Land and power grabs in Sudan

Over the past two years, war in Sudan has killed over 150,000 people and displaced another 12 million from their homes. The "largest displacement crisis in the world" is also the world's first officially declared famine since 2020, with almost half of the population going hungry.

The two military factions that worked together to suppress the popular forces that overthrew the Omar al-Bashir dictatorship in 2019, began a full-scale war against each other in April 2023. Both factions, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have committed mass atrocities against civilians and both are supported by foreign governments with interests in Sudan.

The UAE has been more aggressive than any other outside actor. There is overwhelming evidence that it has played a major role in fuelling this brutal fight over resources, mainly by providing arms and other support to the RSF, which is accused of mass killings, sexual violence and ethnic cleansing against civilians. The UAE's top interest is Sudan's gold, but food is also a key priority. Over the past decade and a half, the country has been vying to seize control over farmland and water sources in Sudan to produce food for export.

In pursuit of its own food security, the UAE has pumped over US$6 billion into Sudan’s foreign reserves, agricultural expansion projects and a Red Sea port. As the war raged, two Emirati firms –International Holding Company (IHC), the country’s largest listed corporation, and Jenaan – were farming over 50,000 hectares there. Shortly before the war broke out, a deal was signed between IHC and the DAL group – owned by one of Sudan’s wealthiest tycoons – to develop an additional 162,000 ha of farmland in Abu Hamad, in the north. This massive farm project, backed by the UAE government, will be connect by a 500 km road to a new port on the coast of Sudan to be built and operated by the Abu Dhabi Ports Group.

Sudan is an important part of the UAE's growing logistics empire that now connects around 1 million hectares of farmland that the Emirates has acquired around the world with a network of ports and logistics platforms, all of which are entwined with security concerns. Much of this land is in Africa, where the UAE is now the largest source of foreign investment. UAE companies have recently signed farmland deals with a long list of African countries that includes Egypt, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Angola. It's become a major player in acquiring African lands and forests for carbon credit schemes too. The horror in Sudan is an alarming indication of how far the UAE will go in securing its overseas farmland interests.

Land is and will continue to be at the centre of Sudan's ongoing popular struggle to dismantle the military and paramilitary control over the country. The resistance committees and neighbourhood councils that remain at the forefront of this struggle have articulated a clear path for how to assert people's control over their lands and food systems. This movement, known as the December Revolution, toppled the regime of Al-Bashir in 2019, but was violently suppressed by the SAF and RSF. Under the watch of these two military factions, the sell off of Sudan's farmland and resources continued setting the stage for today's brutal war between them.

Despite the war, Sudanese social movements remain committed to their revolution. Sudanese farmer and organiser Abdelraouf Omer says that about 70 percent of the small farmers around the country's largest irrigation project, the Gezira scheme, have been displaced but he and other farmers continue to organise to assert their control over their territories. Agriculture, he says, is key to Sudan's future. "We cannot afford to hand it over to the capitalists who are waging and profiting from this war," he says.

The conflict tearing up Sudan is a dramatic example of how agricultural investments, often draped in the language of “food security,” can be part of broader power plays working against the interests and rights of local communities. Right now, we need to join Sudanese activists in mobilising pressure to stop the fighting and get relief to the people who need it. The lack of accountability and action is appalling. This crisis needs to be on the same register of global concern as what is happening in Palestine, Ukraine, DR Congo and elsewhere. Long term, the people of Sudan deserve active support to build food sovereignty under their own command, on their own land and without interference or unrest.

GRAIN affirms its solidarity with the people of Sudan. We support local communities in Sudan and elsewhere in their struggle to defend their lands, waters and food sovereignty against land grabbing by the UAE and other foreign powers.