But the Saudis were not the only ones to blame. In October 2021, the RSF and SAF — who once served in the same national military force — led a joint coup that dissolved Sudan’s transitional government. A month later, the prime minister and the military signed a power sharing agreement this codified the coup, further legitimized the military as a ruling force, and delayed the transition to civilian government. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United States and the United Kingdom welcomed this agreement as a step in the right direction. They ignored the thousands of demonstrators who saw any kind of military rule as unacceptable.
Since the start of the war on April 15, the RSF and SAF have agreed – and broken – at least 17 ceasefires. The war only grew more deadly. The city of El Geneina, home to more than half a million people, was described by doctors as “one of the worst places on earth.” Parts of Khartoum have not running water or electricity right now Evacuation remains difficultif not nearly impossible.
As this disaster unfolded, international leaders once again ignored the Sudanese people. This includes the more than 8,000 neighborhood resistance committeesunions, and women’s groups that participated the Revolutionary Charter for the Establishment of People’s Powerdraft for a bottom-up approach to democracy The participants refuse to cooperate with the Sudanese military, which has orchestrated genocide and violence since Sudan’s independence in 1956, or with its dark branch, the RSF.
The RSF has a particularly sinister history. It was born from a militia that was originally commissioned by the government to put down a rebellion in Darfur, and was later accused of committing crimes against humanity in the process. During the RSF reportedly fell under SAF authority in 2017, it kept some autonomy. Since then, RSF has steadily gained more power, weapons and capital through probable affiliations with the Wagner group, the UAE., and Libya. It was inevitable that they would eventually come head to head with the institution that created them. When they did, millions of ordinary Sudanese became collateral damage.
I was one of them, forced to flee the country against my will.
The international community tends to benefit from the instability of Sudan. The respective control of the RSF and the SAF over what seems to be complex illegal business and business networks undoubtedly enable Sudan’s dependence on importation. Since the signature (2014) of the African Union Commission and the European Union Khartoum Processthe RSF played an important role in preventing migration to Europe through Sudan. The head of the RSF claimed, in this regard, to operate under “the directives of the president of the republic to fight illegal migration.” While the international community has not formally partnered with the RSF, they may have inadvertently enabled the violence they have historically used against Sudan’s most marginalized groups.