- Western Media omits this

Author Robert Inlakesh

The armed clashes in Sudan, that began last week, are being presented by Western corporate media as a shock from a country that was heading towards democracy. These attempts to absolve the West of any accountability for the militarized confrontation that could spark civil war, and to even blame Russia, are leaving out the key context to understanding this conflict.

Days of chaos have again left the Sudanese population without any sense of security and in fear for their lives. The Sudanese military head and de-facto leader of of Sudan, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, ordered strikes against targets belonging to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, colloquially known as Hemedti, claiming that they were plotting a military coup. The RSF were set up under former Sudanese dictator Omar Bashir, in 2013, as a militia force that combined forces of the infamous Janjaweed and was used to crush his political rivals.

The RSF head, Hemedti, grew in the ranks over the years as a power militia leader and was given free rein to seize lucrative gold mines in Darfur that belonged to a rival tribal leader, eventually making him one of the wealthiest men in Sudan. After the RSF gained its horrifying reputation through mass killings, rape, and other atrocities, the militia leader, who was empowered by President Omar Bashir, turned against him in 2019. The RSF and the Sudanese army, together, decided to participate in a coup to officially oust Bashir and end his 30 year rein, taking advantage of a civilian-led uprising that demanded the fall of dictatorship in Sudan.

A Transitional Military Council (TMC) was then set up, which was created with the stated aim of catapulting Sudan towards civilian rule. The TMC was formally headed by Sudan’s army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, with the deputy head of the TMC being Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti). A Transitional Sovereignty Council (TSC) was later set up and was overthrown in another coup in October of 2021, before being reinstated later that year. The recent power sharing balance had been maintained between the Sudanese Army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia of Hemedti, with a deal having been struck on the implementation of civil rule last December.

What is important to understand here is that the portrayal of recent events, in Western media, is deliberately misrepresenting the extent to which the United Kingdom and US governments, as well as Israel, have been involved in Sudanese affairs. The narrative that is being pushed by The New York Times, is that “the violence is an alarming turn for a country that only four years ago was an inspiration to Africa and the Arab world”, claiming that Sudan had been on the path to democracy. A NYT piece on the issue reports that the US had lifted its sanctions on Khartoum because it was inching close to democracy, when in reality Washington removed its designation of Sudan as a state-sponsor of terrorism as a reward for signing onto a normalization deal with Israel — no changes required. US Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, also signed an agreement to provide a bridge loan to clear the $1.2 billion debt that Sudan owed to the World Bank. The normalization deal with Israel was signed in secret in Khartoum.

It is no surprise that just over 48 hours prior to the outbreak of violence between the Sudanese military and the RSF on Saturday, special envoys from the US, UK, and Sweden, had all taken part in a call with RSF leader Hemedti, about the dispute over requests to integrate the RSF into the regular Sudanese armed forces. This demonstrates that up until the last days, prior to the outbreak of violence, Western envoys were openly in direct communication with the RSF. The corporate media are clearly omitting key facts, because the RSF’s warcrimes are well documented, in fact the TMC that was established after the ouster of Omar Bashir worked to downplay and block investigations into a 2019 massacre of around 120 peaceful protesters by the RSF, according to Human Rights Watch. Despite numerous pledges by Burhan and Hemedti to instate a civilian leadership, replacing the post 2019 revolution military rule, this has never occurred.

What’s more is that the RSF has not only attempted to form relations with international players — ranging from the United States and Israel, to Russia — but has sent men from its 100,000 strong militia force to fight in the ongoing war in Yemen, for both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti)’s official Facebook page was even revealed to have been managed from the UAE, proving just how close the Emiratis are to the RSF militia. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are close Western allies in the Middle East, but most importantly were key in pushing Donald Trump’s “Abraham Accords”, which Abu Dhabi was the primary regional advocate for. In addition to this, the UAE helped coordinate between Sudan and the US in order to have them sign the normalization agreement with the Israelis.

