South Sudan: Extinguishing the UAE’s Fires or Igniting Them?
Minister of Minerals, Mohamed Bashir Abunemo
Did the Governor of Northern Bahr el-Ghazal (Ober Maout) ask himself: Why is the UAE building a field hospital in the “Eastern Oil” area, while the vast territory of South Sudan remains unaddressed?
Who would believe that such a hospital is being established by the UAE in this specific location solely to improve and provide health services to the local population, as they claim? Haven’t our brothers in South Sudan heard about the field hospital in “Am Jarras” on the border in Chad? And do they know what role this hospital has been playing and continues to play?
We answer by saying that they claimed the hospital’s goal was to provide services to the Chadian people, but in reality, the hospital was meant to treat the wounded from the Rapid Support Forces militia and their mercenaries. The primary, unspoken purpose – well known to us in Sudan – is to supply the militia with military equipment under the cover of the UAE Red Crescent operations.
Therefore, we openly accuse them of intervening in our internal affairs and collaborating with the militia in aggression against our country, despite their denial in the face of evidence, documents, and reports from the United Nations experts committee.
The situation with South Sudan, at least until recently, is different. Tens of thousands of southern mercenaries came to fight in the Nile River region, Khartoum, and Darfur. When we confront the South Sudanese authorities with this truth, they justify it by claiming that these mercenaries were recruited by non-governmental entities without the government’s knowledge.
Despite the fact that the number of mercenaries is in the tens of thousands, fighting with the militia against the Sudanese army even now, and despite unverified reports of planes transporting military equipment into Sudan via our shared borders, and smuggled gold from South Darfur being flown to the UAE through South Sudan airports, our government has refrained from publicly pointing fingers at our neighboring sister country during all this time, possibly to allow the South Sudanese government more opportunity to control this hostile activity. However, nothing has changed until now.
Amid these grim circumstances, a Vice President of South Sudan publicly declares that there is no government in Sudan and calls on the South Sudanese government and the international community to protect the people of Abyei. The government of President Salva Kiir merely issued a statement saying, “What the Vice President said does not necessarily reflect the government’s position.”
It is saddening to discover that a distant country like Colombia is more keen on preventing its citizens from participating as mercenaries in the conflict in Sudan than our neighboring sister South Sudan. Colombia conducted an official investigation into how its citizens were recruited and brought through the UAE and Libya to fight as mercenaries with the Rapid Support Forces militia in Sudan. The Colombian Foreign Minister apologized to Sudan for this disgraceful act and promised to stop any future recruitment operations.
In Sudan, we might have thought well if the UAE had established a field hospital on the shared borders with Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, or even Congo. However, for a hospital to be set up in the Oil County bordering Sudan, and celebrated by the area’s governor in the presence of UAE intelligence officers, such an act can only be considered playing with fire.
If our brothers in South Sudan have remained bystanders over the past two years of aggression against our country, with their sons fighting by the tens of thousands within the militia, then allowing the UAE to build an “aggression base” against Sudan in their country under the guise of a field hospital is nothing but kindling new fires on our borders with our sister, South Sudan. I hope our South Sudanese brothers learn the lesson before it’s too late.
And I have delivered the message, so bear witness.
