Groucho Marxism

Since April 2023 there has been an active civil war in Sudan between two rival factions of the country’s military government: the internationally recognized government controlled by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan; and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by General Hemedti, who leads the broader Janjaweed coalition. Fighting has been largely concentrated in the capital, Khartoum, where the conflict began, and in the Darfur region in the west of the country. Such conflicts are not exactly rare in Sudan. Since gaining independence in 1956, Sudan has endured chronic instability marked by 20 coup attempts, prolonged military rule, two devastating civil wars, and a genocide in Darfur.

The conflicts that have occurred in Sudan since 1956 have largely been between the relatively wealthy, Muslim north and the less developed, predominantly Christian or animist south. These culminated with the southern part of the country breaking away and becoming a separate country, South Sudan, in 2011. But anyone who thought that the secession of South Sudan would put an end to the conflicts would have been sorely mistaken. Along with tensions between the north and south of the country there are also longstanding tensions between the western Darfur region and the east of the country. The fault line in this case is not religion, but ethnicity. The east is populated mainly by Arabs or Arabized Africans, whereas Darfur is populated by indigenous Fur, Zaghawa, and Masalit ethnic groups.

These tensions came to a head with the war in Darfur, which lasted for 17 years from 2003 to 2020. One side of the conflict was mainly composed of the Sudanese armed forces, police, and the Janjaweed coalition, whose members are mostly recruited among Arabized Africans. The other side was made up of rebel groups, notably the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement, recruited primarily from the non-Arab indigenous ethnic groups in the region. The origins of this conflict go back to the 11th century, when Arab migrations into the Nile valley resulted in the people there becoming heavily Arabized, whilst the people of Darfur remained more faithful to native Sudanese cultures. The war in Darfur led to a genocide of the indigenous population by Janjaweed militias.

Against this backdrop it may be tempting to write Sudan off as a failed state that will always be mired in conflict as a result of its internal ethno-religious tensions. However, there is a lot more to it than that. The current war is tied to global financial interests, with sponsors of opposing parties profiting from the chaos. Sudan has effectively become the stage for one of the world’s most devastating proxy wars. At the heart of the crisis lies the struggle for profit, power, and influence. The UAE has been deliberately working to destabilize Sudan for the sake of resource extraction, by sponsoring the RSF rebels. The UAE’s dominance in the illicit gold trade is a key feature of its influence in Africa, and the RSF’s control of gold mining operations in Sudan makes it a valuable proxy.

Israel also has role in the conflict, which revolves around advancing normalization agreements and limiting Hamas’s influence. Whilst the UAE has focused on the RSF, Israel has cultivated ties with the SAF. Under the SAF, Sudan has become an ally of Israel and has agreed to join the Abraham Accords, and has also frozen Hamas assets within the country. It may seem strange that the UAE and Israel are supporting different sides in the conflict, particularly as the UAE is also a signatory of the Abraham Accords. But both countries seek a weakened Sudanese state with limited sovereignty, and as such it makes sense for them to back opposing sides. As far as Israel and the UAE are concerned, the longer the conflict goes on, the better.

As ever, it is ordinary people who are suffering most from this game of international power politics. The humanitarian impact of the war is difficult to overstate. A senior official from the United Nations World Food Program warned in April this year that Sudan is facing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with nearly 25 million people experiencing extreme hunger, over 12 million displaced, and at least 20,000 confirmed dead. Ultimately, the cause of all this needless suffering is the global capitalist system under which we are all forced to live, which prioritizes profit, power, and influence over human life. Proxy wars such as the one currently going on in Sudan will continue to occur until we get rid of capitalism and replace it with a system that prioritizes human well-being.