Topic:
Country: United arab Emirates
Delegate Name: Connor Argenzio
Committee: Security Council
Topic: Situation in Sudan
Country: United Arab Emirates
Delegate: Connor Argenzio
School: Forest Hills Northern
Ever since the coup d’etat, where the reigning government led by Omar al-Bashir was overthrown, Sudan has been thrown into a state of political, economic, and humanitarian bedlam as two warring factions struggle for supremacy. Replacing the war criminal al-Bashir as the head of the Sudanese state is General Abdel-Fattah Burdan, who serves as the current Sudanese chairman. He leads the governmental faction within the conflict as the Sudanese army clashes with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a military group led by Hemedti, also known as Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo. Initially, the two men, Abdel-Fatah Burdan and Hemedti, cooperated; however, the tenuous coexistence was broken upon the latter’s claim that Burdhn intended to reinstate much of the previous al-Bashir regime. The conflict has yet to spread to the entire country, currently contained within the capital, Khartoum, and various surrounding regions. The fighting has killed nearly four thousand civilians and displaced millions. The conflict has yet more destructive potential as it threatens to spread into the surrounding Jazira province, which is crucial to Sudanese agriculture, and stretch an already weak food supply past its limit. Ultimately, the conflict is causing indelible economic damage to the region and threatens to strike a more significant regional conflict, which must be avoided at all costs. The humanitarian and economic crisis in Sudan must be resolved if peace, democracy, and economic prosperity should ever hope to be returned to the region.
The United Arab Emirates has played a crucial role in attempts to resolve the Sudanese situation thus far. As a close ally of the United States, the UAE has gladly accepted the mediator role delegated to it by Washington. Despite the UAE’s attempts to bring a peaceful resolution to the conflict, Saudi Arabia’s meddling has trammeled peace efforts. Aside from the current crisis, as a regional gulf power, the UAE has taken a prominent role in investing in Sudanese well-being and prosperity through a six billion dollar investment in agriculture and constructing a Red Sea port. Going forward, the UAE wishes to invest an additional twenty-four billion dollars into the Sudanese economy because the Gulf region as a whole cannot flourish if Sudan flounders. To protect Sudanese prosperity, the UAE has aligned with Russia to support the Hemedti regime. UAE efforts to secure peace in the region have been repeatedly limited by Saudi and Egyptian interference and support for the Burhan regime. Egypt, in its naive aggression, has even gone so far as to threaten an invasion of Sudan, which would only exacerbate an already precarious situation. The UAE has continued to support Sudan and Hemedti; nevertheless, it understands that the true cost of this conflict is not economic but human.
The United Arab Emirates will persist in its role as a mediator and power within the region as it works towards peace. However, ultimately, peace is impossible while the insurgent Burhan continues to spread his anarchy and destruction through the prosperous countryside. Thus, the only path towards rapprochement is through Hemedti, the rightful head of the Sudanese people. Despite its support for Hemedti, the UAE realizes that there is no clear end in sight and thus would support peace talks between the two forces, ultimately resulting in a quasi-two-state partition of Sudan between regions controlled by Hemedti and those occupied by Burhan. Additionally, the UAE will humbly offer to invest further in Sudanese infrastructure, agriculture, and the many other imperative industries damaged by the situation. However, the human cost is beyond any economic loss, and the paucity of humanitarian aid is regrettable; however, this regional dispute should remain regional, and officious powers should keep their distance. Therefore, the UAE would like to humbly offer its aid in providing aid to the Sudanese people. Through UAE funding and a UAE-backed support effort, aid can reach the people who need it. The UAE looks forward to cooperating with other governments to facilitate local support for the imperiled country and keeping meddling countries, like the Saudis and Egyptians, from throwing a tenuous situation into irreversible chaos.
