{"id":50751,"date":"2025-06-30T17:44:27","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T14:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=50751"},"modified":"2025-06-30T17:44:27","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T14:44:27","slug":"sudans-collapsing-borders-are-africas-next-big-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/30\/sudans-collapsing-borders-are-africas-next-big-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Sudan\u2019s Collapsing Borders Are Africa\u2019s Next Big Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dr Abdelnasser Solum Hamed<\/strong>
\nDirector, East Africa & Sudan Program \u2013 FOX Research Center<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

More than two years into Sudan\u2019s brutal conflict, over 6,000 foreign mercenaries from at least seven African countries are now fighting inside Sudan\u2019s porous borders. What started as a power struggle for Khartoum has become a regional storm that risks tearing apart Africa\u2019s fragile security order.<\/p>\n

In June, fighters from Sudan\u2019s Rapid Support Forces \u2014 backed by Libyan militias loyal to Khalifa Haftar \u2014 crossed into the Jebel Uweinat triangle, the harsh border zone where Sudan, Libya and Egypt meet. This was not an isolated incident. It is a warning of how Sudan\u2019s war is expanding beyond its ruined towns and scorched villages to reshape entire borderlands.<\/p>\n

Across Darfur, South Kordofan, and parts of eastern Sudan, government authority has all but disappeared. Local warlords, smugglers, and hybrid militias now control gold mines, smuggling routes, and supply chains that stretch deep into the Sahel.<\/p>\n

Every week, young men from Chad, Niger, the Central African Republic, Nigeria and Mali cross these broken frontiers to fight for pay \u2014 or for the promise of loot. \u201cWe see fighters crossing every week \u2014 some for gold, some just to survive,\u201d says a local trader near the Chad-Sudan border.<\/p>\n

These men will not stay inside Sudan\u2019s borders forever. Chadian rebel groups who fought alongside the RSF are already returning to challenge their own government, better armed and trained. In the Central African Republic, remnants of Sudanese militias are slipping across the border, threatening communities that are already on edge.<\/p>\n

Further east, South Sudan is becoming another powder keg. Ugandan troops have entered Upper Nile State claiming to protect Juba\u2019s government, while Ethiopia deploys reinforcements to secure its side of the border. In May, Khartoum accused unnamed neighbours of launching drone strikes on Port Sudan from bases in Somaliland \u2014 a sign that Sudan\u2019s conflict is becoming a testing ground for new kinds of remote warfare.<\/p>\n

What holds this dangerous spread together is the collapse of borders as lines of protection. These frontiers have become open corridors for weapons, mercenaries, and illicit trade. Meanwhile, the African Union\u2019s response is painfully slow, and major international actors are stepping back. In May, AFRICOM announced it would halt direct military aid and only share intelligence \u2014 a clear signal that Washington has little appetite to be drawn into Sudan\u2019s chaos.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time Africa has seen borders dissolve under the weight of conflict. The Great Lakes wars of the 1990s showed how quickly militias and weapons can flow across fragile states, turning local conflicts into regional nightmares.<\/p>\n

But Sudan\u2019s collapse could be worse. Sitting at the crossroads of North, East, and Central Africa, its implosion risks creating a vast ungoverned zone stretching from the Sahel to the Red Sea. Many of the mercenaries fighting there now will eventually carry new weapons and skills back home to fuel fresh insurgencies.<\/p>\n

Africa\u2019s leaders and the wider world cannot afford to ignore what is unfolding. Containment is still possible \u2014 but only if Sudan\u2019s neighbours act together to control borders, cut off the flow of weapons and gold, and prevent warlords from turning the region into a permanent mercenary market.<\/p>\n

This war will not stay inside Sudan. If left unchecked, it could easily become Africa\u2019s next continental crisis \u2014 more complex, and more devastating, than the world is ready for.<\/p>\n

\u2e3b<\/p>\n

Dr Abdelnasser Solum Hamed is Director of the East Africa & Sudan Program at FOX Research Center and an expert in crisis management and counterterrorism.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dr Abdelnasser Solum Hamed Director, East Africa & Sudan Program \u2013 FOX Research Center More than two years into Sudan\u2019s brutal conflict, over 6,000 foreign mercenaries from at least seven African countries are now fighting inside Sudan\u2019s porous borders. What started as a power struggle for Khartoum has become a regional storm that risks …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50751"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50752,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50751\/revisions\/50752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}