War-torn Sudan seeks closer ties to Israel

Published in the Jerusalem Post, 14 July 2024 

            Sudan has been tearing itself apart in a brutal civil war for two long years.  A clash between two powerful military leaders has devastated the population and led to a humanitarian crisis.  The nation’s basic infrastructure – water, electricity, transport, health care – has more or less collapsed.  

            During June and into July nearly half the Sudanese people have been enduring acute food insecurity.  In areas like North Darfur famine-level conditions have been confirmed. One report by Associated Press describes people sucking on coal to relieve their hunger.  Food prices have soared, and people are being forced to eat weeds and wild plants which they boil with salt to make them palatable. 

The bombing of power plants and water systems has led to vast outages, forcing millions to rely on contaminated sources.  As a result, with the healthcare system barely functioning, a major cholera outbreak is sweeping the country with over 78,000 suspected cases and nearly 2,000 deaths in the past year. 

Over 11 million people are internally displaced, and roughly 4 million have fled to neighboring countries where refugee camps also face severe food and water shortages.  Outbreaks of malaria, respiratory illnesses and diarrheal diseases, linked to very poor sanitation and hygiene, are reported rampant in displaced-population areas.

How has this desperate situation come about?

It all began with Sudan’s democratic revolution in April 2019 and the collapse of the 30-year-long regime of Omar al-Bashir.  In the transitional democratic government that followed, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) became head of the ruling Sovereignty Council.  Burhan’s role, representing the military arm in the country's civilian-military collaborative administration, was specified in the power-sharing agreement of August 2019 between the military and the civilian elements within Sudan.  Under that agreement those concerned pledged themselves to move the country in an orderly fashion toward democracy, and to parliamentary elections in 2023. 

However, popular feeling grew increasingly impatient with the obvious lack of progress toward any form of democracy, and also with the administration’s failure to deal with the country’s severe economic problems.  On October 22, 2021 national frustration erupted in a mass protest in the capital, Khartoum, in support of civilian rule.

 Together Burhan and his deputy in the military command, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, orchestrated a military coup and took over control of the country.  It was not long before Burhan was challenged by Dagalo, who had spent some 20 years in the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and now headed the powerful militia. Such a strong force outside the army was seen generally as a source of instability.  Burhan’s plan to merge the RSF with the nation’s formal armed services was the main bone of contention between the two former colleagues.

   What do the two protagonists say they want?  In a series of social media posts Dagalo maintains that he and the RSF are "fighting for the people of Sudan to ensure the democratic progress for which they have so long yearned".  The RSF has a brutal track record, and many find this hard to believe.  Burhan has said he supports the idea of returning to civilian rule, but that he will hand over power only to an elected government. 

In early 2025 the SAF pushed the RSF out of Khartoum and most of Omdurman, giving  Burhan control of the greater part of Sudan, including the capital region.  In February, Burhan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council announced the formation of a new transitional government.  In May, Kamil Idris, a civilian, was appointed prime minister. This administration is accepted by the UN, the African Union, Egypt and a number of other states as the legitimate government of Sudan.

Meanwhile Dagalo and the RSF still control significant parts of western and southwestern Sudan, especially in Darfur and parts of Kordofan. In April 2025, the RSF established a rival “Government of Peace and Unity” to administer the territories under their control, but this entity lacks international recognition and is not considered the legitimate government of Sudan.

In a powerful article in the Jerusalem Post on July 1, Niger Innis, the chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), argued that “Burhan is not a “moderate,” not a “pragmatist,” and certainly not a force for stability. Innis describes him as “an enabler of radical Islam, an ally of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, and most dangerously, a willing tool of Iran’s expanding influence across Africa and the Middle East.” 

Innis maintained that Iranian weapons are flowing through Sudan, and that drone technology is being shipped and assembled there.  He urges Israel to mount “a coordinated campaign to remove al-Burhan and replace his regime with one that is anti-terror, anti-Iran, and aligned with the Abraham Accords vision of regional cooperation, economic development, and peace through strength.”

That reference to the Abraham Accords is significant. Sudan is, of course, one of the four Arab states that signed up to them.  In fact, it was Burhan himself who met Israel’s then-prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in February 2020 in Uganda, where they agreed to normalize relations.  On January 6, 2021 in a quiet ceremony in Khartoum, Burhan signed Sudan up to the Abraham Accords.

The battle between the SAF and the RSF swung back and forth until March 26, 2025.  On that day Burhan’s SAF regained control of the presidential palace in Khartoum.  What Innis fails to mention is that just one week later, Burhan sent his envoy, Al-Sadiq Ismail, to Israel. A report by Sudanese outlet Al-Rakoba said the visit remained secret until after Ismail had returned.

It then emerged that Ismail had been tasked with delivering several messages to Netanyahu.  First he conveyed Burhan’s desire to consolidate the normalization process.  In exchange for Israeli support in Sudan’s internal conflict against the RSF, he was prepared to re-sign the Abraham Accords in a formal public ceremony.   Another purpose for the visit was to ask Israel to assist in promoting Burhan to the US administration and easing tensions with the United Arab Emirates (UAE). 

None of that translates into Burhan leading Sudan into becoming Iran’s newest proxy.  He made overtures to Iran in about 2023 because Israel, wary of becoming entangled in Sudan’s civil conflict, had refused to provide him with military support at a time when his struggle against the RSF was going badly.  On the face of it, Burhan now appears ready to strengthen Sudan’s ties with Israel.  In return Israel might very well help bring humanitarian relief to the Sudanese population, and restore the nation to stability.

Published in the Jerusalem Post titled: "Sudan seeks closer ties" and in the Jerusalem Post online titled: "Sudan seeks closer ties with Israel", 14 July 2025:

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-860841