of quashing rebellion in the South. The result was the worst genocide of the 21st century, in which over 300,000 people were killed by the Janjaweed from 2003 to 2005.

After the secession of South Sudan in 2011, and the subsequent loss of oil revenue, Bashir realized he was vulnerable. The ICC had issued an arrest warrant, and he had come under sanctions from both the EU and the United States after the genocide. Al-Bashir repurposed the Janjaweed to become his own personal defense against a coup, making the RSF as a supplement to the more ‘official’ Sudanese Armed Forces which had the purpose of preventing anyone either inside or outside of Sudan from removing him from office.

The RSF and the SAF were created with the intention that they would be too busy fighting each other, and they would never be able to conspire together to overthrow Al-Bashir, which was especially likely given the desire of the entire Western World to see Al-Bashir removed. In the end, though, that is exactly what happened.

Overthrown…But Not For the Better

The RSF spent the 2010s committing more atrocities in Darfur and operating as a mercenary group, at various times supporting Khalifa Haftar, a rebel Libyan general, in his war against the Libyan government and intervening in Yemen on behalf of the UAE. However, the RSF would eventually find themselves on the same side as the SAF when an economic downturn combined with three decades of al-Bashir’s rule and popular protests convinced both parties to initiate a coup against him.

They were successful. Of course they were- that’s why al-Bashir was trying so hard to prevent their collaboration in the first place. Following the end of al-Bashir’s rule after the 2019 coup, the two parties set up a joint “temporary” military government, which was ostensibly to give way to a democratic government. That did not happen.

Unification! (but I’m in charge)

By and large, Sudan came under the joint control of the RSF and the SAF. They appointed an interim Prime Minister, who just a month later resigned after both the RSF and SAF went back on their agreement not to interfere with the civilian government and overthrew him.

Through the beginning of 2023, both sides tried once again to rule together. These attempts ended on April 15, 2023 when shots rang out in Darfur, both sides blamed each other, and a full blown civil war started in Sudan.

How to Support a Genocide, ft. US Allies

Almost immediately both Haftar and the government of the UAE put their support behind the RSF. The motivation of the UAE in particular was to spite the Saudis, with whom they have been in a power struggle to become the foremost power in the region. In August 2023, a plane carrying “supplies” which were supposed to be for Sudanese refugees was in fact found to be full of ammunition to supply the RSF. Nonetheless, the plane was allowed to take off and the UAE foreign ministry glossed over the incident, claiming that they were not in fact supporting the RSF (because of course “ammunition, assault rifles and other small arms” is not indicative of military support). As recently as last month, a leaked UN report again stated that the UAE is sending supplies “several times per week” to the RSF.

As a rebel warlord operating in a failed state, Khalifa Haftar cannot possibly have quite the same resources as the UAE to help the RSF.

Oh, but he actually does.

Haftar is backed by the UAE, but much more importantly, he has the full support of the Wagner group, the notorious paramilitary group supporting Russia’s objectives in Ukraine, Africa, and elsewhere. Russia’s purpose for Haftar is most likely to keep Europe and the US preoccupied in Africa, thus drawing resources away from the war in Ukraine. Russia would also probably like political and military influence in Sudan to gain the huge amounts of natural resources in the country, sell them to most likely India or China, and use the money for the war in Ukraine.

If that is their plan, it’s not really working. Haftar has already sent incredible amounts of fuel and ammunition funneled from Russia, and also ordered the arrest in Libya of a Sudanese government official who carried out attacks on RSF-controlled Darfur from the Central African Republic. Fuel, in particular, is a valuable commodity that Libya is best suited to provide, as it has the oil domestically to make the supply easier. 

With a combination of Western weapons supplied through the UAE, the full forces of Russia’s Wagner Group sent through Haftar, and Libyan fuel, the RSF had all the supplies it needed to reignite a second genocide in Darfur. Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, described the actions of the RSF in Darfur that have killed unknown numbers of people and forced nearly a million people to flee as “textbook ethnic cleansing”. But perhaps most concerningly, while everyone from Hollywood stars to heads of state launched a massive campaign to stop the violence two decades ago, the world has completely ignored the plight now, as one of the most gruesome events in modern African history is repeating itself right before our eyes.

The Worst Possible Response

The reason that Sudan’s government was not pounded into the ground by a paramilitary organization with the capacity to commit a genocide might seem puzzling to many readers. The reason the SAF is still able to fight is primarily due to two factors: first, the military has much more training than the RSF and had more resources before the chaos started in 2019, and, second, they have the full, unquestioning support of the most powerful country in Africa: Egypt.

Unlike the supporters of the RSF, Egypt has openly supported their position that the SAF is the only legitimate government of Sudan, and that the RSF must be crushed. As mentioned previously, nearly a million people fled Sudan after the war broke out to varying destinations including Chad, Eritrea, and the Central African Republic. But by far, the largest number of refugees ended up in Egypt. Egypt is already in an economic crisis, and the hundreds of thousands of refugees have put a strain on their resources. The Egyptian government is also terrified of the possibility that extremism could seep into the country from its southern border. The RSF also has long had ties to Ethiopia, one of Egypt’s rivals. To solve all three of these problems, they made their position quite clear: they would attempt to crush the RSF, and would assist the SAF in doing so, no matter the consequences.

