Sudan Is in Free Fall
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John Ashworth
Nov 20, 2025, 9:56:47 AM11/20/25
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Sudan Is in Free Fall
Nov. 6, 2025
New York Times
By Eric A. FriedmanSuad Abdel aziz and John Prendergast
A Sudanese journalist, Muammar Ibrahim, stayed behind to document
atrocities while thousands fled a genocidal blood bath in El Fasher,
the capital of North Darfur in Sudan. He was abducted and remains
detained. Mohammed Elmakki, an engineering professor beloved for his
service to his community, sent his family to safety and stayed behind
in El Fasher to tend to his elderly grandfather. When he tried to
escape the Rapid Support Forces militants, his brother told us, they
caught him in a nearby town and executed him.
These are two stories among the hundreds of accounts of people
risking, and often losing, their lives to help others survive amid the
rapidly spiraling violence in Sudan. Two and a half years since
fighting erupted between the Sudanese military (also called the
Sudanese Armed Forces) and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary, as
many as 400,000 are believed to be dead by some accounts — bombed,
murdered, starved.
And now what appears to be the most catastrophic phase of this war is
occurring in El Fasher, which has “descended into an even darker
hell,” in the words of the U.N. humanitarian affairs coordinator Tom
Fletcher.
The militia’s campaign of annihilation has closed in on hundreds of
thousands of people trapped in the region, risking the further
expansion of one of the greatest mass killings of this century.
When the militia seized El Fasher from the Sudanese Armed Forces last
week, it immediately began committing mass executions: massacring
hundreds of people at the last functioning hospital, burning people
alive, forcing men to dig pits in which they were buried alive, going
house to house and shooting those they found, executing people with
disabilities unable to flee.
The accounts of terror come from eyewitness survivors, aid groups,
satellite imagery and the fighters themselves, who are filming their
own atrocities and posting the videos. Much of the work of documenting
the carnage has been done by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, which
analyzes open-source satellite imagery and other data to provide
real-time assessments.
In a little more than a week, evidence suggests, the militia has
killed and sexually assaulted civilians in numbers that defy
comprehension. Its fighters continue to target African indigenous
groups, as they have since the war began. Human Rights Watch, citing a
U.N. panel, reported that in 2023, the militia targeted Masalit
civilians in the West Darfur city of El Geneina and killed 10,000 to
15,000 people there in all.
This slaughter could potentially be stopped if those with leverage
would apply pressure on the United Arab Emirates, the primary backer
of the Rapid Support Forces’ war machine. Those include American
leaders like President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and
behemoth companies like the N.B.A. and Disney, both of which have
business partnerships with the Emirates.
While so many in Sudan give everything to save even a single person,
these global heavyweights have yet to take steps that could save
hundreds of thousands of people.
Any serious effort to end the bloodshed in Sudan must start with the
United Arab Emirates. Multiple sources — human rights organizations,
news organizations, a militia intelligence officer and U.S. lawmakers
— have established that it is a key supplier of arms to the
paramilitary forces; investigations have traced repeated weapons
shipments and drone transfers to Emirati networks. (The United Arab
Emirates has called accusations that it is arming the militants
“utterly false.”)
The Emirates does more than arm the militia. When the fighting broke
out in April 2023, the Emirates reportedly established logistical
networks through Chad, Libya, the Central African Republic, South
Sudan and Uganda to funnel weapons and fuel, and likely also fighters,
to the militia. More than a distant sponsor, the Emirates is the
operational hub of a regional war economy that is vital to the Rapid
Support Forces’ survival.
The Emirates’ goals in supporting the militia, according to experts on
the region, appear to be to secure Sudan’s gold supplies and its Red
Sea coastline, and to undercut democratic influence in Khartoum,
Sudan’s capital.
The Trump administration has not taken significant steps to rein in
the Emirates — it has not, for instance, appointed a special envoy for
Sudan. And the peace talks it has led with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the
Emirates have done nothing to improve conditions on the ground, given
the carnage taking place.
Yet the U.S. government has significant leverage, especially on
security; it sells the Emirates billions of dollars’ worth of weapons
and has designated it a major defense partner. The administration
should withhold any arms sales until the Emirates stops supporting the
militants. Bills have been introduced in both the House and Senate
that would do just that, and Congress should pass them.
The United States should also greatly increase financial pressure on
the Rapid Support Forces by targeting its gold-smuggling and
arms-procurement networks, while rigorously enforcing existing
sanctions.
It’s true that Mr. Trump’s financial connections to the Emirates —
most notably an investment firm backed by its sovereign wealth fund,
which invested $2 billion in a crypto currency partly owned by the
Trump family — could deter him from applying the necessary pressure.
But his Nobel Peace Prize aspirations may motivate him to use his
personal connections to help end the violence.
In its efforts to bolster its global standing, the Emirates has made
itself vulnerable to other pressures, too. It has built itself into a
global sports and entertainment hub, creating a positive image that
has masked its repression at home — and now its complicity in genocide
abroad. The Emirates depends on those companies, organizations, teams
and entertainers to help present the version of itself that it wants
the world to see.
