The EU and US are tightening the screws on Sudan’s warring parties, but the countries enabling the slaughter remain untouched.
On July 13, the European Union banned the purchase, import, and transfer of gold from Sudan. Gold accounts for nearly 60 percent of Sudan’s total export value, and both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) rely on gold revenues to fund their war. The EU also banned exports of mercury and cyanide, chemicals used in gold mining that have fueled a toxic, war-funded extraction boom.
The sanctions follow US action in June, when the Trump administration expanded measures targeting individuals and companies helping both sides procure weapons and recruit mercenaries.
But the sanctions come late, and they come against a backdrop of horrors that the world has largely ignored.
The numbers are staggering: more than 150,000 people killed, 14 million displaced since the war between the SAF and the RSF erupted in April 2023. The latest United Nations report, published July 8, found that “at least three of the material crimes of genocide are overwhelmingly present” in the actions of the RSF in El Fasher, the North Darfur city the RSF captured in October after an 18-month siege. An earlier UN report documented evidence of sexual violence, forced disappearances, and mass killings of non-Arab communities.
Now the RSF has encircled El Obeid in North Kordofan, a city of more than 500,000 people. The city faces severe shortages of food, water, and medicine, and has come under drone strikes. El Obeid sits on a vital supply corridor and controls an oil pipeline and the heart of Sudan’s gum arabic market, a key ingredient in soft drinks worldwide.
The atrocities are not limited to one side. UN investigators have accused the SAF of killing communities suspected of RSF sympathizing. Viral videos show SAF soldiers beating and killing civilians accused of collaboration. “At a moment when serious concerns are being raised about the risks facing civilians in El Obeid,” said UN expert Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, “the findings from El Fasher underscore the need for urgent protection measures before more lives are lost.”
Both sides continue to project legitimacy through diplomacy. RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemeti, has toured Africa meeting heads of state and signed a charter in Kenya to form a parallel government. SAF leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s court sentenced Hemeti and 15 others to death in absentia, a largely symbolic act the RSF dismissed. Neither gesture changes the reality on the ground.
The gap in the sanctions regime is glaring: the foreign countries enabling the war remain untouched. The United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt all have interests in Sudan and have all been accused of arming or backing the warring parties. The US has sanctioned Emirati companies and networks that channel weapons to the RSF, but has stopped short of sanctioning the Emirati state, which continues to deny arming the RSF despite ample evidence.
“That has shown how effective the UAE has become at leveraging its economic and trade relationships to fully insulate itself from any human rights criticism from its allies,” said Joey Shea of Human Rights Watch.
The pattern is familiar. The world imposes sanctions on the combatants but protects the suppliers. Weapons continue to flow. Gold continues to be traded. The war continues to burn. And the people of Sudan, 150,000 dead, 14 million displaced, and counting, continue to pay the price for a conflict the international community has the tools to stop but not the will.
The EU gold ban is a start. Until the enablers are also sanctioned, it is just a gesture.