Raging inferno at Port Sudan on the 6th of May 2025, following Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) drone strike on a power station and fuel depots in the city controlled by Sudan’s Armed Forces (SAF).
Escalation after Conferences
Expecting Conferences and Testimonies to US Congress to resolve conflicts and alleviate humanitarian suffering in Africa will only lead to more death and destruction, as the case in Sudan is showing. Such expectations only allow Western governments to continue benefiting from Africans’ resources with the participation of local stooges. On 6th May 2025, RSF drones struck a key power station in Port Sudan, resulting in an apocalyptic explosion and widespread power outage as reported by the electricity provider. Heavy attacks had continued across the city, targeting fuel depots, a hotel close to the presidential palace, and the city’s international airport over the previous three days. The conflict in Sudan has been escalating despite the Sudan Conference in London held on April 15, 2025, calling into question the significance of foreign meetings held to address conflicts in Africa.
Additionally, on April 2nd, the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) through Michael Langley did not mention the security situation in Sudan as needing attention, but commented on the handling of Sahel’s resources, showing how this command is primarily interested in controlling resources and not security. No African country comments on how the US uses its gold, such that Mr. Langley’s talk shows Washington’s colonial attitude. This Washington-styled expert extraordinaire on Africa’s security was primarily concerned about gold, while testifying to the US Congress on how Burkinabe president Ibrahim Traoré was using his country’s gold to “protect his Junta”, but could not mention what happened to Sudan’s gold. It seems Sudan’s goal ends up in places that Washington prefers.
Diversionary Conferences and Increasing Violence
Since the current phase of the Sudanese civil war began in April 2023, many conferences have been held starting with Jeddah Talks from May to December 2023, the IGAD summit of December 2023, the Cairo Conferences of July 2023 and July 2024 and Geneva Talks of August 2024, all of which have achieved nothing. Therefore, the only hope of Africans’ attaining peace is launching indigenous and inclusive political processes within their borders, as opposed to allowing elites to convene in foreign capitals and cut deals. Noteworthy, the recent Sudan Conference in London did not even attempt to address how to resolve the conflict. Instead, participants including the UK, France, Germany, and the African Union discussed humanitarian assistance, which will never be audited, while letting the war take its course. According to conveners, over $1 billion was pledged, and no one knows if it will arrive as food and medicine to civilians, or arms to warring factions.
The leadership of the warring sides in Sudan’s civil (SAF and RSF) were created and maintained by Sudan’s Long-term president Omar Al-Bashir to protect his atrocious reign before he was toppled. Their leaders, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo respectively, were carefully cultivated by al-Bashir to keep him in power, including through crimes, lessons they seem to be implementing. Al-Bashir was accused of many human rights violations, conducted through SAF, and RSF’s predecessor’ Janjaweed Militia in the Darfur region from 2004, killing over 400,000 civilians. As a result, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against him. Despite the SAF-RSF split in April 2023, top-ranking functionaries on both sides continue committing human rights violations. Meanwhile, RSF’s Dagalo despite being sanctioned by the UN Security Council (UNSC) continues to export gold to the UAE and to hold one-sided political meetings facilitated by Kenya’s president William Ruto. Ruto has been accused of aiding Dagalo in smuggling Sudan’s gold to the UAE, which enables RSF to procure weapons it uses for committing war crimes.
2025 has been a particularly bloody for the Sudanese people, with both warring factions attacking civilians, showing the futility of international conferences and Mr. Langley’s testimony. In January, Sudan Shield Force, (SSF) a group allied with the SAF killed over 26 civilians including a child after it attacked the Tayba Village in Gezira state. In the same month, armed men allegedly affiliated with the SAF conducted summary execution of civilians they suspected of belonging to RSF in the villages of Al-Kanabi and Wad Madani. Additionally, the UN attributed an attack on displaced people’s camps in Al Jazeera that killed 21 civilians from the marginalized Kanabi group to SAF and allied militia. RSF has also been conducting attacks on civilians, including one on the capital of Darfur province, el-Fasher city, killing 30 people and injuring others in late April. The group proceeded to shell residences and markets, which has become its modus operandi in the current civil war that has continued for two years, claiming over 24000 lives. The group seems to have increased its attacks in May by bombing fuel depots and a power station at Port Sudan using armed drones, which will only continue since the latest conference is not even concerned about such destruction.
Gold, Europeans, and AFRICOM
Before the current Civil War, a Berlin Conference on Sudan was held in June 2020, which like the eponymous event of 1884 constituted the hallmark of Western countries deciding for people in Africa. This conference comprised The EU, UN, and Sudan and was supposed to help the country make a democratic transition after the ouster of Omar al-Bashir. The former two bodies ignored the reality that Sudan was governed by figureheads that al-Bashir had trained and empowered to commit war crimes for power. Al-Bashir’s student’s would start a civil war only three years afterwards, showing how the meeting had no significance. Meaningful results may have been achieved by holding the meeting in Sudan and engaging all parties. Surprisingly, the failure of this meeting and others did not stop the preparation of another one in London on April 15th, 2025, in a venue closer to global banks than to Sudan. The report released by the French foreign ministry about the conference emphasized how millions of dollars were raised for ‘humanitarian purpose’ showing underlying interest in keeping the war going, the reason for which may be Sudan’s gold.
The Media Channel, Democracy Now, revealed that RSF is smuggling gold to the UAE in return for weapons, revelations that are congruent with those from the Italian Institute for International Political Studies. Since the UAE is not a significant weapon manufacturer, it must be getting weapons from somewhere. An Amnesty International report from November 2014 identified French military equipment being deployed by the RSF, meaning the gold smuggled to the UAE is probably shipped to France, among other countries. Also, it is highly suspicious that Mr. Langley’s testimony decrying how Burkina Faso was using its gold did not complain about Sudan’s gold. Therefore, Sudan’s gold is probably ending up in The West, leaving the Europeans and Americans in no hurry to end the escalating conflict.
Simon Chege Ndiritu, is a political observer and research analyst from Africa
