The Auditor General, the Charlatans’ Investigations, and the World’s Betrayal

As I See

Adel El-Baz

1

“The Auditor General”

Through this column, nearly three weeks ago, I appealed to the Auditor General to release the 2025 report. But the Auditor General neither hears nor sees — he has simply gone silent. He assumed the matter would eventually be forgotten and that everything would pass safely, while all the danger lies hidden inside those concealed reports.

I do not know what the Auditor General is waiting for, especially now that leaked scandals have already begun making their way onto social media platforms. One day, the entire hidden report will inevitably find its way there as well. So far, the cotton company case, procurement scandals involving certain government agencies, and the file of Nilein Bank have all been leaked, and more files will follow tomorrow. It would therefore be wiser for the Auditor General, under the authority granted to him by his own law, to publish the report himself.

Persisting in hiding reports overflowing with corruption amounts to an implicit admission that a devastating evil is gnawing at the body of the state. It confirms suspicions that the authorities care only about protecting themselves, while citizens are left to face the horrors of economic collapse as their money is looted while they remain deliberately kept in the dark.

What, then, compels officials to bury the truth?

O Auditor General — betrayer of your profession! History will not show you mercy, and we will continue pursuing you until you publish the report, because it is simply our right, and the people have the right to know.

2

The Charlatans’ Investigations

Under the headline “Western Ambassadors Tighten the Noose on the War Economy,” the magazine Africa Intelligence revealed in its May 19, 2026 issue that Western diplomatic missions had commissioned groups of experts to investigate how certain economic sectors contribute to supporting the warring parties in Sudan. The findings of these investigations, it said, could form the basis for future sanctions.

The report added that during a meeting held in Addis Ababa on May 14, 2026, the issue of the war economy was included on the agenda of periodic meetings attended by ambassadors and special envoys. It further stated that discussions focused on how the gold and gum arabic sectors finance the war.

Just look at these charlatans.

After three years of war, they have suddenly “discovered” that the conflict is financed through gold and gum arabic — despite the fact that international institutions have issued report after report on the matter, including findings by Human Rights Watch, The Sentry, and Chatham House. All these reports were published in their own countries, yet apparently they never noticed them. Now, all of a sudden, they are assigning research groups to investigate the sources of war financing!

That is the first absurdity in the diplomats’ story.

The second is the tale of gum arabic financing the war. According to official reports, gum arabic exports in 2025 amounted to only $48.1 million, and historically they have never exceeded $150 million annually.

So how could gum arabic possibly finance a daily war whose cost has been estimated at around $500 million per day in some estimates, with even the lowest estimates ranging between $70 million and $100 million daily?

What makes the story even more ridiculous is that this gum arabic — supposedly financing the war — is exported mainly to Europe and the United States. In 2024 alone, the European Union imported about 72,000 tons of gum arabic. In other words, the very countries of those “distinguished envoys” are themselves the buyers of the product they now claim finances the war. Put differently: the Westerners themselves are financing the war while pretending to investigate its financiers.

What makes one laugh even harder is that those envoys know perfectly well that the militia looted hundreds of tons of gold and continues to steal gold today from the mines of the Singo area. The difference is that the militia’s gold finances rebellion and insurgency, whereas the state’s gold finances all sectors serving the population.

So how can anyone equate the resources of a militia that loots gold with those of a country using its resources for the benefit of its people?

The truth is that all this theatrical nonsense is merely an attempt to conceal the real financier of the war — one they know as well as they know their own hunger. According to their own intelligence reports, United Nations committees, and investigations by Western newspapers themselves, they know that United Arab Emirates is financing the war. Yet they deliberately ignore this obvious reality, misleading the public and searching for alternative culprits in order to divert attention away from the real sponsor.

I only fear that the final report of these research groups will conclude that the war is actually financed by “Islamists.”

3

The World’s Betrayal

Yesterday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs announced that the humanitarian crisis in Sudan continues to worsen throughout 2026, noting that around 33.7 million people are now in need of humanitarian assistance in what it described as one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.

Take note: one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.

This announcement comes at a time when countries continue to fail in delivering the international aid requested by the United Nations to assist the victims — a failure repeatedly demonstrated during the Paris Conference 2024 and London Conference 2025.

As for the recent Berlin Conference on Sudan 2026, participating countries pledged $1.5 billion toward the 2026 humanitarian response plan. Yet less than a month later, the United Arab Emirates announced the withdrawal of the $500 million it had pledged at the conference — meaning that one-third of the promised amount was retracted almost immediately.

Earlier, Tom Fletcher, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, described the Berlin Conference on Sudan as “a test for the international community.” He went even further, saying: “If we convene a fourth conference filled with more statements and declarations, we will continue betraying the Sudanese people.”

Indeed, the Berlin Conference has already become yet another act of betrayal. None of the contributors has paid a single cent so far, forcing OCHA to issue appeal after appeal with no response.

The latest reports indicate that the World Food Programme has even stopped purchasing sorghum from the Gedaref market, causing prices to collapse dramatically.

The pressing question remains: when will the world stop lying?

It seems we are facing an unwritten alliance between internal corruption — protected by the Auditor General’s suspicious silence regarding looting reports — and an international community practicing political charlatanism through performative investigations and phantom aid that evaporates at the first real test.

This dual collusion, domestic and international alike, is the true fuel prolonging the war and deepening the roots of the humanitarian catastrophe, while the Sudanese people alone bear the cost of this deliberate absence of transparency and political deception — in a world whose promises cannot be trusted.