Alliance of Losers (2-2)

As I see

By Adil Albaz

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In the previous episode, we looked at two of the losers in this war, namely the Forces of Freedom & Change (FFC) and the Janjaweed (RSF), and today we dedicate this episode to the biggest loser, which is the UAE. Let’s start with the reverse; What did the UAE gain from its support for the Janjaweed in Sudan? So far nothing. The goal of supporting the Janjaweed was to control Sudan’s power and resources? Has anything been realized?
Never. The Janjaweed, armed with the state-of-the art weapons, with a hundred thousand soldiers trained by Wagner, and with funding amounting to billions of dollars and tons of gold, were unable to win the battle and seize power. They were transformed from a legitimate military group within the framework of the state into mere looters and rapists, and even accused of genocide, pursued by the curses of the people and international justice organizations and they receive daily condemnations from all United Nations and human rights organizations. Thus, dreams of seizing power turned into nightmares, and the UAE harvested the results of their crimes.
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What about resources?
Even before the start of the war, the UAE was the country that was officially and popularly welcomed in Sudan, and it found all respect and appreciation from the Sudanese people. Investment horizons were open to it, and everything it requested from the Sudanese governments, whether during the era of Ingaz, the rule of FFC, or after the change in October 2021, was promptly answered in positive.
No one objected to any investment by the Emirates, small or large, in any field (the only time its request was rejected was when it sought to invest in the lands of Al-Fashqa, for reasons not related to it). Hundreds of kilometers of gold blocks were given to the Emirates, and no one objected to its company in other blocks with DAL Company and others, the Ministry of Minerals has signed an agreement with DAL Mining and Investment Company Limited, according to which it obtained a concession area for gold exploration in the northern state. This company is a partnership between the Emirates and DAL Company.
In northern and eastern Sudan, in addition to the fact that all of Sudan’s gold was its main destination, the Dubai market. Al-Kaloti takes more than 90% of the gold imported to the Emirates from Sudan through legal and illegal means.
The state granted Osama Dawoud and his Emirati partners the entire Zadna 2 project, which is a project of thousands of fedans that was owned by the state, and spent more than hundreds of millions of dollars on it, which the UAE took in partnership with DAL Company with all its equipment.!!.
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What about ports?
It was reported on December 13 that an agreement was reached between the Sudanese government and an Emirati alliance – which includes the companies “Abu Dhabi Ports” and “Invictus Investments”, run by Sudanese businessman Osama Daoud – to develop the “Abu Amama” port on the Red Sea coast with investments amounting to 6 billions of dollars. The project, which is located about 200 kilometers north of the coastal city of Port Sudan, will include an economic zone, an airport, and an agricultural area on an area of 400,000 fedans.
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What about new projects?
It was announced on 25/11/2022 that Sudan had agreed to grant the UAE an area of two million fedans in the Wadi Al-Hawad project, which is one of the largest agricultural projects that was planned to be the largest project in the Middle East for food production, and the state was satisfied with 30% of its expected revenues. Sudanese authorities resolved the Controversy over the Wadi Al-Hawad agricultural project in Sudan for the benefit of the Emirati government, following a dispute with other Gulf countries.
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So, all the bounties of the land of Sudan were given to the Emirates. All of Sudan’s gold and its fertile lands are millions of fedans. So what does one country want from another more than what the Emirates took from Sudan? Noting that this happened in different eras and regimes, some of which were in the Ingaz, others in years of FFC, and finally under Al-Burhan’s presidency and his Minister of Finance.
Most importantly, the Emirates was the country that had a place in the hearts of the Sudanese. Every family had a son, relative, or friend, and it had a great advantage over them, and we had a hand in building it, and this is what cannot be denied by the testimony of its leaders and people. What is the need and interest of the Emirates in fighting the Sudanese state and waging a war against its people? It could have remained neutral and left the Sudanese to their extended conflicts and endless wars.
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Now what did the Emirates lose?
The first thing it lost is the Sudanese people, and this is a loss that cannot be equaled by all treasures of the earth. The Sudanese will not forget that the rebel forces supported by the Emirates, practiced murder, rape and genocide, and were armed by the Emirates and supported with its money, weapons and flags.
This position in support of the Janjaweed destroyed its entire history with the Sudanese people, and the crimes of the Janjaweed will remain “hanging around its neck” for a long time. The reactions carried by the Ambassadors after Lieutenant General Yasser Al-Atta’s speech were enough for the Emirates to realize that what it lost in this unjust war is priceless. It will not gain the bounties from the Sudan while Sudanese people are being killed and murdered.
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The UAE has lost almost all of its investments. It will not be dealt with the ease it enjoyed, and all of its projects and huge material gains that were previously achieved are threatened. They will all become subject to consideration and suspicion. Even if circumstances change and the leaders are satisfied with improving relations, the local communities whose children were killed and displaced will be against any action of investment by the Emirates in their lands.
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The UAE lost its reputation in the world in this war. It was and is being linked now to the practices of the Janjaweed who are specialized in extermination. What remains of the reputation of a country that is linked to forces specialized in extermination, according to The Economist Magazine?
Dozens of investigations from international newspapers about the role of the UAE as bases to support the Janjaweed with weapons in Umjares and elsewhere, dozens of organizations demand that the UAE stop its support for the war in Sudan, and dozens of protests sweep Western cities in front of its embassies, demanding that it stops supporting the RSF so that the war stops.
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The pressing question: Why did the UAE choose to side with the Janjaweed?
Did it have illusions that they were able to control Sudan and its people? If the Emirati political planners had read the history of Sudan well, they would have realized that Great Britain, when it was great, was unable to control the Sudanese, and they resisted it from the first day until they defeated it and gained their independence. The Sudanese now will not accept the rule of the Janjaweed unless they are all martyred. Only then can they take over the Sudanese state but it is impossible. Now that the illusion of the Janjaweed has fallen, why does the UAE continue to support them? No one knows.
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Another reason is that the UAE did worse in continuation of its extended war against the Islamists, as if the Islamists were hostile to it in their history. The Sudanese Islamists did not work against the UAE in their history. Rather, when their state existed, the UAE remained the closest state to them and took from them all the resources and positions it wanted and fought with it side by side with their scarce resources in Yemen. The UAE has bought the illusion that the army’s victory over the Janjaweed means the return of the Islamists to power. This is just rumor-mongers and a cover used by its opponents who are trembling about Islamists return to power. Unfortunately, the UAE believed it and took it as an additional reason to go to war with the Janjaweed.
Now, relations between Sudan and the Emirates have deteriorated, and they have begun expelling individuals from diplomatic missions. This deterioration is likely to escalate further, which is what the Sudanese do not wish for, but they are forced to do it. What is urgently needed now is to stop this deterioration, and this can only be achieved by stopping support for the Janjaweed. They are now retreating and will be evicted from the capital sooner or later. The battles begin with them in all parts that they have desecrated with murder and rape, because they simply fight without a cause or goal other than plunder and murder, no matter how delusional powers give them illusions and try to fabricate projects, ideas, and principles for themselves that they do not know what they are.
The UAE is now required to read a new and more realistic view of the nature of the on-going conflict in Sudan and to take a position befitting the history of its relationship with the Sudanese people by completely stopping its support for the Janjaweed and their plans, which are nothing more than dreams that they have no ability to realize on the ground. Otherwise, its losses will increase and it will lose that status with the Sudanese people who had love and respect for it, and if it continues its current approach, it will only reap the ashes of the Janjaweed crimes.