From Civil War to Geopolitical Battleground: External Power Competition and The Internationalizations of Sudan’s War, 2023- 2026

Takpe; Mohammed Jimoh PhD

doi:10.56201/jpslr.vol.12.no9.2026.pg244.260

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From Civil War to Geopolitical Battleground: External Power Competition and The Internationalizations of Sudan’s War, 2023- 2026

Takpe, Mohammed Jimoh PhD

Abstract

The Sudanese war that began in April 2023 developed from a struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces into a conflict embedded in a wider regional and international competition over security, trade, resources, political influence and access to the Red Sea. This study examined how competing geopolitical interests of external powers shaped the trajectory of the war, identified the strategic interests motivating regional and extra-regional involvement, assessed how external support affected the duration and internationalization of the conflict, and interpreted the war within the changing Red Sea–Horn of Africa security environment. The study was anchored in Realism and used proxy warfare as a complementary analytical concept. It adopted a qualitative documentary design and analysed United Nations documents, Security Council materials, government statements, sanctions records, policy research and recent scholarly literature published principally between 2023 and September 2026. The analysis found that external involvement did not replace Sudanese agency but materially altered the resources, incentives and strategic horizons of the belligerents. Egypt’s security relationship with the SAF, reported UAE links to the RSF, Iranian military cooperation with the SAF, Russian pursuit of strategic access, Turkish and Qatari relationships, Saudi mediation and security interests, and US diplomatic and sanctions policies produced a dense network of partially overlapping external engagements. The study further found that external support increased the capacity of the belligerents to sustain territorial competition and contributed to the war’s technological and geographic expansion. The paper concluded that Sudan had become an arena in which regional-order competition interacted with domestic military rivalry. It recommended coordinated external pressure, tighter enforcement of arms and financial restrictions, a single inclusive mediation architecture, protection of civilian political agency, and a regional Red Sea framework linking Sudan’s peace process to neighbouring states’ security and economic interests.

Keywords

Sudan; civil war; geopolitical competition; external intervention; proxy warfare; Red Sea security; internationalization

References

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From Civil War to Geopolitical Battleground: External Power Competition and The Internationalizations of Sudan’s War, 2023- 2026

Abstract

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