FOREIGN ACTORS INVOLVED
Simon Adams, president and CEO of international nonprofit Centre for Victims of Torture, said inaction at the UN Security Council speaks volumes about where the world stands on Sudan.
“The great powers … kind of realise that there’s not going to be a short-term solution here. And so, they’ve been quite content, I think, to just let it sit off in the distance and develop into what is now the largest humanitarian crisis in the world,” he told CNA.
“And I think maybe that’s an admission by them, inadvertently, that they don’t see a diplomatic solution as being possible.”
He also pointed to the “huge amount of regional meddling” in the war.
Foreign actors at play, who are believed to be arming the warring sides despite a UN arms embargo, have been complicating matters.
Amnesty International recently released a report that identified weapons and ammunition from countries like Yemen and the United Arab Emirates, Turkiye and Serbia in the north, and even those as far away as Russia and China.
Sudan has accused the UAE of arming the RSF, while the RSF accuses Egypt of taking part in air strikes. Iran is also widely reported to be supplying the Sudanese army with weapons and drones.
This interest stems from Sudan’s strategic location on the Red Sea, where about 12 per cent of global shipping transits.
“Whoever controls Sudan, controls the Red Sea,” said Alexander Rondos, a senior adviser with the Africa Center at the US Institute of Peace.
With these factors at play, a diplomatic solution to the war has become tricky to navigate – and fears remain that many Sudanese may not survive the year unless ceasefires are agreed on and upheld, the conflict de-escalates, and aid is allowed through.
