On November 29, Sudanese Ambassador to Moscow Mohammed Elghazali, who represents the interests of the Sudanese Armed Forces, expressed gratitude to Russia for vetoing the United Nations Security Council resolution. His government complained it had not been properly consulted in the drafting of the text and that its authority was being undermined.
Sudan plunged into conflict in April 2023 after the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, under Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, clashed for control over the nation.
Earlier in 2019, the two militaries had collaborated in a coup that overthrew Sudan’s longest-serving dictator, Omar al-Bashir.
The fighting between the SAF and RSF has largely prevented the flow of humanitarian aid into and across Sudan.
Compliance with the U.N. resolution by the warring parties would have facilitated much-needed aid to 25.6 million people in Sudan, who, according to the U.N., are in dire need of humanitarian assistance.
But Elghazali told state news agency Sputnik that Sudanese people would benefit from Russia’s veto:
“It is considered that Russian veto means a very appreciated support for Sudan and a very strong and a very supportive stance for the Sudanese government and a people at a time when a number of countries and organizations are vying against Sudan to blatantly interfere in its internal affairs.”
That is false.
Human rights groups, international institutions and experts argue that the Russian veto dashed hopes for peace and stability in Sudan, prolonging war and suffering, resulting in more deaths, displacement of children and the elderly, rampaging sexual violence and starvation.
The director general of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Amy Pope, has warned, “The situation in Sudan is catastrophic."
With more than 11 million people displaced and upward of 66,000 killed in a civil war that has lasted 18 months, Pope said, “Hunger, disease and sexual violence are rampant. For the people of Sudan, this is a living nightmare."
On November 26, the U.S. deputy representative to the U.N., Ambassador Dorothy Shea, said, "Russia’s veto prevented the Security Council from calling for a comprehensive, nationwide ceasefire, for increased protection of civilians, and for unhindered flow of humanitarian aid into and across Sudan."
On October 27, the U.N. fact-finding mission accused one of the warring parties, the Rapid Support Forces, of committing “sexual violence on a large scale in areas under their control, including gang rapes and abducting and detaining victims in conditions that amount to sexual slavery.”
Russia has been fueling the Sudan war by playing both sides of the conflict to profit and strategically align itself with whoever wins the war, said Joseph Siegle, director of research at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, in an interview with VOA Fact Check. The center is an academic institution within the U.S. Defense Department.
“Moscow has been supplying the Sudanese Armed Forces weapons while continuing to help supply the SAF’s enemy, the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary, through the Wagner Group,” Siegle said, referring to Russian troops now rebranded as Africa Corps.
"By vetoing the U.N. Security Council resolution, Russia enhances its importance to General Burhan and his Sudan Armed Forces. Therefore, Russia’s actions are political posturing in support of SAF, at the expense of humanitarian assistance for Sudanese civilians,” Siegle said.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov claimed on April 28 that Russia was supporting the army because of its control over the Sovereignty Council of Sudan, which it claimed represents the Sudanese people. Experts, though, say it’s Moscow’s way of maintaining contact with the RSF to exact advantages.
Russia has long profited from Sudan’s vast gold resources and has been shipping diesel to Sudan in violation of the European Union and U.S. ban on imports of Russian oil products amid Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Sudan is one of the world’s largest gold exporters, and Russia has been illegally smuggling $13 billion worth gold out of Sudan annually, CNN reported in July 2022.
Experts say the figure could be even higher, as the process lacks transparency and documentation.
"This has primarily been done in collaboration with the Rapid Support Forces, with the gold passing through CAR or going directly to the UAE [which is seen as a gold trafficking hub]. Russia also has been controlling gold mining operations in regions under SAF,” Siegle told VOA.
Moscow’s support for Burhan at the U.N. Security Council comes with another cost — the building of a Russian naval base in Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast.
The deal, signed by the previous government in 2020, would allow Russia to house 300 Russian military personnel and up to four navy ships, including nuclear-powered ones, for 25 years. In exchange, the Sudanese army would receive weapons and military equipment free of charge.
