Sudan: The Army's Backers and Its Own Conduct

Summary

Sudan's army and the RSF each depend on rival foreign patrons who arm, fund and fuel the war, while international monitors document war crimes by both forces, including army airstrikes on civilians.

What it argues

1. Rival coalitions of patrons

   Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Qatar, Eritrea and increasingly Saudi Arabia back the army; the UN and Arab League recognise army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan as head of state. The UAE is the RSF's main patron, giving it financial, military and logistical support, according to Middle East Eye and Amnesty International. After the RSF took el-Fasher, Egypt reinforced its border and set up joint operations rooms with the army, and Turkey said it would increase drone support. The war pits an army backed by a broad state coalition against an RSF sustained mainly by the UAE.

2. Russia hedges its bets

   Russia has supplied weapons to the army while the Wagner Group continued helping supply the RSF, analysts told Middle East Eye. Russian officials met both Burhan and RSF leader Hemedti before the war and have since courted Burhan over a long-sought Red Sea naval base. Analyst Kholood Khair said Moscow, like the UAE and Israel, 'plays both sides' to keep a stake regardless of the outcome. Russia's shifting alignment is driven by its own strategic interest in a Red Sea base, not loyalty to either side.

3. Gulf rift stalls diplomacy

   A September 2025 US-led Quad roadmap (US, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt) made initial progress but has been overshadowed by a Saudi-UAE rupture over Yemen. Saudi-aligned media now accuse the UAE of 'destabilising the region', including in Sudan, Al Jazeera reports. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met the UAE's Mohammed bin Zayed in May 2025 in an attempt to lower tensions after Port Sudan strikes. Rivalry between the army's and RSF's own backers is undercutting efforts to end the war.

4. Army's dependence on the UAE

   A UAE-backed firm, Emiral Resources, holds a majority stake in Sudan's largest gold mine, and UAE banks control the Bank of Khartoum's transfer platform used by millions of displaced Sudanese. About 97% of gold exports from army-held areas went to the UAE in 2023, per the Central Bank of Sudan. After accusing the UAE of backing drone strikes on Port Sudan, the army announced severing ties in May 2025, a move analyst Suliman Baldo called 'rushed' given the UAE's grip on Sudan's economy. The army's own patrons' rival, the UAE, controls economic levers the army cannot easily do without.

5. Gold and smuggling fund the war

   RSF leader Hemedti's family gold-mining company and Gulf financial ties have helped him amass an estimated $7bn fortune; Wagner has shipped Darfur gold out via a Russian-controlled airbase in Syria, per Middle East Eye. Drones and weapons reach the RSF via Chad, Libya, Somalia, Uganda and the Central African Republic, often under commercial cover, while the army is supplied via Egypt and Eritrea transit routes. Analyst Andreas Kreig said the same corridors that move drone parts can move gold, cash and goods out of Sudan, making the networks self-financing. Gold revenue and cross-border smuggling networks underwrite combatants and their foreign backers alike.

6. Executions and torture by both forces

   Human Rights Watch analysed videos showing SAF and RSF forces summarily executing, torturing and mutilating detainees between August 2023 and July 2024. Incidents include mass executions of at least 21 men by the RSF near El Fula and the SAF's execution of three possibly underage detainees in Omdurman. Researcher Mohamed Osman said commanders on both sides should be held to account; neither force's spokesperson responded to HRW's questions. Human Rights Watch documents war crimes committed by both the army and the RSF against detainees.

7. Army's indiscriminate airstrikes

   Human Rights Watch found the army used unguided air-dropped bombs on residential and commercial areas of Nyala in February 2025, killing and injuring scores of civilians. ACLED estimated 51 to 74 civilians killed between February 2-4; Doctors Without Borders reported dozens more killed and injured. HRW called the strikes apparent war crimes and urged other countries to sanction Sudan's air force leadership, as the EU has done. Monitors document army airstrikes on populated areas as indiscriminate attacks under international law.

8. El-Fasher atrocities

   After an roughly 18-month siege, the RSF's capture of el-Fasher brought reports of executions, torture, abductions and sexual violence, Al Jazeera reports. The US and human rights groups have determined the RSF committed genocide in Darfur against the Masalit community. Critical coverage of the UAE's role followed the atrocities but has not altered its support for the RSF, according to Al Jazeera. The fall of el-Fasher produced some of the war's most severe documented atrocities, attributed to the RSF.