Outside powers’ reported backing for Sudan’s warring sides fuels fighting as atrocities mount

CAIRO (AP) – For more than two years, Sudan’s military and a powerful paramilitary force have torn the country apart in a war for power, both digging in against peace efforts even as atrocities mount and starvation spreads. One reason they can keep going is the support each reportedly gets from other nations looking for influence.

International alarm has grown since Oct. 26, when the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces seized the key city of el-Fasher in Sudan’s Darfur region from the military and reportedly went on a rampage. Witnesses and aid groups say fighters have killed hundreds of civilians, and the fate of thousands more is unknown.

Both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the RSF are accused of committing atrocities throughout the war. The United States says the RSF is committing genocide with repeated mass killings and rapes.

U.S. intelligence assessments for many months have found that the United Arab Emirates, a close U.S. ally, has been sending weapons to the RSF, according to a U.S. official familiar with the reports who spoke on condition of anonymity to share details of the classified reports.

The UAE denies backing the RSF. In a statement, it said, “We categorically reject any claims of providing any form of support to either warring party.” It said it has supported efforts to “achieve an immediate ceasefire, protect civilians and ensure accountability” for violations by both sides.

On the other side, Egypt is accused of supporting the Sudanese military.

The war began in 2023, when the RSF and the military, which together ruled Sudan after crushing a pro-democracy movement, turned against each other. The conflict has killed at least 40,000 people – though aid groups say the toll is likely several times higher – and has caused the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Here’s a look at the players accused of having a hand in Sudan’s conflict.

The Emirates backs the RSF in part to prevent the Islamist groups that underpin the Sudanese military from seizing power, said Hamid Khalafallah, a Sudan researcher and policy analyst. Since the 2011 Arab Spring, the UAE has used hard and soft power to counter Islamist groups across the region, which it views as a threat.

The support of the paramilitaries is also rooted in the UAE’s “imperial ambitions,” Khalafallah said.

Tiny in size but enormously wealthy, the Emirates supports a network of factions across the region to spread its influence. In long-divided Libya, the UAE has supported forces of the military strongman Khalifa Hifter against Islamist and other militias based in the capital, Tripoli. In Yemen, it has backed southern militias fighting Houthi rebels. It has also built ties with Somaliland and Puntland, breakaway regions of Somalia.

Khalafallah said the UAE wants to expand its influence “and that is better served through paramilitaries outside the state institutions.”

The RSF originated from the Janjaweed, Arab militias that were accused of committing genocide in the 2000s in a campaign against communities of East and Central African origin in Sudan’s western Darfur region. In the current war, the U.N., U.S. and others say the RSF has targeted the same communities with mass killings and rapes.

The U.S. official said two intelligence reports issued in late September found that the UAE’s provision of weapons to the RSF had increased from late summer into early fall. The reports, from the State Department’s intelligence bureau and Defense Intelligence Agency, found the weapons included Chinese armed and unarmed drones, heavy machine guns, small arms, mortars and artillery, the official said.

A U.N. panel of experts said in a January 2024 that reports of UAE arms shipments to the RSF, mainly via neighboring Chad, were credible.

RSF attacks became more sophisticated this year, particularly through the large-scale use of drones. When the military retook the capital, Khartoum, in April, it was a severe blow to the RSF. But the paramilitary force has since been able to advance in Darfur and the nearby Kordofan region.

Competition over access to Sudan’s resources – particularly gold and gum arabic, a key industrial food ingredient – has fueled the rivalry between the military and RSF, and drawn their backers’ interest. Each side has helped finance the fight by selling resources in areas under its control.

The Emirates has provided a crucial outlet for the RSF’s business interests and gold sales, according to the U.N. experts. The U.S. imposed sanctions on six UAE-based companies that it says helped carry out gold sales and provide weapons and security technology to the RSF. Gold has also been smuggled out through Egypt, according to the U.N.

Cameron Hudson, a senior fellow in the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told a U.S congressional hearing in May that the UAE has also provided financial support to Ethiopia and Kenya to back the RSF, as well as provided military support through Libya, Chad, South Sudan and the Central African Republic.

The UAE, he said, “has encircled Sudan in a ring of fire.”

Egypt’s support for the Sudanese Armed Forces is rooted in years of close ties between the two countries’ militaries. Saudi Arabia and Turkey have also sided with the military in Sudan’s war.

Egypt prefers a military-run government in its southern neighbor, seeing it as a more reliable ally than a democratic civilian government, Khalafallah said.

With their long, shared border, Egypt and Sudan have key strategic interests, driven by the Nile River, which snakes through both countries, and their position along the shipping lanes of the Red Sea. Those interests have outweighed Egypt’s concerns over Islamist influence in the Sudanese military.

The extent of Egypt’s material support for Sudan’s military is unclear. But the Institute for the Study of War says Egypt is likely the source of a batch of fighter jets sent to the Sudanese military in March, and it has also provided it with Turkish drones.

Egypt has denied providing arms. In an interview this week with MBC television, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said there is “no military solution” in Sudan. “There must be pressure on all outside powers to stop the flow of weapons. There must be a humanitarian truce leading immediately to a ceasefire.”

The U.S. brought together Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia in a mediating group called the Quartet, or Quad, to work for an end to the war. In September, it issued a peace plan calling for a three-month humanitarian truce, followed by a nine-month political process.

The RSF on Thursday said it agreed to the Quad’s humanitarian truce. A Sudanese military official said the army will only agree to a truce when the RSF completely withdraws from civilian areas and gives up weapons as per previous peace proposals.

The Trump administration’s point person – Massad Boulos, senior adviser for Arab and African Affairs – told The Associated Press that the U.S. is working with both sides to finalize a truce.

When asked if Washington was pressuring the UAE to stop supporting the RSF, he didn’t answer.

Hudson said attempts to push the RSF and military into direct negotiations have failed. Instead, the U.S. should work to get the outside powers to stop supporting the warring parties.

“There is no single country better placed to do this than the United States,” he said.

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Price reported from Washington. AP correspondent Sarah El Deeb contributed from Beirut