Sudan Crisis 2023 Explained | Military conflict

there is so much that is happening in Sudan in this video we will learn about what is happening in Sudan and more importantly why it is happening and what are the reasons behind it I'll try to keep the entire explanation plain and simple so that you can understand it better alright then let's begin first let me show you the country here is Sudan right below Egypt Sudan also has a coastline with the Red Sea now there is also another country called South Sudan initially it was all part of one country that is Sudan but then on July 9th 2011 there was a referendum and South Sudan gained its independence from Sudan actually since the 1980s both the North and South of Sudan they were constantly fighting each other in the form of a Civil War and if you want to know what the reasons behind this conflict are it is mainly because of differences in religious practices ethnicity economics and politics the northern part of Sudan is primarily dominated by Arab Muslims so they supported the government of Sudan and then if you look at the southern part of Sudan here there is a group called Sudan people's Liberation movement or Army splm a and this group was mainly composed of black African Christians and others who follow traditional African religion now I want you to listen to this carefully due to the differences between the government of Sudan which was dominated by the Arab Muslims from the North and the Sudan people's Liberation movement slash Army which was composed mainly of black African Christians and other black Africans who followed traditional African religion they are basically called animists from the south of the country there was a devastating Civil War in Sudan that lasted for about 30 years as a result of the conflict an estimated 2 million people lost their lives and millions were displaced and they were forced to leave their homes and seek Refuge elsewhere then in Jan 2005 a comprehensive peace agreement was sighing between the Sudan government and the splm a this agreement also had Provisions for power sharing wealth sharing security and governance this way on July 9 2011 South Sudan gained its independence and became Africa's 55th country and can you guess who were the mediators in other words who came up with this comp comprehensive peace agreement you can take a blind guess it was the United Nations the United States and all the countries that exist on the African continent but the main international organization was United Nations and the main country was the United States of America and everyone knows that the United States is one of the founding members of the United Nation and the U.S has played a significant role in the United Nations development now officially nowhere you will find that U.S controls the U.N however if you critically examine things and study enough to gain a deep understanding of the power dynamics within the UN you will realize that U.S controls you into a great extent so let me rephrase this sentence the country that chose to be mediator and who came up with this comprehensive peace agreement between North and South Sudan is none other than the United States of America basically the US government now that you have understood how South Sudan gained independence let's come back to the present time I have given you a brief history keep that in mind because a lot of it is still relevant and wherever required you should be able to make connections between past and present now let's come to the main question of this video what is currently happening in Sudan so this time the problem is not between Sudan and South Sudan this time violence has erupted in the capital city of Khartoum and a few other nearby places now who are the two parties that are fighting on your left hand side this is General abidal Fateh al-burhan then on the right hand side he is Deputy General Muhammad hamdan dagalo he is also the leader of rsf that is rapid support forces which is a paramilitary force in Sudan so let me repeat again on the left hand side he is General abidal Fateh al-burhan who is the general of the Sudanese Army and he is also the de facto ruler of Sudan or you can call him the president on the right hand side Muhammad hamdan dagalo is also a general but he is one ranked Junior to abidil Fateh al-burhan so basically he's the vice president so basically what is happening in Sudan is that the sudanis Army Chief General abidal Fateh al-burhan is now in a battle with his second in command General Muhammad so these are the two characters who have turned against each other and they are fighting for power in Sudan and that is what has caused chaos in Sudan but then simply pointing out these two characters is not the end of the whole story there is a broader Global power struggle behind this chaos in Sudan so let me give you a little background of these two generals as I already said in 2011 South Sudan gained independence but then what about the main country Sudan see what you have to understand is that in Sudan whoever became the state head that is the president they either came from civil society as a politician or they directly came from the military as a serving officer besides the president there is also prime minister in Sudan who is usually a politician and came into power through Democratic elections Omar al-Bashir was the head of Sudan that is the president of Sudan from 1989 to 2019. he became the president of Sudan on 38 June 1989. he was a military officer when he came to power in 1989 he was a brigadier general in the Sudanese Army now as soon as he became the president in 1989 what he did was he abolished the position of prime minister basically Omar al-Bashir along with a group of army officers overthrew the democratically elected government of prime minister Sadiq al-mahadi in 1989 and since then he abolished meaning there was no prime minister position in Sudan since 1989. Omar Del Bashar wanted to have all power to himself and he wanted to rule Sudan without any external civil government so he was the president of Sudan from 1989 to 2019. that means the whole civil war between North and South Sudan happened during his time South Sudan gained independence in 2011 which also happened during his tenure and after 2011 he was the one who was practically ruling and running Sudan now what happened in 2019 in 2019 president Omar al-Bashir he made abidal fatah al-burhan Inspector General of the Sudanese Army and then two months later General abidal fatel burhan along with his Deputy General Muhammad hamdan tagalo who was also his partner they overthrew president Omar al-Bashir and general burhan got the top job and he became the president of Sudan on April 11 2019. now how did