- [Narrator] Sudan is moving towards a civil war
as violence rises in the capitol.
Two rival generals and their armies
are fighting for control in the city of Khartoum,
and the battle is spreading across the country.
- $3 billion in aid is needed
to help Sudan's refugee crisis.
Around a million people have been displaced
after intense fighting broke out a month ago.
- [Narrator] So let me get you up to speed
on what's happening here,
and show you how Sudan's location here near the Suez Canal
in the Horn of Africa makes it geopolitically important,
which is one reason why faraway countries
are watching this conflict and preparing to get involved,
to secure their interests, and to influence the next chapter
of this country's history.
- Fighting broke out in Sudan in mid-April.
We've seen it on the streets and in the sky.
- Daring evacuation of the American Embassy in Sudan.
More than 400 people have died close to 4,000 wounded.
- And a watching world is asking,
"What's happening in Sudan?"
- Before we dive into this story,
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Okay, let's get back to the video.
I'm excited to share with you this story.
Sudan has been in conflict since its founding
with the first civil war starting a year
before they gained independence from the British.
- [Reporter] The country's independence
had just been officially recognized by Britain and Egypt.
- [Narrator] The fighting has often been between the north
and the south, fighting over control, over representation.
And because Sudan has oil and gold,
these conflicts have always attracted outsiders looking
to support the side that would serve their interests.
The conflict today has a lot to do
with the actions of one man, Omar Al-Bashir.
A Sudanese Army colonel who took over the government
in a bloodless coup in the late 80's.
During the country's second civil war,
he quickly dissolved the Sudanese parliament,
he banned political parties., he introduced Islamic law,
and became a military dictator.
And in order to secure his power and fend off opposition,
he assembled a group of militias
here in the west of the country
to make his own personal military force.
This military force was led
by a commander nicknamed Hemedti.
So by the early 2000's,
Sudan's dictator commands two armies,
the Sudanese Armed Forces, but also this special unit
of loyal fighters that he assembled from these militias.
He uses this force to stamp out whoever he needs to
in order to stay in power,
especially over here in the Darfur region
where non-Arab groups felt neglected by the government
and wanted to break away.
But Al-Bashir uses his special military force
to massacre these rebels,
leading to the mass murder of hundreds of thousands,
and displacing millions of people in the process.
Al-Bashir eventually rebranded his personal army
to be called the Rapid Support Forces,
and it wasn't just an army.
A trove of leaked bank and corporate document show
that this army is also a lucrative business empire
that captures goldmines, runs smuggling operations,
patrols the borders, and provides its fighters for hire
in regional conflict,
and facilitates a profitable gold trade with foreign powers
like Russia and the United Arab Emirates.
One document details the delivery of $30 million worth
of gold bars from Sudan to Dubai
from the company owned by Hemedti,
the leader of this army.
And this is a key part of this story
because in addition to helping Al-Bashir,
the dictator, stay in power,
the RSF also made this warlord, Hemedti, super rich
because he was able to use his tens of thousands of soldiers
to control both the gold market and the borders of Sudan.
Okay, so it's 2005.
The conflict in Darfur is just getting started,
but the civil war that has been raging for decades
between the north and the south comes to an end.
By 2011, its result is a formal division.
South Sudan finally breaks away
and becomes the world's newest country.
- [Reporter] A nation is born.
A symbol of sovereignty and identity flies
for the first time.
- [Narrator] But with them they take 75%
of the oil reserves, a major blow to Sudan's economy.
So inflation runs wild, food prices rise,
and Al-Bashir doesn't have enough money
to continue his system of bribes and tributes
to political elites in the military.
The quality of life in Sudan plummets,
and by 2019 they had had enough.
All over the country, the people take to the streets
and protest their dictator demanding democracy.
The Sudanese Army and the RSF,
these two separate military organizations,
both see what's coming.
They team up and overthrow Al-Bashir sending him to prison
and taking over the government.
It was the end of 2019 and Omar Al-Bashir's 30 years
of dictatorship drew to a close.
And now, the Sudanese Army leader,
General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, was in charge,
closely followed by the RSF warlord billionaire, Hemedti.
They're cooperating in this transition
and they promise the protestors
that they will eventually hand the country over
to a civilian leader who will bring in a democracy.
But the military leaders keep going back on their promise.
They keep ruling the country for years,
and they continuously abuse and massacre the protestors.
This all comes to a head in December 2022
when Al-Burhan agrees to indeed give control
of the government back to the civilians,
but he has one big condition.
He wants the RSF to no longer be an independent military.
He wants it to be folded into the official Sudanese Army,
so that he would control it, not Hemedti,
and this is where a conflict starts to brew.
Hemedti, this warlord who has made hundreds
of millions of dollars thanks to his command over this army
doesn't like this idea.
He's not gonna let his lucrative business military empire
get swallowed by the government,
so he decides that he only has one choice
to overthrow the government and lead the country himself.
(speaking in foreign language)
On April 15th, 2023, Hemedti sends 2,000 of his men
to Al-Burhan's personal residence,
which is a military compound.
