The Pew Research Center poll published yesterday looks at US confidence in major world leaders and found that “sizable shares of the US public have not heard of several world leaders.” (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)īad news for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who prides himself on being an influential international statesman: A growing number of Americans have never heard of him, including many young Republicans. By sending mercenaries to Yemen on behalf of Abu Dhabi and by benefitting from the financial windfall of gold smuggling to Dubai, the Darfurian warlord has become "the Frankenstein of Khartoum," according to independent researcher Sarra Majdoub.In this March 25, 2019, photo, then-US president Donald Trump (left) smiles at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after signing a proclamation recognizing the Golan Heights as part of Israel, in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House in Washington. Without the UAE's generosity, Hemedti, who, unlike his opponent, does not come from the military, would not have acquired the firepower that he has today. It nourished the ambitions of Hemedti, and encouraged his rise in the face of Islamist forces, but without cutting ties with his rival.
While Saudi Arabia has always been rather supportive of General al-Burhan, the UAE has played an ambivalent role. The two Gulf monarchies also invested tens of billions of dollars into thousands of hectares of fertile land, allowing them to import entire shipments of agricultural products or livestock via the Red Sea. From the outset, the Emiratis and Saudis promised $3 billion (€2.7 billion) to support Khartoum's new military rulers. In 2019, following several months of a popular uprising, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi saw the overthrowing of al-Bashir's regime as an opportunity to regain a foothold in Sudan at the expense of regional rivals Qatar and Turkey, which are inclined to support regimes with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. The calls for de-escalation by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia ring particularly untrue to the ears of the Sudanese people, many of whom see these three countries as part of the problem, not part of the solution. But this attitude hardly masks the dangerous game they played after the fall of Omar al-Bashir, in 2019, by supporting the two militaries, to the detriment of the population's democratic aspirations. Now, regional powers are making offers to mediate. Civilian casualties are increasing daily, with more 500 dead and several thousand wounded, according to the Sudanese Ministry of Health. Since April 15, all attempts to stop the clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by General Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, known as "Hemedti," have failed. Tens of thousands of civilians are trying to flee the fighting by way of the Red Sea in the east, Ethiopia in the south, Egypt in the north or across the western border into Chad. A wind of anxiety, mixed with growing unease, is now blowing through its neighbors, against the background of a mass exodus.
The shockwaves of the war in Sudan have already spread beyond the country's borders. Subscribers only A ship carrying 1,687 civilians who fled violence in Sudan arrives at the Jeddah Naval Base, April 26, 2023, in Saudi Arabia. Sudan: Neighbors' risky geopolitical game fed conflictĮgypt and the Gulf countries, which are now calling for de-escalation, nourished the ambitions of the two warring generals, Al-Burhan and Hemedti.īy Eliott Brachet (with Le Monde's correspondents) Published on April 28, 2023, at 4:30 am (Paris)
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