OPINION: Haftar’s intevention in Sudan will prolong the war

Last week, the Rapid Support Forces and  Haftar’s backed militias attacked the sudanese army and its allied groups and managed to capture the strategic triangle area located at the Libya, Sudan, and Egypt, the militoa also captured the nearby Chevrolet military base located in Northern State’s western deser, This military escalation, which was clearly approved by the UAE, will not only intensify the War in Sudan, but it will also have serious consequences on the region. 

In April 2023, a conflict broke out in Sudan between the Rapid Support Forces militia and the Sudanese army. Millions were displaced, and thousands lost their lives, alongside significant destruction. However, this conflict is also fueled by external actors, namely the UAE,  seeking to promote their interests in the country, regardless of the devastating consequences. 

The RSF emerged primarily from the 2013 restructuring of the notorious Janjaweed militia. Its goal was to support the central government’s counterinsurgency operations in Darfur and South Kordofan. In 2017, the Sudanese parliament passed a law legitimizing its activities, over the years, the RSF militia committed countless crimes and atrocities during the ongoing war, including the destruction of villages, the killing of protesters, sexual violations and rape, mass killings, unlawful detentions, the targeting of hospitals and churches, and attacks on journalists and media institutions, in addition to ethnic-based killings and recruiting children as soldiers during the ongoing war. 

For many years, the UAE has been supporting the RSF militia with weapons and money, and even foreign fighters. This support significantly increased after the outbreak of the war. The UAE believes that once the RSF takes over power, its strong economic and political interests in Sudan will be secured. These interests include exploiting gold and agricultural resources, seizing strategic ports in the Red Sea, and preventing the return of Islamists to power. 

The impact of the UAE funding to the RSF miltia has been devastating; it enabled the militia to sustain its war in Sudan and commit several massacres and genocides in the Darfur region, for instance, according to the UN experts, it’s estimated that 15 thousand members of the Massalit tribe were killed by the militia based on their etnicticy. In other parts of Darfur, women were raped and abducted, and chidlren were piled up and shot to death. For months, Al-fashir city, the main refugee area in Darfur, has been besieged by the miltia. 

However, the UAE also relied on Haftar, the warlord and its trusted ally in Libya, to support the RSF militia since the outbreak of the war. For instance, in April 2023, an investigative report revealed that Wagner is funneling the RSF militia with surface-to-air missiles from areas controlled by Haftar in East Libya. Under pressure, Haftar himself was forced to reroute his arms supply lines to the militia to evade complications from violating the UN arms embargo on Darfur. Most recently, observers suggest that a military base in Alkufra east of Libya, is being utilized  to funnel arms to the RSF militia in Sudan. 

The UAE operates in Africa as a network of militias, airports, and allies. Any attack on a node could harm the rest. Haftar’s last intervention could be interpreted as not merely a move by the UAE to save the RSF militia from falling apart, especially after its major defeat in the capital and central Sudan, but also a strategic step to protect its interlinked regional interests.  

There will be dire consequences of the recent escalation in regional security; for instance, the tensions between the Sudanese army and Haftar are likely to intensify, risking the prolongation of the war and its humanitarian cost. Moreover, the RSF taking control of the triangle area will provide it with a unique position to exploit illegal immigration, pushing Europe to accept its conditions and legitimizing a war and genocidal militia as a de facto political actor. In December 2024, the RSF militia leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, threatened Europe with an influx of immigrants if it did not support the military coup he was part of. 

Mohamed Suliman is an independent Sudanese journalist who has been covering Sudan’s civil war since 2022