Recently, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) met to consider actions on the war in Sudan. According to the Sudan Tribune, it has been mostly women and children who have been caught in the crossfire between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia which is supported by the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Noting that both warring factions in Sudan bear responsibility for the increasing violence, senior officials briefing the UNSC urged a ceasefire and a negotiated settlement.
According to a Nov. 12 UN media advisory, Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peace-Building Affairs, described a wave of attacks perpetrated by Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, and his RSF in eastern Al-Jazirah State. Large numbers of civilians were killed, and even more lost their homes and were forced to flee because of these attacks.
“We are receiving reports of horrific violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including sexual violence committed predominantly against women and girls,” DiCarlo added, condemning the RSF’s continued attacks against civilians, and the SAF’s indiscriminate air strikes in populated areas, including the Khartoum area. The RSF is headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
DiCarlo stated that both warring factions believe they can succeed on the battlefield, “thanks to considerable external support, including a steady flow of weapons into the country,” she emphasized, adding: “To put it bluntly, certain purported allies of the parties are enabling the slaughter in Sudan. This is unconscionable, it is illegal, and it must end.”
Niemat Ahmadi, founder and president of Darfur Women Action Group, also spoke before the Council. Speaking with agony and urgency, she described “scorched earth tactics” deployed by the RSF in several regions, including El Fasher and Al-Jazirah, “with reports of mass killings, indiscriminate shelling of civilians and shocking reports that more than 130 women committed mass suicide as an escape from further sexual violence.”
Ramesh Rajasingham, director of coordination for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, warned of troubling projections and said they suggest the conflict is poised to escalate further.
“Civilians continue to flee for their lives both within Sudan and across its borders, in what is now the world’s largest displacement crisis,” he continued, pointing out that more than 11 million people have been displaced since April 2023.
The role the new U.S. president and administration may play in the conflict remains to be seen.
Taking time out to congratulate President-Elect Donald Trump, Burhan announced he was looking forward to “developing relations between our two countries … .” Hemedti also extended his congratulations through the group’s media office, reported middleeasteye.net.
The Middle East Eye article titled: “Donald Trump and Sudan: What to expect from the returning U.S. president,” summarized under the Biden administration, Sudan and its crisis were never a priority. Under Trump, it will likely be a pawn in a regional deal seen through the “prism” of America’s Arab allies, the article noted.
Kholood Khair, a Sudanese analyst and founding director of Confluence Advisory, a thinktank in Khartoum, told Middle East Eye that, “the U.S. had been very involved in the framework agreement intended to pave the way for a transition back to civilian rule in Sudan.”
One of the sticking points was the reabsorption of Hemedti’s RSF into Burhan’s SAF. “This was never resolved, but the U.S. and Molly Phee, the assistant secretary of state for African Affairs missed the signs that war was coming and that this would be the spark,”
Reported Middle East Eye. “The Americans had such a big hand in the framework agreement, so their lack of responsibility when the war broke out was even more egregious,” Khair said, according to middleeasteye.net.
Looking at domestic developments in Sudan were never on Mr. Trump’s radar during his previous term. “When Sudan entered his purview, it was because of Israel,” via the Trump brokered Abraham Accords, noted middleeasteye.net.
The outlet also noted that the Sudan is supposed to be the remit to the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs. “But (because of) the influence of Saudi Arabia and the UAE on U.S. policy means that Sudan is often dragged into the orbit of the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs,”
Middle East Eye reported. According to the article, the two bureaus have very different cultures. “The Near Eastern bureau is full of officials whose thinking has been shaped by time spent in Iraq and Libya, and by the U.S. war on terror.”
Cameron Hudson is a senior fellow in the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former chief of staff to successive presidential special envoys for Sudan. He told Middle East Eye.
“I think Sudan is going to be an addendum in a Trump administration to his wider Middle East and Gulf policy.” He added, “Sudan is going to be seen as a bargaining chip that can be offered to exchange for something else. … The resolution of the war in Sudan under Trump will be the byproduct of a much larger deal.”
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