It leads to a shootout where 35 guards are killed.
Al-Burhan narrowly escapes, but the conflict spreads
throughout the capitol of Khartoum
and the country as a whole.
These two forces that the previous dictator used
for different purposes now fighting
over who will rule the country.
Tanks roll through the city
and airstrikes boom in residential neighborhoods.
Embassies empty as foreign countries
evacuate their citizens.
But for many Sudanese civilians,
a quick escape isn't an option.
There are no helicopter rescues,
no international convoys coming for them.
So they pack up and leave their homes fleeing the conflict
and heading to neighboring countries, Egypt, Chad,
or South Sudan.
And soon this conflict that looks
like it's just between these military generals struggling
for control is actually turning into a war
that the rest of the world has an eye on.
Sudan is a geo strategically important country.
It sits a stride the Nile, which is the lifeline to Egypt.
It's home to these ports near the vital choke points
of our global economy, the Suez Canal in the Horn of Africa,
where 10% of world trade passes through
including huge amounts of oil.
Powerful countries around the globe
are always trying to put military bases here.
They want to control bases and ports simply
because of its vital importance for global trade.
Sudan is also loaded with resources, gold, zinc,
silver, chromite, and iron.
This is stuff that foreign countries want and need.
So powerful countries are watching
this military commander showdown
and evaluating who they should support,
who will best secure their interests in the future.
- [Reporter] Gunfire in Sudan's capital, Khartoum,
fractured Friday start.
- [Narrator] The United Arab Emirates
is a huge player in all of this.
They buy and refine the majority of Sudan's gold,
and a lot of it comes from Hemedti
and his military business empire.
The UAE has also paid Hemedti to use some of his soldiers
to fight on their side in Yemen.
So there's this mutually beneficial alignment
and relationship between these two.
But the Sudanese Armed Forces also have fought in Yemen
in recent years, and the UAE has made deals
with the military government to secure ports
and access to minerals.
So the UAE is now in a situation
where they've bolstered both sides of this now conflict.
And then there's Libya, where this warlord Khalifa Haftar
has strong connections to Hemedti.
Hemedti has also loaned out some of his fighters
to go to Libya to fight on Haftar's side.
So now Haftar is returning the favor,
supporting his warlord ally by sending fuel shipments
to the RSF.
Haftar is really important in all of this
because if other countries like the UAE do decide
to send money or weapons to Hemedti,
they can use Haftar and his network as the middleman.
In fact, this is already happening.
Haftar is already working as a middleman
to transfer supplies and weapons to the RSF
on behalf of Russia.
Yes, Russia is already here
in the form of the private military called the Wagner Group.
They've been in Sudan for years,
supplying training for the RSF in exchange for getting in
on the lucrative gold trade in Sudan.
And while Russia has also worked with the Sudanese Army
in the past, a recent CNN investigation shows that Russia
is sending significant support for the RSF implying
that they've chosen aside in this conflict,
but there doesn't seem to be any real loyalty here.
Russia will likely shift to favor any leader
who will likely win in this,
who will support Russian interests
and in facilitating their goal to eventually build
a naval base here in the Red Sea.
And then you've got the neighbor to the North Egypt
who has to walk a fine line
in how they support this conflict.
Egypt more naturally aligns with the government
and the military of Sudan,
but they can't publicly be against the RSF.
They can't choose a side quite yet.
That's because the Egyptian economy is in trouble.
Their currency has lost over half its value
and they've been asking for help from the UAE
who has sent them a hundred billion dollars in cash
and other aids since 2013.
It would be unwise for Egypt to be on the opposite side
of the UAE on this.
Their economy depends on them,
so they're maintaining a mostly neutral stance for now.
Ethiopia and Eritrea are both for now neutral.
Though Ethiopia has invited general Al-Burhan
to visit in recent months,
and Eritrea invited his enemy, Hemedti, for a visit as well,
signaling that they may land on opposite sides
in the future of this conflict.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and the United States
are offering to act as mediators
hoping for a peaceful resolution.
And some are looking to China
who recently negotiated a deal with Saudi Arabia and Iran.
China might use this as another moment
to flex its new diplomatic muscles
and broker of peace in Sudan.
This conflict between two generals is more than it appears.
It has the potential to spiral into a full on proxy war
both by regional partners who bear the brunt
of this conflict, but also foreign powers
who care much more about securing their own interests
than the devastating human effects
of the conflict they are fueling.
And worse, in Sudan, we see a conflict
where the main players, these two generals,
are both incentivized to keep playing the same game
that the once dictator, Omar Al-Bashir, designed
where a broken system delivers power and riches
to a few at the top incentivizing them
to keep this system divided and broken
just as Al-Bashir designed it.
And in the process, killing the momentum
of the budding democracy movement in Sudan.
This protest movement
that successfully took out the dictator,
and this movement that was good for the people
has once again been snatched away by a greedy few,
and there seems to be no end in sight.
(upbeat music)