WORLD & GEOPOLITICS
SUDAN - The civil war in Sudan rages on as the world watches. The most preoccupied are those funding the conflict, as opposed to those pushing for peace. The war began in April 2023, but it has now been more than five-hundred days since fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the capital of Khartoum. Since then, the violence has spread throughout most of the country.
Four years ago, a remarkable protest movement emerged on the streets of Sudan, overthrowing the country’s long-standing dictator, Omar Hassan Al-Bashir, after decades of military rule. The uprising sparked hopes that Sudan might at last shift towards democracy. Freedom of speech opened up, artists started flourishing, Western governments offered to cancel billions of dollars in debt, and Al-Bashir went to prison for corruption. However, the process was doomed from the start. While the two military leaders (General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo) had helped remove Al-Bashir from office, making claims about enhancing civilian rights, it quickly became clear that they had no serious intention of giving up power. After staging a coup in 2021, the two men then turned on each other, fighting for control of the country and its resources (mostly oil and gold) and now Sudanese civilians are quite literally caught in the cross-fire.