Despite the intense disagreements of the United States, Egypt sent the powerful Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones to the SAF. These drones are extremely advanced, more than anything even the UAE has ever even thought about sending to Sudan. They are currently doing a lot of heavy lifting for the Sudanese government, escalating the war while simultaneously making it much, much more destructive. The government of Sudan is operating these drones with very little regard for human life. Egypt, their primary goal achieved even better with such bloodshed, simply does not care, and thus is not reining in utter destruction.

A Headache for the United States

The United States is allies with powerful countries on both sides of the conflict, and cannot afford to lose friends on either side. Egypt is a crucial military ally, and controls the Suez Canal- responsible for nearly 15% of global sea trade in 2023. The United Arab Emirates is a powerful oil nation, buys American arms en masse, and has even normalized relations with Israel.

In response to the war, Washington has sanctioned both entities. President Biden expressed his hope for peace in the country, and eventually a return to civilian government. They were supported by Saudi Arabia, who has interests in overall stability in the Arab world. However, when Saudi attempts to mediate the conflict fell apart in December 2023, the US largely stepped back from Sudan. 

Biden has seemingly realized that legitimately trying to fix the crisis in Sudan would likely cost the United States some amount of influence in the Middle East while further isolating Israel. Given that the American populus does not care about Sudan anywhere near as much as the price of gas, Biden has made the terrifyingly rational decision to ignore the entire crisis.

The result of this inaction will be that the US has effectively given the green light to its allies and enemies alike to further their interests in Sudan. Sudan will continue to be torn apart even further at the will of foreign nations, and what will happen there will ultimately rest on the result of the incredibly complex competing interests of the UAE, Khalifa Haftar, Russia, and Egypt.

The Gruesome Ramifications

The vast majority of civilians in Sudan are not worried about the UAE becoming the hegemon of the Red Sea. They are not worried about an ambitious Libyan warlord doing his best to please the Russians. They are not worried about Egyptian politicians losing support because of economic downturn. They are worried about trying to survive. And right now, that is extremely difficult.

(***TRIGGER WARNING FOR S.A.***) 

Violence against women is extremely commonplace. Women are sold into sexual slavery by both sides in order to make money. A UN report published just last week details how one woman “was held in a building and repeatedly gang-raped over a period of 35 days” by RSF soldiers. A Reuters article describes how literal children are raped every day by soldiers. Neither side’s leadership cares. The world doesn’t either.

Starvation is rampant both within Sudan and in neighboring countries where refugees have fled. This is particularly the case in children, many of whom have had their parents been killed. A shocking 700,000 children are facing “life-threatening malnutrition,” more than four times the total in Gaza. However, when the UN tried to raise 2.4 billion dollars for food aid, they got just four percent of that. That is because, unlike the children in Gaza, the children in Sudan are not worth 2.4 billion dollars to the world.

Child soldiers are used by both sides. The SAF has recruited thousands of children in cities, particularly in the capital of Khartoum where they are fighting the RSF. The RSF, for its part, made deals with tribal leaders in rural areas to send children to the front lines in violation of international law. Conscripting children is the definition of a war crime. But allies to both sides are willing to overlook this, as children’s lives are not as important to them as getting their own objectives met.

All of these repercussions, along with several others not even mentioned, are acutely the fault of those who enable the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese government to continue with this brutal fighting. This includes the usual war crime suspects, such as the Russian Wagner Group and Khalifa Haftar, but also Western allies such as the UAE and Egypt. Ironically, the latter two are quite possibly the biggest perpetrators. 

Many around the world, and even in the extemp community, are attempting to call out Israel for its atrocities in Gaza, and rightfully so. But we need to hold those responsible for these acts of barbarity in Sudan to the same standard that we hold Israel. The US is enabling a genocide to occur, and no one even cares.

Worse, many don’t even know this situation exists. This is partly because the situation is so complicated- after all, this article is over 2,000 words long, and is by far our longest article ever. But it goes further than that. There is a stereotype about Africa that is prevalent in the West today: namely, that the continent is dirt poor, is always fighting, and is just a terrible place and always will be.

It is not normal that people are apathetic to a genocide. At least, it shouldn’t be. But that is the reality in the world today. There are no protests on college campuses, there is no one flooding the comment section of Biden’s Instagram to demand that we stop the fighting in Sudan.

Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor who spent his life advocating for world peace, warned that “what hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor but the silence of the bystander.” During the Holocaust, the United States turned away thousands of Jews from entering the country, and many of them went on to die in the Holocaust. This is regarded as an indelible stain on our history. But we are doing the same thing again. Not only has the US turned away countless refugees, we also do absolutely nothing to punish our allies for giving both sides weapons which they use to kill civilians. 

Citizens of the United States, along with people in other developed countries, have a responsibility to hold their governments accountable. Both Republicans and Democrats completely ignore this issue and that’s something that needs to change.  As a people, we have power- write to your representatives, advocate at protests, egg their houses…whatever we need to do to advocate for a people that can’t advocate for themselves. 

Achieving significant change will be difficult. But currently, no one is even trying. Through our inaction, we tell the children of Sudan that no one is coming. We tell them we are afraid of change. And we tell them we will continue to let them suffer.