Sudan’s Shadow War: The Geopolitics of Drone Strikes and Displacement
THE ACTORS: Who is involved in this story? The immediate actors are the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), accused of conducting the drone strike, and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), their adversaries in the conflict. The victims are displaced families, caught in the crossfire. However, the less visible, yet crucial, actors are the external patrons enabling the RSF's military capacity. These include
state and non-state entities that provide training, logistics, and, critically, advanced weaponry like drones. General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), leader of the RSF, and General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the SAF, are the public faces of this internal conflict, but they are proxies in a wider game. THE FUNDING: Where does their money come from? The RSF's financial network is complex,
rooted in its control over key Sudanese resources and external support. Hemedti's family controls significant gold mining operations, primarily through the Al-Junaid company, which has historically exported gold to countries like the UAE and Russia. Investigations by the UN Panel of Experts on Sudan (2023) have documented these flows, noting significant profits diverted from the state.
Furthermore, the RSF has been implicated in mercenary activities, deploying fighters to conflicts in Libya and Yemen, often with Gulf state backing, for financial gain. This illicit funding pipeline allows the RSF to bypass conventional arms embargoes and procure sophisticated drone technology, often through intermediaries. THE INCENTIVES: What do they gain from this narrative? For the RSF, the