Sudan's Ruinous War: The Two Generals Tearing a Nation Apart

11 hours ago7 min read4 comments

Sudan is being consumed by a civil war driven by a violent power struggle between two rival generals, plunging the nation into a humanitarian catastrophe. The conflict pits General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), against Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).Since their alliance collapsed in April 2023, their fight for control has escalated into a nationwide war marked by widespread atrocities. The recent capture of the strategic Darfur city of El Fasher by the RSF marks a devastating strategic shift, effectively splitting the country and signaling a potential escalation of Hemedti's brutal campaign.The siege of El Fasher subjected its residents to 18 months of terror, with drone strikes deliberately targeting hospitals and systematically dismantling civilian infrastructure. The RSF's eventual takeover was marked by methodical horror, with fighters conducting house-to-house raids, executing men, and committing acts of sexual violence in front of families.Perpetrators have brazenly documented these crimes, creating a chilling digital archive of torture and murder that reveals a calculated strategy of terror. General al-Burhan, who portrays himself as the leader of Sudan's legitimate government, is a career military officer with a controversial history, including involvement in the Darfur conflict two decades ago.His war effort is financed through a network of crony capitalist enterprises, but his authority remains fragile, dependent on a coalition that includes a ruthless Islamist faction. These hardline allies, who bankroll his operations and provide effective troops, consistently block any move toward peace negotiations.The SAF has also committed grave war crimes, including obstructing vital UN aid to starve opposition-held areas—a tactic driven by both strategy and local commanders' vengefulness. Al-Burhan's ultimate objective appears to be a restoration of the pre-war regime, the very system against which the Sudanese people had previously revolted.Hemedti represents a different and more ruthless political force. A veteran of the notorious Janjaweed militias implicated in the Darfur genocide, he has built a vast commercial empire based on gold mines and other ventures.He does not seek to rebuild the Sudanese state but to run the country as a personal fiefdom, with the RSF as his private army. His claims to champion democracy and the marginalized are starkly contradicted by the conduct of his forces, who have looted, raped, and pillaged their way across Sudan in a campaign experts describe as genocidal.The international response has been largely paralyzed. The conflict is the product of a vicious cycle decades in the making, a direct result of generations of trauma from famine, environmental collapse, and endless conflict.The two generals fueling this war are not anomalies; they are the logical, terrifying endpoint of a system that has commodified violence and rewarded its most brutal architects. Without a fundamental break from this cycle, Sudan's future promises only more generations shaped by war, ensuring the nation's suffering continues indefinitely.

#Sudan

#civil war

#Rapid Support Forces

#Sudanese military

#human rights

#featured

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