{"id":306789,"date":"2025-11-10T12:01:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T12:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=306789"},"modified":"2025-11-05T06:40:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T06:40:29","slug":"sudan-is-burning-and-the-world-cannot-remain-silent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/11\/sudan-is-burning-and-the-world-cannot-remain-silent\/","title":{"rendered":"Sudan Is Burning \u2014 and the World Cannot Remain Silent"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Photo by Hilman Lutfi on Unsplash<\/p><\/div>\n

31 Oct 2025\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0There is a war happening right now.
\nNot in Gaza. Not in Ukraine.
\nBut right here \u2014 in the heart of Africa.
\nIn Sudan.<\/p>\n

A war so brutal, so invisible, that over 12 million people have fled their homes<\/strong>.
\nMore than 14 million<\/strong> face hunger and starvation \u2014 mothers walking for days with children on their backs, villages erased, hospitals bombed, and entire communities vanished into dust.<\/p>\n

Yet the cameras have turned away.
\nEven our own African newsrooms whisper, if at all.
\nBehind that silence hides an ancient story \u2014 a story of gold, oil, greed, and betrayal<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The Business of War<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do not be fooled \u2014 Sudan\u2019s war is not about ethnicity, or tribes, or religion.
\nIt is about ownership \u2014 who gets to own Africa<\/strong>.
\nWho controls her gold.
\nWho drains her oil.
\nWho claims her rivers and sells her soil.<\/p>\n

Sudan did not collapse overnight; it was dismantled piece by piece, by men and nations who learned that in Africa, power is taken with a gun and traded with a handshake.<\/p>\n

General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan commands the national army.
\nMohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti<\/em>, leads the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)<\/strong> \u2014 a militia fattened by gold money, foreign weapons, and Gulf ambition.<\/p>\n

Once allies, they toppled the dictator Omar al-Bashir.
\nBut they never dismantled the system that made him.
\nThey simply changed uniforms.<\/p>\n

Gold and Oil: The Twin Curses<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sudan holds some of the largest gold reserves in Africa<\/strong> \u2014 gold that is smuggled daily through secret airstrips, across deserts, into the vaults of Dubai<\/strong>.
\nInvestigations by Amnesty International<\/strong> and Global Witness<\/strong> have traced UAE-supplied weapons<\/strong> \u2014 Chinese-made, Emirati-delivered \u2014 into RSF hands.<\/p>\n

The same UAE that denies involvement is among Sudan\u2019s biggest gold importers.
\nThat gold, melted and refined in Dubai, is sold to the world as \u201cEmirati gold.\u201d
\nBut every bar carries Sudanese blood.<\/p>\n

And beneath the soil, another prize glitters \u2014 oil<\/strong>.
\nSudan and South Sudan together sit on vast petroleum reserves coveted by global investors. Pipelines snake through fragile lands where peace has always been an inconvenience.<\/p>\n

Every warlord, every general, every foreign investor knows this:
\nPeace in Sudan threatens profit.
\nConflict guarantees supply.<\/p>\n

The Mercenary Machine<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is not a civil war \u2014 it is a mercenary market<\/strong>.
\nThe RSF and their foreign patrons have turned Sudan into a battlefield for hire.<\/p>\n

Colombian ex-soldiers<\/strong>, Eastern European gunmen<\/strong>, and Ukrainian mercenaries<\/strong> \u2014 veterans of other people\u2019s wars \u2014 have been quietly recruited through private security networks operating out of Dubai and Eastern Europe.
\nThe same shadow circuits that once filled Libya and Yemen are now flowing into Darfur and Khartoum.<\/p>\n

They fight not for flags, but for paychecks.
\nTheir mission: protect the flow of gold, guard the oil wells, secure the land deals.<\/p>\n

And the more Sudan burns, the more profitable their contracts become.<\/p>\n

A New Colonial Corridor<\/strong><\/p>\n

From Somalia to Eritrea<\/strong>, Djibouti to Kenya<\/strong>, and now Sudan<\/strong>, the UAE and its allies are constructing a new colonial map<\/strong> \u2014 a corridor of ports, refineries, and private armies stretching along the Red Sea<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Each port leased.
\nEach farm fenced.
\nEach leader bought.<\/p>\n

And while African presidents sign deals in five-star hotels, farmers lose their land, children lose their schools, and soldiers lose their lives \u2014 not for sovereignty, but for someone else\u2019s supply chain.<\/p>\n

