In the charred streets of El Fasher, capital of North Darfur, war has engulfed everything: hospitals, markets, schools, prayers, and even cries. For months, this city of more than 400,000 inhabitants has been living under the merciless siege of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the paramilitary militia led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.
But behind the massacres, gang rapes, and bombings lies a much broader reality: Sudan has become the scene of a war of interests, where foreign powers are taking advantage of the chaos while the international community looks the other way.
This conflict, which broke out in April 2023 between the RSF and the regular army of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has already claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people according to the United Nations, and probably more than 60,000 if we include those who have died of hunger, disease, and exodus. More than 12 million Sudanese have been displaced, including 4 million refugees in neighboring countries. The UN estimates that 30 million people—half the country’s population—need humanitarian aid to survive.
These figures make Sudan the worst humanitarian crisis of the 21st century, ahead of Gaza and Ukraine combined.At first glance, the conflict pits two sides against each other: the national army (SAF) and the RSF militia. But behind the scenes, a web of international alliances and complicity keeps the war going. Investigations by Amnesty International, Chatham House, and the Atlantic Council all point to the same conclusion: the United Arab Emirates is playing a central role in fueling the conflict.
Under the guise of humanitarian aid, Abu Dhabi is financing and equipping Hemedti’s militia. Shipments of weapons from Serbia, China, and Turkey pass through Emirati ports before being delivered to Darfur via Chad. The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned Dubai-based Capital Tap Holding L.L.C. for “providing direct material and financial support to the RSF.” According to Amnesty International (May 2025 report), Chinese GB50A guided bombs and AH-4 howitzers, “almost certainly exported via the Emirates,” were used in attacks on El Fasher.
This war is also an economic war. Darfur is home to vast gold reserves, estimated at over 155 tons. The Jebel Amer mines, controlled by the RSF, provide a substantial part of the militia’s funding. Chatham House has revealed that over 70% of Sudanese gold is exported clandestinely, mainly to Dubai. Between 2018 and 2024, more than $16 billion worth of Sudanese gold passed through the United Arab Emirates, according to customs documents obtained by the NGO Global Witness.
This flow of gold fuels an opaque international trade. In Dubai, Emirati refineries launder the metal before reselling it on global markets. In exchange, the RSF receives weapons, fuel, and hard currency. “It’s a structured war economy system, where civilian deaths become an acceptable cost for stable profits,” explains a European diplomat based in Nairobi.
Hemedti’s networks extend beyond the African continent. Reports by Bellingcat and Middle East Eye have documented transactions involving Emirati, Libyan, and Russian shell companies. The Wagner Group, present in Sudan since 2017, provided logistics and security for the RSF’s gold mines for a long time before its redeployment to the Central African Republic. Flights carrying Sudanese gold to Moscow were spotted as early as 2022, circumventing Western sanctions imposed on Russia.
The United Arab Emirates denies any involvement. Its Ministry of Foreign Affairs states that “the Emirates does not support any party to the conflict and calls for peace in Sudan.” However, according to Western sources, Abu Dhabi is seeking to establish a corridor of influence stretching from the Red Sea to the Sahel, via control of the ports of Port Sudan and the trade routes of Darfur.
“The Emirates are playing the controlled war card: they want a weakened but not collapsed Sudan, a country they can influence without having to rebuild it,” explains a former African Union analyst.
The role of Western powers, meanwhile, oscillates between hypocrisy and passive complicity. The United Kingdom has continued to sell arms to the Emirates despite warnings from its own Parliament about the risks of re-exportation to Sudan. The United States, which has a strategic military base in Djibouti, is content with symbolic condemnations without targeting the financial institutions involved. The European Union, focused on Ukraine, remains paralyzed.Meanwhile, civilians in Darfur are dying in silence. The hospitals in El Fasher have been reduced to ruins. The Zamzam camp, which housed 700,000 displaced people, has become a cemetery.
“We operate by the light of our phones, without anesthesia, using kitchen knives,” says an MSF doctor. Mass graves are multiplying. Gang rapes and targeted executions are particularly targeting the Fur and Massalit communities. The United Nations speaks of “war crimes” and “acts that may constitute genocide.
”The conflict is already spilling over the borders. Chad, the Central African Republic, and South Sudan fear regional contagion. Mercenaries are moving between Sudan, Libya, and Niger, and arms smuggling is spreading to the Sahel. The Red Sea is becoming an area of confrontation between powers: Russian presence in Eritrea, Chinese base in Djibouti, and Emirati ambitions in Port Sudan. The chaos in Sudan is silently redrawing the geopolitical balance in Africa.The most worrying aspect lies elsewhere: the normalization of silence. No independent international investigation has yet been mandated by the Security Council. No major sanctions have been imposed on those financing the conflict. Sudan appears only sporadically in the Western media, often relegated behind diplomatic priorities. “Sudan has no oil, no seat at the G20, no direct threat to Europe,” says a senior UN official. “So it is dying slowly, behind closed doors.”In El Fasher, the dead are buried in schoolyards. The living no longer know whether to pray or flee. And amid the din of weapons, one thing is certain: this war is not inevitable, it is a strategy. A profitable war, sustained by those who profit from it.Every day, shipments of gold discreetly leave Darfur for Dubai. At the same time, cargo planes loaded with weapons follow the opposite route. This carefully documented trafficking illustrates the cynicism of a system where the trade in death thrives on the ruin of nations. Sudan is not just a battlefield: it is a marketplace. And as long as the world remains a spectator, the economy of chaos will continue to thrive.The blood of El-Fasher is now mixed with the dust of gold. And if the international community does not act, this dust will eventually cover the conscience of the entire world.
Lahcen Isaac HammouchJournalist and writer