Likely no organization holds more potential sway than the National
Basketball Association. The league’s partnership with the Emirates
includes preseason games in Abu Dhabi and an in-season basketball
tournament, the Emirates N.B.A. Cup, which began last Friday. The
league should make clear this will be the last Emirates N.B.A. Cup
unless the country stops supporting the militants. The N.B.A.’s global
prestige gives it immense influence; taking a stand could send a
signal far beyond the basketball court, lighting the way for others to
follow suit.
Disney, one of the world’s most influential entertainment companies,
is planning a theme park in Abu Dhabi, and could also use its voice to
effect change. (Various state-backed entities in the Emirates
advertise with The New York Times and on the sports site it owns, The
Athletic.)
Hanging in the balance is the survival of the many civilians now in
hiding, and the hundreds of thousands more who have been displaced in
surrounding towns, including 650,000 in Tawila, southwest of El
Fasher.
The future of Sudan itself is also at stake. If the Rapid Support
Forces consolidates power, the world will have allowed a genocidal
militia to seize and hold land with impunity. A collapse of Sudan
would destabilize the entire Horn of Africa, drive refugees across the
Sahel and into Europe, and embolden other paramilitaries.
Elie Wiesel said, “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.
Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” For
institutions tied to the Emirates, choosing to act would have an
economic cost. Yet the cost of silence, of continuing business as
usual, is infinitely greater. It will be measured in lives. It will be
measured in more Mohammeds, more Muammars. Standing resolutely with
the Sudanese people is the only path forward.
More on Sudan
Opinion | Nicholas Kristof
The World Has Again Failed to Prevent Atrocities in Darfur
Oct. 30, 2025
Opinion | Suliman Baldo and Mai Hassan
Sudan Is What Happens When You Recognize a Junta
Sept. 21, 2025
Opinion | Nicholas Kristof
The U.S. Cannot Solve All the World’s Problems
June 25, 2025
Eric A. Friedman, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, is the global
health justice scholar at the O’Neill Institute at Georgetown Law.
Suad Abdel aziz is a Sudanese American human rights lawyer and founder
of the advocacy organization Decolonize Sudan. John Prendergast is a
founder of the Sentry, which investigates war crimes and profiteers.
The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the
editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our
articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email:
let...@nytimes.com.
Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Instagram,
TikTok, Bluesky, WhatsApp and Threads.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/opinion/sudan-darfur-el-fasher-uae.html
END
______________________
John Ashworth
ashwor...@gmail.com
+254 725 926 297 (Kenya mobile, WhatsApp and Signal)
PO Box 403 - 00206, Kiserian, Kenya
Nov. 6, 2025
New York Times
By Eric A. FriedmanSuad Abdel aziz and John Prendergast
A Sudanese journalist, Muammar Ibrahim, stayed behind to document
atrocities while thousands fled a genocidal blood bath in El Fasher,
the capital of North Darfur in Sudan. He was abducted and remains
detained. Mohammed Elmakki, an engineering professor beloved for his
service to his community, sent his family to safety and stayed behind
in El Fasher to tend to his elderly grandfather. When he tried to
escape the Rapid Support Forces militants, his brother told us, they
caught him in a nearby town and executed him.
These are two stories among the hundreds of accounts of people
risking, and often losing, their lives to help others survive amid the
rapidly spiraling violence in Sudan. Two and a half years since
fighting erupted between the Sudanese military (also called the
Sudanese Armed Forces) and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary, as
many as 400,000 are believed to be dead by some accounts — bombed,
murdered, starved.
And now what appears to be the most catastrophic phase of this war is
occurring in El Fasher, which has “descended into an even darker
hell,” in the words of the U.N. humanitarian affairs coordinator Tom
Fletcher.
The militia’s campaign of annihilation has closed in on hundreds of
thousands of people trapped in the region, risking the further
expansion of one of the greatest mass killings of this century.
When the militia seized El Fasher from the Sudanese Armed Forces last
week, it immediately began committing mass executions: massacring
hundreds of people at the last functioning hospital, burning people
alive, forcing men to dig pits in which they were buried alive, going
house to house and shooting those they found, executing people with
disabilities unable to flee.
The accounts of terror come from eyewitness survivors, aid groups,
satellite imagery and the fighters themselves, who are filming their
own atrocities and posting the videos. Much of the work of documenting
the carnage has been done by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, which
analyzes open-source satellite imagery and other data to provide
real-time assessments.
In a little more than a week, evidence suggests, the militia has
killed and sexually assaulted civilians in numbers that defy
comprehension. Its fighters continue to target African indigenous
groups, as they have since the war began. Human Rights Watch, citing a
U.N. panel, reported that in 2023, the militia targeted Masalit
civilians in the West Darfur city of El Geneina and killed 10,000 to
15,000 people there in all.
This slaughter could potentially be stopped if those with leverage
would apply pressure on the United Arab Emirates, the primary backer
of the Rapid Support Forces’ war machine. Those include American
leaders like President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and
behemoth companies like the N.B.A. and Disney, both of which have
business partnerships with the Emirates.
