Genocide Claims, Gold Trails, and a War That Won’t Quit
Giorgia Valente takes readers straight into Sudan’s grinding catastrophe, where a war now in its third year has emptied towns, uprooted millions, and produced the kind of evidence that Washington ultimately labeled “genocide” in January 2025. Her reporting centers on two experts who have warned, loudly and consistently, that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have turned Darfur into a killing ground. Former Sudanese official Amgad Fareid puts the stakes bluntly—“Genocide is being committed”—and traces the crisis back to April 15, 2023, when RSF leader Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo tried to seize power rather than accept integration into the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).
Valente then traces the RSF’s roots to the Janjaweed, with researcher Guido Lanfranchi explaining how Khartoum once used the group as a proxy force. That history fed early Western neutrality, but the scale of RSF atrocities has broken any illusion that both sides share equal blame. Where the story lands hardest is on supply lines: weapons routed through Libya and Chad, an alleged air bridge into Darfur, and gold shipments that point to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Abu Dhabi denies backing the RSF, yet UN panels and US lawmakers say evidence of financial and logistical support is piling up.
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Regional dynamics add more heat. Riyadh has tilted toward SAF. Egypt, Turkey, and Qatar are broadly aligned with the army. Meanwhile, the US-backed diplomatic framework has brought the UAE and Egypt into the same room but stopped short of pushing either to use real leverage. Aid convoys keep getting blocked. Cities fracture into zones of control.
As Valente shows, no path looks clean—and experts warn Sudan will remain broken as long as the RSF survives as a fighting force. For the full map of actors, money, and motives, read her complete report.
