Gaza to Sudan: Israel’s role in a second genocidal war is being overlooked

On 26 October, the city of El Fasher in southern Sudan fell to the Rapid Support Force (RSF). The RSF reportedly began massacring civilians immediately after taking control. The death toll included nearly 500 patients at the local hospital. But in the press coverage that followed, some dimensions of the war in Sudan were suspiciously absent.

Many countries have a stake in Sudan. Its former colonial ruler, Britain, whose military equipment has appeared on the battlefield, is just one. UAE is centrally involved, arming the RSF and fuelling the war. But much less remarked upon is the role of Israel. It seems one genocide isn’t enough for the pariah state.

In a podcast interview on 12 June (at around 49 minutes in), Sudan expert Joshua Craze shed some light on this:

I remember being in a room last April with a very senior member of the US [Biden] administration in DC and he said to me, ‘Joshua, you have made a category error. You think Sudan is in Africa. Sudan is not in Africa, my friend. Sudan is in the Gulf.

When we go to see the Emirates, what number on our to-do list do you think Sudan is? It is not on our to-do list. What we have to do is keep the Emirates onside with Israel and onside against Iran.

‘Sudan is not in Africa’

Sudan normalised relations with Israel in 2020 under pressure from the first Trump administration. As Responsible Statecraft wrote in 2024:

…as part of a deal in which the Trump Administration removed Sudan’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, Sudan agreed to join the Abraham Accords. General Abdel Fattah al Burhan, head of Sudan’s sovereignty council and de facto head of state, met with Netanyahu in Kampala, Uganda.

The Kampala deal was brokered by UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed. It resulted in Sudan freezing Hamas assets. There had also been talks about relocating Hamas leaders to Sudan as part of a peace deal. This form of exile was flatly rejected by Hamas.

Burhan’s deputy, against whom he is now fighting a war, also has ties to Israel:

General Mohamed Hamdan Dagolo, known as “Hemedti” also had close ties with Israel. He developed close relations with the UAE, renting out his Rapid Support Force (RSF) units to fight as mercenaries in Yemen, whereby he also established strong links with Israel’s Mossad.

When war broke out in Sudan in 2023, Israel already had connections with both men and their forces:

The [Israeli] Foreign Ministry leaned towards al-Burhan and the SAF, Mossad towards the RSF.

In this sense, Israel has a stake in — and influence over — both sides in the civil war which has killed tens of thousands and displaced 12-14 million people.

And this is part of a broader Israeli strategy in regards to Africa and the Middle East.

Sudan: Israel’s regional influence

Israel also seeks to increase its scope for economic activity in the region and build intelligence links which it can wield against exiled Palestinian militant groups in North Africa.

Writing for the Middle East Eye in May 2023, Shady Ibrahim from Centre for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA) said:

Israel has a strategic interest in normalising relations with Sudan, as the Sudanese Red Sea coast is essential from a security and economic perspective.

Sudan represents the heart of Africa, with deep extensions into the African continent thanks to its location, large geographical area and expansive borders.

He said backing particular groups in the region was a way of counter-balancing the hostility that many countries around Israel feel towards it. This was in line with what is know as the “periphery doctrine”. Backing RSF is an example of this strategy being applied.

And Israel also hopes that normalising relations would help curb the smuggling of arms into Gaza from Sudan. Previously, Israel has conducted air strikes against smugglers.

RSF are anti-Islamist

RSF have cut a bloody swathe across southern Sudan which echoes the march of ISIS across Iraq and in the mid-2010s. As Joshua Craze explained in April 2025:

Hemedti’s war machine is predicated on continual expansion. Since the RSF offers its recruits licence to loot and raid in lieu of wages, absent fresh targets, its forces have a tendency to disperse. In every city it captures, the RSF has employed the same playbook: destroy state institutions, plunder humanitarian resources, raze civilian property.

Perhaps it is this which has led far-right commentators like Tommy Robinson to brand them as ‘Islamist’. However, this is not correct. The truth is much more complicated.

Shady Ibrahim explained, while Islamists have foothold in the Sudanese army “the RSF aligns most closely with Israel’s strategic interests and national goals”.

It has vowed to combat “radical Islamists” and recently removed the word “al-Quds” (Arabic for “Jerusalem”) from its logo.

Not for the first-time, the western far-right is conflating ‘Muslim’ with ‘Islamist’. Robinson, of course, is currently in Israel.

Colonial nexus

Sudan sits at the meeting point of colonial interests. And the people of Sudan’s wellbeing is clearly less important than these power games. At least to the people playing them. It may not be widely understood that Israel is a  key player in the country, but the “little Ulster in the desert” — as the British called their Zionist settler-state — is exactly that.

Neither RSF nor the SAF are squeaky clean institutions. But it is hard to see how the war could have been prosecuted with the ferocity we’ve seen without the active involvement of the UAE and Israel. The charge levelled against RSF is genocide. And as bombing continues in Gaza, it seems like genocide is something Israel just can’t get enough of.

Featured image via the Canary