This is not aid.
\nThis is annexation by investment.<\/p>\n

The Price of Silence<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let us humanize this.
\nBehind every statistic is a name.
\nBehind every name is a home reduced to ashes.<\/p>\n

Twelve million displaced.<\/strong>
\nFourteen million starving.<\/strong>
\nMillions trapped between two armies and a thousand mercenaries.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Women violated in camps.
\nChildren dying of hunger while Sudan\u2019s gold fuels Dubai\u2019s skyscrapers.
\nThis is not a tragedy \u2014 it is a crime.
\nA crime committed in broad daylight, and in our silence.<\/p>\n

Where is the African Union?
\nWhere are the \u201cPan-Africanists\u201d who love the podium but fear the people?
\nWhere are the presidents who rush to shake hands with warlords, yet cannot utter a word for the victims of El-Fasher and Darfur?<\/p>\n

When gold is involved, they show up.
\nWhen people are dying, they vanish.<\/p>\n

Sudan Is the Mirror<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sudan is not an isolated story.
\nIt is the reflection of a continent betrayed.<\/p>\n

The same blueprint is drawn in Congo<\/strong>, Niger<\/strong>, Mali<\/strong>, and Mozambique<\/strong> \u2014
\nDestabilize. Divide. Extract.<\/p>\n

Where there is gold, they bring guns.
\nWhere there is oil, they bring \u201cpeacekeepers.\u201d
\nWhere there is fertile land, they bring \u201cinvestors.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the people resist, they are branded rebels.
\nWhen they flee, they are branded refugees.
\nAnd when they die, it is called a civil war \u2014 never what it truly is:
\neconomic control through conflict<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

Stand for Sudan. Stand for Africa.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If Sudan falls, Africa will feel the quake.
\nRefugees are already crossing into Chad, South Sudan, and Egypt.
\nWeapons are flooding the Sahel.
\nAnd foreign powers are sharpening their knives for the next target.<\/p>\n

This war is not just about Sudan \u2014 it is a warning.<\/p>\n

Africa cannot keep feeding the world while starving her people.
\nWe cannot keep exporting gold while importing hunger.
\nWe cannot keep hosting mercenaries while burying our children.<\/p>\n

So raise your voice.
\nArtists, write for Sudan.
\nJournalists, report Sudan.
\nCitizens, speak for Sudan.<\/p>\n

No more neutrality.
\nNo more silence.
\nBecause when history asks, Where were you when Sudan burned?<\/em>
\nWe must be able to answer:
\nWe stood with the people. We stood for Africa.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peace in Sudan is not a dream \u2014 it is a demand.
\nBut it will not come from foreign hands, nor from men who profit from chaos.
\nIt will come when Africa wakes up to its worth \u2014 when our gold, our oil, and our dignity are no longer traded for guns.<\/p>\n

Until then, the struggle continues.
\nAnd the call remains:<\/p>\n

Stand with Sudan. Stand for Africa.<\/strong><\/p>\n

____________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ra\u00efs Neza Boneza is the author of fiction as well as non-fiction, poetry books and articles. He was born in the Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (Former Za\u00efre). He is also an activist and peace practitioner. Ra\u00efs is a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Media Service<\/em><\/a> Editorial Committee and a convener of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/em><\/a> for Central and African Great Lakes. He uses his work to promote artistic expressions as a means to deal with conflicts and maintaining mental wellbeing, spiritual growth and healing. Ra\u00efs has travelled extensively in Africa and around the world as a lecturer, educator and consultant for various NGOs and institutions. His work is premised on art, healing, solidarity, peace, conflict transformation and human dignity issues and works also as freelance journalist. You can reach him at <\/em>rais.boneza@gmail.com<\/em><\/a> – <\/em>http:\/\/www.raisnezaboneza.no<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 substack.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A war so brutal, so invisible, that over 12 million people have fled their homes. More than 14 million face hunger and starvation \u2014 mothers walking for days with children on their backs, villages erased, hospitals bombed, and entire communities vanished into dust. Yet the cameras have turned away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":301237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[237,2479,100,865,171,2819,128],"class_list":["post-306789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transcend-members","tag-africa","tag-civil-war","tag-direct-violence","tag-genocide","tag-revolution","tag-south-sudan","tag-sudan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306789"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":306791,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306789\/revisions\/306791"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}