Muhammad handan tagalo come into this picture in 2015 was commanding Sudanese troops in Yemen as part of saudi-led Coalition Force who were fighting against the iran-backed hudi rebels in Yemen it was during that time both of them worked closely was part of the Sudanese Army and Muhammad hamadan dagalo was head of the rsf rapid support forces which is a separate paramilitary force of Sudan that was also deployed in Yemen it is also said that President Omar al-Bashir who himself was an army officer he very well knew that the way he became the president in 1989 by overthrowing a civilian government one day even he will be thrown out in a similar way so he never fully trusted general burhan or started relying on tagalu and the rsf as a counterweight to the regular Armed Forces he hoped that it would be too difficult for a single armed group to depose him but then both the general status burhan and tagalo they work together and overthrew Bashir in April 2019 this is how both started working closely and it was because of Muhammad hamadan tagalo's support General burhan became the president of Sudan in 2019. in the same year that is in 2019 after becoming the president General burhan solidified Sudan's ties with global powers and Regional players including the United States and Israel now think about it if Sudan had to form relationships with countries like the United States and Israel these are all Democratic countries right so they have to look Democratic right they cannot go and speak to the United States and say hey look we are from the Sudanese military and we organized a coup and overthrew a government so what they did was in August 2019 they formed a body called the transitional sovereignty Council TSC which is going to be the federal government that is going to run Sudan so basically TSC is a multi-partisan body that is a coalition of both civil political groups and the military Junta that is group of military leaders and the chairman of this multi-partisan body TSC was General abedal Fateh burhan basically he created this constitutional body so that when he again becomes the head of the country by appointing himself as the chairman of TSC at that time he should look a little Democratic General burhan then made Muhammad hamdan tagalo the vice chairman of TSC so the whole purpose behind the creation of the transitional sovereignty Council TSC is to make the political scenario in Sudan look a little Democratic and then there is also another angle of looking at it you can think of it this way the transitional sovereignty Council TSC was formed as a part of a political agreement between the military and the opposition forces who no more wanted to see Omar al-Bashir as president so these are the two reasons why the TSC was formed and immediately after its creation General burhan the chairman of TSC met United States Secretary Mike Pompeo in Khartoum then in December 2019 General burhan was invited to the United States by President Trump the United States has invited the head of Sudan's Sovereign Council General Abdel fatah al-baran to Washington as the two countries fought stronger bilateral ties following Decades of hostility U.S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who invited Buran for the visit then in 2020 General burhan met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Uganda he even maintained a close relationship with Egypt and used to make several trips to Rich Gulf countries because if you see Sudan is heavily dependent on exports coming from the Gulf countries like Saudi and UAE so all these International whining and dining went on till October 2021 when General burhan and his Deputy dagalo both orchestrated a coup against all the civilian political groups that were part of the TSC if you remember I told you that the transitional sovereignty Council TSC is a multi-partisan body that is a coalition of both civil critical groups and Military junta so in October 2021 the Military Officers who were part of the TSC they decided to remove the civilian politicians now the question is what happened in these two years that is in 2020 and 2021 that made General burhan and his Deputy tagalo dissolve the TSC by orchestrating a military coup it is popularly known as 2021 Sudan kudeta now the question is why did they do it you have to understand that there was an agreement between the civilian political groups and the military Junta before forming the transitional sovereignty Council TSC according to that agreement the transitional sovereignty Council would last for only three years and three months that is 39 months you just look at the name transitional sovereignty Council the word transition means at some point it has to finish it has to dissolve so it was to be ended after 39 months in these 39 months the military Junta will rule for 21 months and then the civilian political leaders will rule for 18 months that means the 21 months of military rule were going to end on November 2021 and a month before that is on 25th October 2021 General burhan along with the Sudanese military hijack the government in a military coup they detained several civilian government officers ministers member of political parties lawyers Civil Society activists and journalists many of them were even put on house arrest so the October 2021 Sudan kudeta was organized because the military did not want to hand over the government control to the civilian political parties now the next important question is after the 2021 coup both burhan and tagalo ruled Sudan so what happened then why are they fighting now why are they so brutally against each other now I will explain what went wrong after the 2021 coup General burhan initiated the process of reinstating individuals who were previously associated with Omar al-bashi's regime that included islamists to the former positions this is when Tagalog started having doubts see you have to understand this if someone helps you in overthrowing another individual or group then that person will always have this doubt that even you may Double Cross or betray him in the future and as I said Omar al-Bashir and his people used to somewhat trust tagalo and the rsf as a counterweight to the regular armed forces and now after the 2021 coup General burhan started reinstating individuals who were previously associated with Omar al-bashir's regime this is where the Galu felt that Omar al-bashes people will never fully trust him and that is true because the first time that is in 2019 degalo betrayed them another thing that you need to understand is that if you look at the Sudanese politics it has always been dominated by an elite group of people who largely came from ethnic groups that are based around the region of Khartoum and the