By: Obada Al-Tahir
Since the beginning of the 21st century, the Horn of Africa has become the focus of regional and international powers, especially with the increasing importance of the Red Sea as one of the most vital trade routes in the world. It has come to be seen as a modern extension of the historic Silk Road and a major corridor for the exchange of gas, oil, and petrochemicals between Asia and Europe.
Sudan is considered the geographical link between three continents — Africa, Asia, and Europe — which has earned it greater strategic importance than other countries in the region. Several states with neo-colonial ambitions have directed their focus toward Sudan, seeking to expand their influence and attempt control over Port Sudan, the country’s main and only seaport, due to its enormous strategic and economic significance.
During the rule of the former regime (the National Congress Party), armed groups emerged that would later be known as the Janjaweed militias. These groups received direct government support at the time to combat armed rebel movements in the Darfur region. They committed grave violations against civilians on ethnic and political grounds, but the regime worked to suppress media coverage of these crimes, as they served its interests in asserting control over the region.
Over time, these militias were legalized under the name Rapid Support Forces (RSF). A parliamentary law was passed to regulate their operations and grant them official legitimacy.
After the fall of the regime following the December Revolution, the RSF’s role grew significantly in the political scene, particularly under the leadership of Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), who served as Deputy Chairman of the Sovereign Council and chaired the Economic Committee during the transitional period. A decision by the Sovereign Council amended the RSF law, and from that point onward, the militia began to expand its power.
With this legal amendment, the RSF entered a new phase of self-empowerment — functioning as a quasi-independent entity separate from the official military institution. It acquired its own sources of funding and built economic networks both inside and outside Sudan. This financial and military independence enabled the RSF to operate like a state within a state, expanding into the economy, especially in gold trade and mining, eventually gaining control over gold-producing areas in Darfur and the Nuba Mountains.
With the outbreak of war in mid-April 2023, the RSF’s true intentions were exposed. Its goals were no longer limited to political competition or participation in power — it sought complete control over the state apparatus, beginning with the capital, Khartoum, expanding westward, and reaching strategic ports in eastern Sudan.
Numerous reports indicate that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has played a prominent role in supporting the RSF both logistically and militarily. This support has been channeled through indirect supply lines via neighboring countries and through the provision of aid disguised as humanitarian assistance but allegedly used for military purposes. It is believed that this support is part of UAE efforts to secure long-term influence over the Red Sea and ensure control of key ports and trade routes, using local proxies to secure its strategic interests in the region.
Behind this drive lies a complex set of motives — some economic, such as controlling natural resources like gold, agricultural land, and ports; and others geopolitical, as foreign powers — foremost among them the UAE — aim to establish a permanent foothold on the Red Sea.
The RSF project also has ethnic and social dimensions, as its leadership has allegedly attempted to alter the demographic structure in some parts of Sudan in their favor through systematic displacement and ethnic cleansing, which has resulted in widespread humanitarian tragedies.
In conclusion, the Rapid Support Forces militia is serving as a regional tool in a new colonial project, aimed at redrawing the map of Sudan to serve the interests of foreign powers seeking control over resources and strategic geography, while the Sudanese people pay the price in blood, destruction, and displacement — in one of the most dangerous wars in the country’s modern history.