After meeting Saudi Crown Prince, Trump vows to end Sudan civil war

After meeting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday vowed to bring the Sudanese civil war to an end.

Trump acknowledged that the war in Sudan was “not on my charts” before MBS —as the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia is widely known as— requested him to intervene and bring the conflict to an end.

Trump condemned the “tremendous atrocities” in the conflict that is now in its third year.

The Sudanese civil war began in 2023 when the uneasy power-sharing arrangement between the country’s military, led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, collapsed.

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The RSF is widely believed to have the support of United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Sudanese military is believed to be supported by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other countries. MBS therefore has a direct stake in the outcome of the conflict.

Trump hints at ‘something very powerful’ in Sudan

At a time when RSF and its allies are carrying out frequent massacres in Sudan’s western Darfur region, Trump said he would now work to “stabilise” the conflict with regional powers, notably including the UAE, according to AFP.

Trump said that MBS “would like me to do something very powerful having to do with Sudan.”

Trump further said, “It was not on my charts to be involved in. I thought it was just something that was crazy and out of control. But I just see how important that is to you, and to a lot of your friends in the room, Sudan. And we’re going to start working on Sudan.”

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Following Trump’s statement, Sudan’s Saudi-backed military said it was ready to cooperate with the United States and Saudi Arabia.

In a statement, Sudan’s sovereign council, which is headed by army chief al-Burhan, thanked the United States and Saudi Arabia for “their continued efforts to stop Sudanese bloodshed”.

ALSO READ: With hundreds feared dead, WHO condemns RSF’s massacre at Sudanese city’s only hospital

After meeting MBS, Trump said he would use the “influence of the presidency to bring an immediate halt” to the war.

“Tremendous atrocities are taking place in Sudan. It has become the most violent place on Earth. We will work with Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and other Middle Eastern partners to get these atrocities to end, while at the same time stabilising Sudan,” Trump said on social media.

Both the United Nations (UN) and US Africa envoy, Massad Boulos, have called the Sudan conflict as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Trump’s own Africa envoy Massad Boulos on Saturday told AFP that the war in Sudan was the “world’s biggest humanitarian crisis.”

Up to 150,000 people have been killed, hundreds of thousands injured, and 14 million displaced in the conflict, according to estimates.

Around 24 million are considered to be in acute hunger in Sudan and 600,000 are facing famine.

In Sudan’s Darfur region, RSF’s ongoing massacres are a second round of ethnic cleansing in the region by the same paramilitaries after their genocidal campaign between 2003 and 2005 on the orders of Sudan’s former dictator Omar al-Bashir. They killed around 300,000 people from non-Arab communities including the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa. The campaign involved mass killings, mass rapes, the destruction of entire villages, and scorched-earth tactics.

In the ongoing conflict, the RSF has been widely accused of sexual violence, including rape, gang rape, forced marriages, and sexual slavery.