Sudan’s Silent Genocide: A War for Gold, Power, and Ethnic Erasure

This blog is based on publicly available information, I do not claim to be an expert on the subject. Some parts maybe AI generated.

While the world remains fixated on a handful of conflicts, a full-blown genocide is raging in the shadows. Sudan, a nation at the crossroads of the Arab world and Sub-Saharan Africa, is not just in a “civil war.” It is the site of the world’s largest displacement crisis, a catastrophic famine, and a campaign of ethnic cleansing, all fueled by a simple, brutal motive: power and gold.

The international community is not just failing to act; it is failing to even watch. This is a breakdown of our shared humanity, and it’s happening right now.

Here are other wars that the world is ignoring.

The Context: How Did We Get Here?

This is not a new war; it’s the horrific next chapter of an old one. To understand what’s happening, you need to know two names:

1. General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan: Head of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), the official state military.
2. General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti): Leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a powerful paramilitary group.

These two men were once allies. They worked together to overthrow the dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019 and again in a 2021 military coup that derailed the country’s fragile transition to democracy.

The alliance was a marriage of convenience. Burhan had the state’s official (but weak) military. Hemedti, however, had the real power. His RSF is the rebranded, formalized version of the infamous Janjaweed militias—the same group that carried out the Darfur genocide in the 2000s.

The Trigger (April 2023): The “partnership” collapsed. The two generals were supposed to integrate the RSF into the regular army. This was a direct threat to Hemedti’s power. Why? Because Hemedti doesn’t just command troops; he controls Sudan’s gold mines.

Gold is the RSF’s shadow economy. It’s how Hemedti funds his private army, buys weapons, and secures the backing of foreign powers like the UAE. Giving up his forces meant giving up his gold and, therefore, his empire. He refused. In April 2023, the power struggle exploded into open war, with the first shots fired in the capital, Khartoum.

What is Happening Right Now (November 2025)

The situation has deteriorated into a genocidal hellscape, particularly in the Darfur region.

• The Fall of El Fasher: After an 18-month siege, the RSF recently captured El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur and the last SAF stronghold in the region. The reports are apocalyptic. The RSF (the new Janjaweed) is engaging in systematic, ethnically-targeted killings of non-Arab groups, particularly the Masalit, Fur, and Zaghawa people.
• Mass Atrocities: We are seeing house-to-house searches, summary executions, mass sexual violence, and the targeted destruction of hospitals. The Saudi Maternity Hospital, one of the last functioning health facilities, was attacked, with reports of nearly 500 people killed.
• The World’s Worst Stats: This is not hyperbole. This is the reality:
  • Deaths: Conservative estimates claim over 150,000 people have been killed since the war began. Some estimates go as high as 400,000.
  • Displacement: This is the world’s largest displacement crisis. Over 9.6 million people are internally displaced. Millions more have fled to Chad and South Sudan.
  • Famine: Famine has been officially declared in parts of the country. Over 24 million people face acute food insecurity. Both sides use starvation as a weapon of war, blocking aid and looting convoys.

This is a war for power between two generals, funded by gold, and executed through the systematic extermination of entire ethnic groups.

The Future: Is Peace Even Possible?

No. Not right now.

All mediation efforts have failed because they are fundamentally flawed. The so-called “Jeddah talks,” led by the US and Saudi Arabia, have produced nothing but broken promises. A “Quad” (US, UAE, Saudi, Egypt) roadmap for peace was announced in September but was immediately ignored by the warring parties.

The problem is twofold:

1. No Military Solution: Neither side is strong enough to win, but both are too strong to lose. The SAF controls the east and Port Sudan, while the RSF controls the west (Darfur) and its gold mines.
2. External Interference: This is a proxy war. The RSF is heavily armed and funded by the UAE, which receives a steady flow of Sudanese gold. The SAF, meanwhile, receives support from Egypt and others.

As long as weapons and money flow in from external backers, there is no incentive for peace. The most likely scenario is not a unified Sudan, but a de facto partition of the country, with the RSF controlling a resource-rich “Janjaweed state” in Darfur, leaving the rest of the country to collapse.

What Can a Country Like Pakistan Do?

It’s easy to feel hopeless, but silence is complicity. Pakistan, as a prominent voice in the Muslim world and a major UN contributor, has a moral and diplomatic role to play.

• Lead at the OIC: Pakistan must use its influence at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to shatter the silence. This is not just a “civil war”; it’s the mass murder of a Muslim population. Pakistan can draft and champion a resolution to condemn the atrocities, specifically the ethnic cleansing by the RSF, and put unified pressure on member states (like the UAE) who are fueling the conflict.
• Champion Accountability at the UN: Pakistan has a long, proud history of contributing to UN Peacekeeping missions. It can use this diplomatic capital to:
  1. Vote for a stronger arms embargo and sanctions, and, crucially, demand an accountability mechanism to enforce them.
  2. Demand safe humanitarian corridors.
  3. Support the International Criminal Court (ICC) in its investigation of war crimes in Darfur.
• Bilateral Diplomacy: Use diplomatic channels to pressure the backers of this war. A unified stance from a bloc of Muslim-majority nations (led by countries like Pakistan, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia) is one of the few things that could force the UAE and others to stop arming the RSF.

This is a test for the world’s conscience. We cannot claim to stand for the oppressed in one part of the world while ignoring a full-scale genocide in another. The people of Sudan are screaming for help. It is time we listened.