River Nile if you look at tagalo he comes from Darfur in the west which is a rural area the Sudanese political Elite often talked about him and his soldiers that is rsf in derogatory terms they used to call them country bumpkins unfit to rule the state after that over the last two years that is since the 2021 coup de gallo has been trying to position himself as a national figure basically he started acting like a real politician he started calling himself as a representative of the marginalized section of society he even started forming alliances with Rebel groups in the Darfur region and South cordovan because he knew these regions thoroughly in 2003 he conducted many counter-insurgency operations against darfuri Rebels so he had a good grip on this region even General burhan was aware of all these things and I'm sure there are many in his close circles who were giving inputs on tagalo and the same was happening with tagalo even tagalo was getting inputs about burhan this is how the fighting began rsf against the saf tagalo against General burhan the two generals are now battling for Supremacy and tearing Sudan apart over the last few years the Gallow has built a vast business Empire including interest in gold mines and many other sectors including investment mining transport car rental Iron and Steel so even he has resources as well as power the situation has become tensed as both the civilian political leaders and general burhan who represents the Sudan armed forces are considering a proposal to place the paramilitary rapid support force that is rsf under the control of the Sudanese Army rsf has around 100 000 members on the other hand naturally tagalo who is the leader of rsf is not at all in favor of this in fact now we are also getting to hear that General burhan has ordered to disband and dissolve the rsf and declare it as a rebel group naturally tagalo is not going to get scared or back off so this has actually become the main source of recent tension on 15th April Saturday morning it is said that the RSA fired some shots in public this quickly escalated in different parts of the country it is not exactly clear where the rsf bases are but it seems that their Fighters have moved into densely populated areas the Sudanese Air Force has mounted airstrikes in the capital city against rsf members which is also likely to have led to civilian casualties now the important question that must be going on in your head is what do the two sides want I'll explain it in simple manner General tagalo is presenting himself and the rsf as being on the side of the people he is telling to the people of Sudan that he is with them and together they all are going to go against the Khartoum political Elites that I've told you about while he is getting some support from Darfur region and South cordovan but there are many people who don't believe him because he and his rsf has conducted many counter operations against innocent people now if you look at General burhan who is from the Sudanese Armed Forces he is saying that the Army will only fully hand over power to an elected government and he also expects that the civilian politicians will have to share power with the military basically General burhan wants this situation to be how it was before 2021. again there are many who don't believe General burhan as well so these are the claims from both sides now the next important question is what other countries are doing as I said in the beginning if you remember there is a broader Global power struggle behind this chaos in Sudan the UK U.S and European Union have called for a ceasefire and talks to resolve the crisis but then if you see Western Nations have very little leverage right now because Sudan has been largely isolated since the 2021 coup the United States is right now looking at the full range of options the only thing that they can do is put sanctions against members of saf and rsf but that is not going to help and I don't think the United States is going to put troops in Sudan plus the U.S doesn't have the appetite to enter into another conflict meanwhile some of the western media Outlets have suggested that the Russian mercenary group called The Wagoner group is operating in Sudan and Russia is indirectly supporting General tagalo now these Western media articles also say that the Russian mercenary group is getting gold in return for helping General dagalo and the rsf I don't know how far these articles are true after the Russia Ukraine conflict these Western media articles have permanently taken a stand against Russia so they will write everything against Russia but one thing that I want to point out is that Russia wants to establish a naval base in the Red Sea on the Sudanese Coastline so that Russia gets access to the Indian Ocean and it was General tagalo who went to Moscow and agreed to his plan so if you see Russia does have an interest in Sudan now Regional heavyweights like Saudi Arabia and UAE even they have closed ties with General tagalo and the rsf if you remember rsf has sent thousands of Fighters to support the Saudi war in Yemen I don't know whether Saudi Arabia wants to get involved in Sudan because right now it is busy forming new relations with Iran anyhow it is important to note that many African countries possess abundant natural resources such as oil gas and minerals the methods employed by global Powers such as Western Nations as well as those in the East like Russia and China to get involved in these countries are quite different Western countries often use justifications such as promoting democracy human rights women's rights Etc whereas Russia and China tend to intervene through infrastructure investment as I said in the beginning of this video the United States was involved in creating a comprehensive peace agreement between Sudan and South Sudan which led to South Sudan's Independence so any kind of mediation from the Western countries in Sudan will come only through United Nations and African Union the United States will not get directly involved but Weston Powers fear Russia could establish a military base on the Red Sea now when it comes to neighboring countries like Egypt Ethiopia and Eritrea their interest will align with the site that emerges as the winner once the two generals resolve their conflict so let's see what happens but this is everything that you have to know about what is happening in Sudan I hope you found this video informative thank you for watching it

Channel: Amit Sengupta

Views: 2,287,770

Keywords: sudan crisis 2023, sudan military conflict, sudan country, geopolitics, UPSC, IAS, CDS, NDA, IPS, SSCCGL

Id: -ZIp7drqu5Y

Length: 20min 0sec (1200 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 24 2023