Sudan Isn’t a Civil War. It’s an Empire-Fueled Genocide.

A guest post by Mo Seifeldein, a Sudanese-American refugee and attorney

This is a guest piece by Virginia based and Sudanese-American attorney Mo Seifeldein. In 1997, Seifeldein and his family fled Omar al-Bashir’s authoritarian rule and came to the United States as Sudanese refugees. In the time since, he has served the American people as a federal attorney, Councilmember in the City of Alexandria, and is now running for United States Congress to represent Virginia’s 8th district.

Let’s Address This is a platform for universal human rights. We have written about Sudan before, and now I am grateful to have an esteemed Sudanese American scholar publish this critical piece on Sudan on this platform. I encourage you to read, share, and take action with the calls to action provided below. Let’s Address This.

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The World Wakes Up To Genocide In Sudan

On October 26, 2025, the world seemed to finally wake up to the ongoing genocide in Sudan, as satellites picked up images of the bloodied sands surrounding El-Fashir, the largest city in Darfur.

After a seven-month siege, the RSF (Rapid Support Forces) seized El-Fashir to bring the Darfur region entirely under their control. UAE-backed RSF soldiers filmed themselves killing thousands: burying people alive, torturing and hanging others. Social media videos show RSF raiding a hospital to slaughter the patients and their families.

Sudan is facing a deadly proxy war, waged by foreign nations seeking to colonize Sudan’s vast gold reserves, arable lands, and Red Sea shipping ports.

After the April 2019 revolution peacefully toppled 30 years of violent dictatorship under Omar al-Bashir, two military leaders staged a coup. By 2023, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, commander of RSF, had turned on each other, waging a devastating war that to-date has killed hundreds of thousands, displaced over 10 million, and pushed Sudan into the world’s largest hunger crisis:

• According to the UN, 24.6 million people face acute hunger; 2 million more are experiencing or at risk of famine (the highest anywhere in the world)

• 1 in 3 children face acute malnutrition

• 11 million people are in need of urgent health care

The RSF, the rebranded paramilitary group (formerly the Janjaweed) responsible for the 2000s Darfur genocide, is backed by the United Arab Emirates. This U.S. ally has been flooding Sudan with weapons in violation of U.S. and international law, as confirmed by an Independent U.N. panel report, U.S. intelligence, and the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab. The UAE wants to turn Sudan into a satellite state, using it to control essential trade routes, as a stepping stone to extend its military influence across Africa, and a means of enriching itself with Sudan’s gold. This country seeks to expand its empire, having already destabilized Libya and Yemen.

The U.S. Government Remains Silent Even as It Continues to Send Weapons Enabling Genocide

One would think that, after the U.S. officially acknowledged the first Darfur genocide in 2003, we would stop arming the perpetrators of that humanitarian crisis. After all, both Biden and Trump administrations have formally determined that the RSF is currently committing genocide in Sudan. And yet, the US continues to sell weapons to the UAE.

The Biden and Trump administrations have collectively approved the sale of $23 billion in weapons to the UAE as a condition of its commitment to the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between key Arab states and Israel. This comes despite U.S. awareness that the UAE has previously sent US weapons to Yemen and Sudan in violation of the Arms Export Control Act.

What’s worse is that most members of Congress have not even acknowledged the humanitarian crisis in Sudan.

The U.S. government has the power to block these arms sales and stop the genocide in Sudan.

In March, Rep. Sara Jacobs and Sen. Chris Van Hollen introduced the Stand Up for Sudan Act to increase oversight and accountability over the sales of U.S. arms to the UAE. But so far, the bill doesn’t explicitly ban weapons sales to the UAE, nor does it impose meaningful consequences for noncompliance. Instead, it simply echoes a provision from the Arms Exports Control Act, that the UAE has to certify it won’t send the weapons elsewhere.

What We Can And Must Do Now

If the UAE and other regional powers stopped supplying weapons, the RSF killing machine would collapse. Aid could flow to the region and millions of lives could be saved.

Today, the U.S. is funding two separate genocides even as Americans at home find themselves unable to afford basic necessities: groceries, health insurance, housing, and childcare.

We cannot allow the use of our tax dollars in this way. The American people must demand that Congress sanction the United Arab Emirates and its leaders.

• Donate to organizations on the ground delivering lifesaving food and aid:

  • SAPA, The Sudanese American Physicians Associations

  • SCC, Sudan Solidarity Collective

• Call and email your Members of Congress: Find Your Representative

  • Here is a sample script for calls and emails:

    Hi, my name is ___ and I am a constituent.

    I’m calling to urge the Representative/Senator to take immediate action to stop the genocide in Sudan. The United Arab Emirates is arming the RSF — a group the U.S. has already identified as committing genocide. The U.S. must not continue arms sales or diplomatic cover for a regime fueling mass slaughter and famine.

    I’m asking the Member to:

    1. Support sanctions on UAE officials enabling atrocities

    2. Block weapons transfers to the UAE

    3. Call for ICC indictments of RSF leaders and UAE leadership

    4. Support urgent humanitarian aid and civilian-led transition in Sudan

    Our tax dollars should not fund genocide. Silence is complicity, and we need moral leadership now. Thank you.

• Boycott UAE: We encourage you to boycott

  • All UAE related travel (Emirates, Etihad Airlines)

  • All UAE products (including gold)

  • All UAE owned (Manchester City) backed sports teams (Arsenal, Real Madrid)

• Call for international organizations to take action:

  • The International Criminal Court (ICC) must indict RSF leaders and the UAE’s ruler Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan

  • The UN must pressure the Sudanese government to transition to genuine civilian rule

• Vote for a new generation of leadership in Congress

Closing From Qasim Rashid

As a human rights lawyer, I have spent my career documenting atrocities, advocating for accountability, and speaking directly on the issues that confront us. So let me speak clearly once more and state unequivocally—what is unfolding in Sudan is not a “conflict,” it is not a “civil war,” and it is certainly not a distant crisis we can afford to ignore. It is a genocide fueled by global power, profit, and political cowardice—and our government’s silence and continued arms sales make us complicit. This must change.

When the United States claims to stand for freedom yet bankrolls regimes that bury mothers and children alive, our values ring hollow. History shows that justice does not arrive by accident—it arrives because ordinary people refuse to look away. Sudanese lives are not disposable. We must raise our voices, demand sanctions, end weapons transfers, support independent humanitarian relief, and elect leaders who choose humanity over geopolitical calculation. Stand with Sudan. Stand with justice. And join me in continuing to expose these crimes and fight for accountability—because silence is not neutrality, it is complicity.

Mo Seifeldein is a Sudanese-American attorney, Alexandria City Councilman, and candidate for U.S. Congress in Virginia’s 8th District.