Hemedti has also attended various security meetings with Israeli officials and intelligence officers, including a two day trip to Tel Aviv to discuss bilateral relations, between Sudan and Israel, in late 2021. In December of 2022, an investigative report even revealed that an Israeli intelligence firm had transferred cutting-edge phone surveillance equipment to the Sudanese militia. This is all to say that the Israeli-UAE-Saudi-UK-American block have been aligned with the RSF, despite its history of mass rape, home invasions, massacres, and torture. Hemedti’s role in ruling over Sudanese gold mines — which has caused disease and birth defects from left behind toxic waste, as well as environmental catastrophes — gives him great power, of which he fears he could lose if the country was to come under civilian rule. Last year Sudan had the highest annual gold production in its history, with 50% of the precious metals estimated to have been smuggled out of the country illegally.

Where the Western media focuses instead, is Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenary group’s connection to the Sudanese gold mining industry and the usage of Sudanese bases to secure the transfer of Russian mercenaries into the country, which began in 2017 according to an investigative report published last year. Based upon this investigative work, and a number of allegations about ties between Wagner and the RSF, the Western corporate press is now pushing conspiracy theories that Moscow has engineered the recent outburst of violence inside Sudan. One of the allegations against Russia is that they are stealing gold in order to fund the war in Ukraine, this argument is based upon the false Western narrative that Moscow has become severely weak, economically, due to Western sanctions. The Telegraph, for example, published a piece where the author framed the RSF as falling under the control of Wagner, and from their, theorized about whether Russian President Vladimir Putin had personally engineered the crisis:

“Thus, Vladimir Putin, either by accident or design, has helped to unleash a wave of violence that could have disastrous consequences not just for Sudan and North Africa, but the world. His failed invasion of Ukraine has empowered the Wagner Group, which uses that clout to plunder African nations and stir up trouble. His desperation for money since the West implemented severe sanctions has made Russian state support for such illicit actions a necessity. All this will come at a heavy price.”

While there is evidence that Wagner is involved with the RSF and the gold mining industry in Sudan, the assertion that the recent conflict is the fault of Russia is not only unsubstantiated, but tantamount to outright delusion. It is true that the Russian State is involved with Sudan, however, Moscow’s involvement and plans for further cooperation with Sudan suggest that the current conflict is actually against their interests. In February the Sudanese ruling military government concluded a review of an agreement with Russia to build a naval base on the Red Sea, which would be of tremendous strategic importance to the Russian Federation. The Sudanese ruling was that when the civilian government comes to power, then the base plans can commence. The recent armed clashes therefore put the Russian plans on hold, at least, perhaps endangering them entirely; especially if civil war is to break out. Meaning, this conflict would actually sabotage Moscow’s ambitions and work in Washington’s favor, if this turns into a prolonged conflict.

One thing that is correct in the analysis offered in The Telegraph article, was that this conflict has potentially disastrous consequences for the surrounding region as well. Specifically in the case of Egypt, their national security could be severely threatened, but most crucially, Cairo could be forced to take more direct action against Ethiopia, over the Nile Dam dispute, with Khartoum out of the picture. As Egypt is currently presenting problems for the United States, which has dominated the North African nation since the late 1970’s, seeing them plunged into a real confrontation could pull them back in line. In the case of Ethiopia, the US Biden administration was on the side of the TPLF insurgency against the Ethiopian government that began in 2020 and ended with a ceasefire imposed last year.

As discussed above, if the Sudanese conflict causes a knock-on effect, initiating an Ethiopia-Egypt conflict, Washington would certainly benefit, whether hot or cold war, however, this theory is a stretch at this point. Yet with the outlandish, counterfactual allegations that are being leveled at Russia right now, it is important to look at counter-arguments that may also be a stretch, but in this case actually make sense. To conclude, there are strong Israeli, US, Saudi, and most prominently, UAE influences in both sides of the fight in Sudan and this conflict is being fought, at least publicly, over the refusal of the RSF to integrate into the Sudanese military. The RSF knows that its power would be greatly curtailed if they make that transition and a civilian government is installed, this is something that Hemedti especially does not want. Both sides here are led by war criminals, both deeply involved with Western governments and intelligence agencies, which is something that the corporate media does not want you to know.