The News
Russia blocked a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Sudan, a move the British foreign secretary called “a disgrace.”
On Monday, the UK and Sierra Leone proposed a resolution urging the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to halt hostilities and end attacks on civilians: Tens of thousands of people have died during the 19-month civil war, and millions more have been displaced.
Russia’s UN representative accused the UK of attempting to “meddle” in Sudan, saying the Security Council was impinging on Khartoum’s sovereignty — a stance backed by the Sudanese foreign ministry.
SIGNALS
Russia seeks to ‘exploit the chaos’ in Sudan
Russia has supported both sides of the Sudanese conflict with weapons, seeking access to the country’s gold deposits via the RSF, as well as to Port Sudan via the Sudanese army, Deutsche Welle wrote. ”Sudan is another piece in the jigsaw puzzle of Russia’s Africa strategy,″ one political scientist told the outlet. Trade with Sudan and other African countries — made easier via Sudan’s port — benefits Russia economically as it grapples with Western sanctions following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Russia is also using its “power to exploit the chaos” in countries beyond Sudan, such as Mali, Chad, and Niger, said another expert, leading “to an escalation of the domestic conflicts.”
The UAE’s involvement is an ‘open secret’
Sudanese officials said that the UN resolution was missing certain crucial clauses — including one that condemned the UAE’s backing of the RSF. “The United Arab Emirates is the foreign player most invested in the war,” Husam Mahjoub, co-founder of a nonprofit Sudanese TV channel, wrote in The Guardian. From supplying weapons to airlifting injured RSF fighters to be treated in Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s “direct and all-around support” is aimed at “achieving political and economic hegemony” in the region, with its interests, like Russia’s, lying specifically in gold and ports. Though some US lawmakers have called out the UAE for its actions, American and British officials have chosen to be more vague, avoiding isolating a strong diplomatic ally in the Middle East.