While so many in Sudan give everything to save even a single person,
these global heavyweights have yet to take steps that could save
hundreds of thousands of people.
Any serious effort to end the bloodshed in Sudan must start with the
United Arab Emirates. Multiple sources — human rights organizations,
news organizations, a militia intelligence officer and U.S. lawmakers
— have established that it is a key supplier of arms to the
paramilitary forces; investigations have traced repeated weapons
shipments and drone transfers to Emirati networks. (The United Arab
Emirates has called accusations that it is arming the militants
“utterly false.”)
The Emirates does more than arm the militia. When the fighting broke
out in April 2023, the Emirates reportedly established logistical
networks through Chad, Libya, the Central African Republic, South
Sudan and Uganda to funnel weapons and fuel, and likely also fighters,
to the militia. More than a distant sponsor, the Emirates is the
operational hub of a regional war economy that is vital to the Rapid
Support Forces’ survival.
The Emirates’ goals in supporting the militia, according to experts on
the region, appear to be to secure Sudan’s gold supplies and its Red
Sea coastline, and to undercut democratic influence in Khartoum,
Sudan’s capital.
The Trump administration has not taken significant steps to rein in
the Emirates — it has not, for instance, appointed a special envoy for
Sudan. And the peace talks it has led with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the
Emirates have done nothing to improve conditions on the ground, given
the carnage taking place.
Yet the U.S. government has significant leverage, especially on
security; it sells the Emirates billions of dollars’ worth of weapons
and has designated it a major defense partner. The administration
should withhold any arms sales until the Emirates stops supporting the
militants. Bills have been introduced in both the House and Senate
that would do just that, and Congress should pass them.
The United States should also greatly increase financial pressure on
the Rapid Support Forces by targeting its gold-smuggling and
arms-procurement networks, while rigorously enforcing existing
sanctions.
It’s true that Mr. Trump’s financial connections to the Emirates —
most notably an investment firm backed by its sovereign wealth fund,
which invested $2 billion in a crypto currency partly owned by the
Trump family — could deter him from applying the necessary pressure.
But his Nobel Peace Prize aspirations may motivate him to use his
personal connections to help end the violence.
In its efforts to bolster its global standing, the Emirates has made
itself vulnerable to other pressures, too. It has built itself into a
global sports and entertainment hub, creating a positive image that
has masked its repression at home — and now its complicity in genocide
abroad. The Emirates depends on those companies, organizations, teams
and entertainers to help present the version of itself that it wants
the world to see.
Likely no organization holds more potential sway than the National
Basketball Association. The league’s partnership with the Emirates
includes preseason games in Abu Dhabi and an in-season basketball
tournament, the Emirates N.B.A. Cup, which began last Friday. The
league should make clear this will be the last Emirates N.B.A. Cup
unless the country stops supporting the militants. The N.B.A.’s global
prestige gives it immense influence; taking a stand could send a
signal far beyond the basketball court, lighting the way for others to
follow suit.
Disney, one of the world’s most influential entertainment companies,
is planning a theme park in Abu Dhabi, and could also use its voice to
effect change. (Various state-backed entities in the Emirates
advertise with The New York Times and on the sports site it owns, The
Athletic.)
Hanging in the balance is the survival of the many civilians now in
hiding, and the hundreds of thousands more who have been displaced in
surrounding towns, including 650,000 in Tawila, southwest of El
Fasher.
The future of Sudan itself is also at stake. If the Rapid Support
Forces consolidates power, the world will have allowed a genocidal
militia to seize and hold land with impunity. A collapse of Sudan
would destabilize the entire Horn of Africa, drive refugees across the
Sahel and into Europe, and embolden other paramilitaries.
Elie Wiesel said, “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.
Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” For
institutions tied to the Emirates, choosing to act would have an
economic cost. Yet the cost of silence, of continuing business as
usual, is infinitely greater. It will be measured in lives. It will be
measured in more Mohammeds, more Muammars. Standing resolutely with
the Sudanese people is the only path forward.
More on Sudan
Opinion | Nicholas Kristof
The World Has Again Failed to Prevent Atrocities in Darfur
Oct. 30, 2025
Opinion | Suliman Baldo and Mai Hassan
Sudan Is What Happens When You Recognize a Junta
Sept. 21, 2025
Opinion | Nicholas Kristof
The U.S. Cannot Solve All the World’s Problems
June 25, 2025
Eric A. Friedman, the grandson of Holocaust survivors, is the global
health justice scholar at the O’Neill Institute at Georgetown Law.
Suad Abdel aziz is a Sudanese American human rights lawyer and founder
of the advocacy organization Decolonize Sudan. John Prendergast is a
founder of the Sentry, which investigates war crimes and profiteers.
The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the
editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our
articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email:
let...@nytimes.com.
Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Instagram,
TikTok, Bluesky, WhatsApp and Threads.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/06/opinion/sudan-darfur-el-fasher-uae.html
END
______________________
John Ashworth
ashwor...@gmail.com
+254 725 926 297 (Kenya mobile, WhatsApp and Signal)
PO Box 403 - 00206, Kiserian, Kenya
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