Sudan is in crisis because two murderous military thugs, Al Burnham and Hemedti, are fighting to control the country. Yet the EU has been funding them for years.
The EU has sent money to the Sudanese government and military to detain and prevent migrants travelling to Europe.
Programmes like the EU Trust Fund for Africa were used to transfer large sums of money – estimates range between €200 million and €600 million.
The Sudanese dictator Bashir delegated much of this funding to the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group that involved Hemedti.
This group has its roots in the Janjaweed militias that committed genocide in Darfur.
In 2017, a report from the Enough Project warned that the funding would strengthen the RSF and would risk “underwriting a complicated system of a militia state”.
But with the money, Hemedti went around boasting that he was protecting the borders of the EU.
After the Sudanese revolution deposed the dictator, Bashir both al-Burhan and Hemedti turned their guns on the pro-democracy protesters.
In 2019, the Transitional Military Council, of which they were both members, staged a violent crackdown which led to the deaths of over 100 protestors.
As the regime violence ramped up in 2019, the EU suspended the funding. But the damage was done.
Then in December 2022, the EU alongside the US, Saudi Arabia, Britain, and UAE pressured ‘moderate’ elements of the revolution to agree to a government led by al-Burham and Hemedti on the promise of an eventual return to democracy.
