What’s Happening in Sudan?
On Saturday, October 26th, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) declared their invasion of the city of El-Fasher in the Darfur region of Sudan, which is home to approximately 260,000 inhabitants. Upwards of 62,000 civilians fled from El-Fasher following the invasion. Only a little over 5000 were reported to have arrived in the neighboring town of Tawila, as many were blocked or killed by RSF fighters while attempting to find safety.
The genocidal RSF has massacred at least 2000 people during its invasion of El-Fasher, while also committing countless disturbing and brutal crimes against the people of El-Fasher, including executing hospital patients, crushing civilians with vehicles, and sexually assaulting young women and girls. The violence is to the extent that satellite imagery of El-Fasher from outer space clearly shows red discoloration from the bloodshed.
Prior to the invasion, El-Fasher was already under the RSF’s brutal siege, which had prevented life-saving aid from entering the city, as well as healthcare facilities from operating. Many of the young children who survived the invasion and fled to Tawila were found to be suffering from acute malnutrition.
The city of El-Fasher is only the latest in a long line of Sudanese cities which the RSF has brutalized. The RSF, which is backed and funded by the United Arab Emirates, has engaged in a proxy war against the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) over control of Sudan since April 2023.
The RSF evolved from the Janjaweed militias which were funded by former Sudanese president and dictator Omar al-Bashir to quell anti-government rebellions during the Darfur War in the early 2000s. The RSF is led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti. After a popular uprising in 2019 led to the ousting of Omar al-Bashir and the establishment of a transitional government, the new authorities sought to dissolve the RSF and integrate it into the Sudanese Armed Forces. Hemedti and the SAF General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan have since been fighting over control of the military.
As aforementioned, the UAE is embedded financially, politically, and economically in this war and has enabled it by funding and arming the RSF. The war serves as a means of transporting extracted gold and resources into the UAE, which is the largest exporter of gold in the Middle East despite having no gold mines of its own. In other words, the violence in Sudan is not just the result of a civil war; it is the direct result of an unfolding colonial project.
Since April 2023, this colonial project has displaced over 12 million Sudanese people, 9 million of whom are internally displaced and 3 million of whom are refugees. Over 30 million are in need of aid and humanitarian support, whether it be food, healthcare, or other necessities, and over half of the population faces food insecurity and famine conditions. The war has resulted in an economic collapse, with soaring prices rendering food and other basic goods inaccessible to the majority of the population.
As we witness the suffering of the Sudanese people, the striking resemblance to the suffering of the Gazan people is undeniable. The Emirati regime has not only normalized with the Zionist entity and enabled the oppression and genocide of Gaza, but it has gone so far as to inflict its own genocide against the people of Sudan. This is aside from the oppression and evil which the UAE commits domestically, including but not limited to the exploitation of its migrant workers, its economic reliance on what is essentially modern-day slavery, and its presence as one of the largest hubs of human and sex trafficking in the Middle East. The UAE is just one of many examples of how Zionism and neocolonial Arab regimes operate hand-in-hand in order to repress and subjugate the Arab and Muslim peoples in order to maintain Western hegemony and imperial interests in the region.
Just as we have a moral duty towards the Palestinian people, so do we have a moral duty towards the Sudanese people. We are obligated to boycott the UAE—this includes not booking trips to the UAE, selling off property or investments that we might hold there, boycotting gold shops which have almost certainly sourced their gold illegally through the war in Sudan, as well as completely boycotting any businesses which are economically and financially entangled with the UAE.
We call upon all Arabs and Muslims around the world to mobilize and place collective pressure on the UAE, as well as their own authorities and governments, in order to bring an end to the war in Sudan. Not only must the UAE cease its funding and backing of the RSF, but it must be held accountable for the genocides it has enabled and committed in both Gaza and Sudan.
Sources:
Al Jazeera. (2025, November 4). RSF digging mass graves in Sudan’s El Fasher to ‘clean up’ massacre: Expert. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/4/rsf-digging-mass-graves-in-sudans-el-fasher-to-clean-up-massacre-expertAl Jazeera. (2025, October 29). ‘Horrific violations’: Arab nations slam RSF killings in Sudan’s El Fasher.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/29/horrific-violations-arab-nations-slam-rsf-killings-in-sudans-el-fasherMiddle East Eye. (2025). RSF fighters film themselves massacring Sudanese fleeing El-Fasher.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/rsf-fighters-film-themselves-massacring-sudanese-fleeing-el-fasherAl Jazeera. (2025, November 1). Thousands missing: New horrors emerge after RSF taking of Sudan’s El Fasher.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/1/thousands-missing-new-horrors-emerge-after-rsf-taking-of-sudan-el-fasherMiddle East Eye. (2025). Sudan-UAE war: Leaked documents show arms trade with RSF.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/sudan-uae-war-arms-trade-rsfUnited Nations News. (2025, October). UN warns of escalating crisis as violence spreads in Sudan.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/10/1166224Al Jazeera. (2023, April 16). Sudan unrest: What is the Rapid Support Forces?
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/16/sudan-unrest-what-is-the-rapid-support-forcesUnited Nations News. (2025, February). Over three million people displaced; UN agencies warn of deepening humanitarian emergency.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/02/1160161Al Jazeera. (2025, November 6). Where are tens of thousands of people in Sudan fleeing to?
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/6/where-are-tens-of-thousands-of-people-in-sudan-fleeing-to