Law, Power, and Justice

With a cavalier disregard for Africa and its people, Russia is backing both sides in Sudan’s civil war while looting the country’s resources.
— Read on cepa.org/article/sands-of-time-running-out-for-russias-sudanese-gambit/

In a remote corner of Sudan’s expansive deserts, a lone Soviet flag flutters above an antique locomotive. Gold prospectors travel from afar to exchange their modest finds for cash, provided by what they colloquially call “the Russian company.”

Owned by an investment firm aligned with Russia’s Wagner Group, Meroe Gold’s smuggling operation has become pivotal for Russia’s ability to preserve its financial liquidity amidst sanctions.

As Sudan plunges deeper into a devastating civil war, Russia finds itself navigating a precarious situation. With relations between the Wagner Group mercenaries and the Russian government — the presumed assassin of their leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin — already strained, the two now find themselves aligned with opposing factions. The issue reaches a crescendo just as Russia needs to balance its revenue streams, its geopolitical aspirations in the Arab world, and the cohesion between its official and semi-official arms.

The current tumult in Sudan traces back to the Darfur conflict, where Arab militias known as the Janjaweed wreaked havoc on the largely Nilotic native peoples, leading to what is widely considered a genocide. Subsequently absorbed into Khartoum’s intelligence infrastructure, these militias, now called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), played a pivotal role in the 2021 military coup that installed Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, leader of the military, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) as head of state. When the military recently attempted to incorporate the RSF into its fold, the group revolted.

Russia’s approach has been two-fold. The Kremlin seeks to build a Red Sea naval port and expand its influence in the Arab world through its diplomatic ties with the SAF. Concurrently, Wagner Group oversees a sprawling gold mining operation, and its smuggling routes run through RSF’s base of power. A CNN investigation reported that Radimir Kuznetsov, a potential successor to Wagner’s deceased leader and a convicted kidnapper who was later badly wounded in Ukraine, oversaw this gold smuggling via the Central African Republic.