Will South Sudan Get Dragged Into Sudan’s Civil War? |
Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Africa Brief.
The highlights this week: South Sudan inches closer to being drawn into Sudan’s civil war, African nations react to the United States’ Venezuela operation, and Guinea’s junta leader wins the country’s first postcoup election.
Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Africa Brief.
The highlights this week: South Sudan inches closer to being drawn into Sudan’s civil war, African nations react to the United States’ Venezuela operation, and Guinea’s junta leader wins the country’s first postcoup election.
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The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) captured more than 10 South Sudanese nationals fighting alongside the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in central Sudan’s Kordofan region last week, SAF sources told Al Jazeera. The incident highlights growing tensions between the SAF and South Sudan, which the former has accused of supporting the RSF in Sudan’s civil war.
The ongoing siege in Kordofan risks further drawing South Sudan into the conflict, even as the country is on the cusp of civil war itself, facing an ongoing power struggle between President Salva Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar.
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in July 2011, ending decades of civil war. Two years later, another civil war erupted in South Sudan after Kiir sacked Machar, his vice president. The conflict killed around 400,000 people and ended with a 2018 power-sharing deal, which deteriorated last March.
Since late 2024, the SAF has alleged that armed groups from South Sudan are fighting alongside the RSF. Last February, the RSF formed an alliance with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu—an offshoot of South Sudan’s SPLM, which spearheaded the country’s independence push and now runs the government under Kiir.
Last March, then-Sudanese Minerals Minister Mohamed Bashir Abunommo accused South Sudan of allowing the United Arab Emirates—a key RSF backer—to establish an “aggression base” under the guise of a field hospital in Aweil East near the Sudanese border. Abunommo also alleged that the South Sudanese government was ignoring the recruitment of its citizens into the RSF and facilitating Sudanese gold smuggling to the UAE. South Sudan denied the claims.
In July, the RSF and SPLM-N formed a