In comments to Fox News Digital, the State Department’s position on Sudan’s warring parties has hardened, as a 500-day siege of the Darfur city of El Fasher has trapped hundreds of thousands of civilians.
Sudan suffers from the world’s largest displacement: Between 13 million and 15 million people have been ripped from their homes, and an estimated 150,000 people have been killed since the rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese government’s Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) started fighting in April 2023. The civil war’s roots lie in tensions following the 2019 ousting of President Omar al-Bashir.
‘The RSF, during the siege of El Fasher and surrounding areas, committed myriad crimes against humanity, including murder, torture, enslavement, rape, sexual slavery, sexual violence, forced displacement and persecution on ethnic, gender and political grounds,’ an Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan reported to the U.N.’s Human Rights Council last Friday.
The report agreed with other accounts that the RSF is trying to starve El Fasher’s residents to death, stating, ‘The RSF and its allies used starvation as a method of warfare.’
Aid is being blocked from going into El Fasher, the U.N. Secretary-General’s spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, stated Aug. 29 ‘Supplies are pre-positioned nearby but efforts by the United Nations and its partners to move them into El Fasher continue to be hampered.
‘The situation in El Fasher remains dire,’ Mariam Wahba, research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital. ‘The RSF has effectively encircled the city, cutting off key supply routes and subjecting civilians to indiscriminate shelling. Satellite images indicate a wall is being built to trap civilians inside, consistent with RSF tactics used elsewhere. These ‘kill zones’ leave residents with no means of escape. El-Fasher is the last major SAF-held city in Darfur. If it falls, the RSF would control nearly all of Darfur, consolidating both territory and economic assets, particularly lucrative gold mines.’
President Donald Trump’s Special Advisor for Africa, Massad Boulos, met Sudan’s army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan in Switzerland last month. From the tone of the State Department’s responses to Fox News Digital’s questions on Sudan this week, there appears to be little progress on the path to peace.
A spokesperson stated, ‘since the April 2023 outbreak of conflict in Sudan, we have witnessed significant backsliding in Sudan’s overall respect for fundamental freedoms, including religious freedom.
‘In order to safeguard U.S. interests, to include the protection of religious freedom in Sudan, U.S. efforts seek to limit negative Islamist influence in Sudan’s government and curtail Iran’s regional activities that have contributed to regional destabilization, conflict, and civilian suffering.’
Wahba is also concerned about the activities of foreign ‘bad actors’ in Sudan. ‘Iran has provided the SAF with drones and technical support. Emerging reports point to Iranian interest in helicopter facilities. Iran sees its involvement in Sudan as a gateway for extending its footprint in Africa.’
Wahba continued, ‘Russia has played both sides of the conflict. It has pursued a naval base on Sudan’s Red Sea coast, which would give Moscow direct access to critical shipping lanes, while also profiting from gold smuggling through RSF-linked networks.’
‘Regional powers are also advancing their own interests. Egypt has publicly backed the SAF, aligning with Sudan’s ruler, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. Saudi Arabia is aligned with Egypt in backing al-Burhan. The United Arab Emirates, on the other hand, has provided significant support to the RSF, viewing its commander, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo – widely known as Hemedti – as the custodian of Sudan’s gold exports and the path to its plans for port development along the Red Sea coast.’
Wahba concluded, ‘Burhan’s willingness to engage with Washington is a potential opening. This does not mean the U.S. should unconditionally back the SAF, but it could form the basis for a more defined U.S. strategy, one that makes U.S. engagement contingent on the SAF reining in, or removing, its Islamist militias and leadership.