After 18 months of siege, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured the city of El-Fashir in Darfur, constructing a 56-kilometre barrier to prevent the looting of food and medicine whilst sealing off escape routes. What has followed has been an unprecedented bloodbath as the Sudanese government reported at least 2,000 people killed in hospitals, homes, schools, and mosques, with the WHO reporting that more than 460 people were killed at the Saudi Maternity Hospital alone.
After 18 months of siege, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) captured the city of El-Fashir in Darfur, constructing a 56-kilometre barrier to prevent the looting of food and medicine whilst sealing off escape routes. What has followed has been an unprecedented bloodbath as the Sudanese government reported at least 2,000 people killed in hospitals, homes, schools, and mosques, with the WHO reporting that more than 460 people were killed at the Saudi Maternity Hospital alone. RSF terrorists have posted videos of torture, mass murder, sexual violence against women and girls, with some videos showing people forced to bury themselves alive. The Yale Humanitarian Research Lab’s satellite images taken over El-Fashir have provided further evidence of the ongoing RSF atrocities, exposing blood stains from field executions that are visible from space.
Since April 2023, the war between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) has created a humanitarian catastrophe, which has left over 150,000 dead and over 14 million people displaced internally and to neighbouring countries. A further 30 million require assistance as they face the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. While the SAF has liberated the capital city of Khartoum, the RSF maintains control of Darfur in Western Sudan, where they ethnically cleanse non-Arab Darfurians.
The UAE’s Involvement and UCD in the UAE
The Sudan crisis has been portrayed as another African civil war—but the geopolitical reality suggests that Sudan is instead a laboratory for the UAE’s sub-imperialism. The Gulf nation provides funding, arms, logistical and diplomatic support for the RSF through Puntland in Somalia, Chad, Rwanda, and Libya, whilst hosting RSF leader and convicted war criminal Hemedti in Abu Dhabi. In return, the RSF extracts large amounts of gold from Darfur’s numerous mines, which are sold in the UAE’s gold souks, or markets. Despite having zero gold mines in its territory, gold comprises 30% of the UAE’s non-oil exports.
UCD Global’s Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan Centre—located in Dubai since 2018—has served as a regional hub for student recruitment and has helped establish partnerships with the UAE’s academia, industries, and the ruling regime. The centre in Dubai’s Knowledge Park is one of UCD’s most active regional hubs. UCD’s decision to operate from the UAE is deeply concerning, given the regime’s oppressive treatment of migrant workers and genocidal war on neighbouring Yemen, even before 2018. Even though the UAE has undoubtedly played a significant role in the current horrors taking place in Sudan, UCD maintains a partnership with the nation, legitimising the Emirates as a key regional partner.
Discussions with the Sudanese community of UCD
The global community is rightly enraged by the Zionist genocide in Palestine, while the EU issued its 19th sanctions package against Russia. However, the people and governments of the world remain relatively silent regarding Sudan.
3rd-year PhD student Kabashi—who came to Ireland two months after the war began—points to the stigma of yet another African nation embroiled in a “civil war”, news outlets showing no interest in coverage, and a lack of popular Sudanese journalists on social media as the main reasons for international inaction. Amr, a 2nd-year Engineering student and member of the Sudanese diaspora, expressed disappointment with the international community’s ignorance, pointing to racial differences between Ukrainians, Palestinians and Sudanese. An anonymous Sudanese Law student proclaims that empathy should not be selective and that Sudan deserves the world’s attention.
The four students shared the mental toll of witnessing their relatives being displaced or stuck in unlivable conditions due to the indiscriminate destruction. An anonymous master’s student originally from Darfur shares that her relatives in Al Fashir face “incomprehensible terror from the RSF." She notes that while she is physically safe in Dublin, her heart remains in Sudan with her family. Kabashi shared that his country is “unrecognisable” with his family fragmented over four countries, unable to reunite as Khartoum is still attacked by the RSF.
The students specifically noted how labelling the Sudan crisis as a “civil war” acted to obscure the reality of the UAE’s neo-colonialist practices in Sudan. The Darfurian master’s student says that the UAE’s well-documented aggression is better defined as a “proxy war” waged with many paid-to-hire foreign militants. Amr brings up the accusation of genocide by the Sudanese government against the UAE at the International Court of Justice, explaining that, “In no way can UCD justify its decision to maintain relations with such a country, let alone provide it the privilege of housing UCD's MENA base.” He urges UCD management to protect UCD’s core values and stand for “justice and inclusivity for all.” Kabashi encourages students to pressure UCD to stop whitewashing the UAE’s crimes and for the student body to support Sudanese students.
When asked what their message was for students unaware of the Sudan crisis, all four reiterated the need for attention, encouraging students to not just learn about Sudan but to humanise the Sudanese people. Amr asks, “How would you feel if it were your family, your home? How would you feel if you were being ignored?”
Kabashi says that many Sudanese students need support from their peers and prompts student activists to include Sudan in their activism. They stressed the importance of donating to aid organisations, as Sudanese people are forced to rely on humanitarian aid with the collapse of the Sudanese government.
Looking to the future of their nation, Kabashi shared that although he aims to utilise his education at UCD by going back and helping rebuild Sudan. Amr considers the future bleak, but maintains hope. “Regardless of how weak it may be”, he says, Sudan is “determined to rebuild” despite the “villainy of the UAE-backed RSF.” As Sudanese students hope for peace and dignity, they urge the platforming of Sudanese voices to highlight their plight and to celebrate Sudanese culture. The Darfurian masters student calls for the withdrawal of foreign actors and emphasises the need for honest leaders in Sudan as she ends with, “the future of a nation depends on the world finally choosing to see us.”