Khartoum – The civil war in Sudan, which erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), continues to claim civilian lives.
According to United Nations estimates for 2025, over 120,000 people have been killed and 14 million displaced.
The humanitarian and economic crisis has worsened catastrophically, with economic losses estimated at $600 billion, inflation surging from 83% in January 2023 to 218% in August 2024, and the destruction of 75% of industrial infrastructure and 65% of the agricultural sector – an economic backbone employing 80% of the workforce – according to a 2025 report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Amid this devastation, confirmations have emerged regarding the army’s use of chemical weapons and barrel bombs.
These allegations prompted the United States to impose sanctions in May under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991.
Amid this chaos, former intelligence chief Salah Gosh has resurfaced as a key figure in a factional power struggle within the ruling elite, secretly working to reshape the power structure on behalf of the Islamic Movement – threatening to deepen divisions and exacerbate the humanitarian crisis.
Horrific Violations and Banned Weapons
International reports – including from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights – have documented violations by the Sudanese army and allied militias that amount to war crimes.
In February, the organisation Emergency Lawyers accused the army of bombing a civilian area in North Kordofan with barrel bombs, killing residents in a location devoid of military targets, describing the strike as a “full-fledged war crime.”
Furthermore, a United Nations report in April 2025 documented 140 airstrikes by the army on cities in Darfur, targeting markets, hospitals, and displacement camps, resulting in hundreds of civilian deaths.
Most alarming was the confirmed use of chemical weapons. Just days ago, the United States confirmed the Sudanese army’s use of chemical weapons in 2024.
The New York Times, in January 2025, provided conclusive evidence of the army using chlorine gas in rural areas, supported by a Washington Post report that relied on satellite imagery and eyewitness accounts.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce confirmed that Washington had imposed new sanctions on the Sudanese junta, stating in an official release: “The sanctions will take effect on June 6, 2025, in response to the use of chemical weapons in 2024.”
This significantly increases international pressure on army commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
Factional Power Struggles: Salah Gosh’s Maneuvers
Amid the crisis, Salah Gosh has re-emerged – not as a public figure, but as a behind-the-scenes strategist orchestrating an influence network from within Khartoum.
Drawing on his old ties within intelligence and the military, he is reportedly executing the Islamic Movement’s agenda.
According to Sudanese sources cited by Al-Rakoba in May 2025, Gosh is coordinating with military commanders and extremist Islamist battalions to oust al-Burhan, reflecting the Movement’s dissatisfaction with his failure to manage the war and the appointment of a loyalist prime minister.
Activist Jaafar Mohideen told Radio Dabanga that these moves are “an attempt to rescue the Islamic Movement’s influence, not Sudan,” highlighting internal conflict that threatens to dismantle the government.
Allied battalions like Al-Baraa, which Human Rights Watch documented to be involved in extrajudicial executions in Omdurman, are intensifying this factional struggle by escalating ethnically driven violations—further destabilizing the country.
South Africa’s Role in the Sudan Crisis
South Africa plays a critical role in responding to the Sudanese crisis, leveraging its status as a prominent African Union member and its historical involvement in peace initiatives in the region.
The government in Pretoria, which hosted earlier rounds of Sudanese peace talks in 2023, has called for greater international intervention to pressure the Sudanese government and military into committing to peace and addressing the people’s suffering.
South Africa, which hosts a Sudanese diaspora of over 15,000 refugees according to UN estimates (2024), faces domestic pressure from organisations like the Sudanese Solidarity Movement to spotlight the humanitarian crisis.
Some 26 million Sudanese face hunger, according to the World Food Programme. South Africa’s agricultural trade with Sudan has also suffered due to halted Sudanese exports, affecting regional food security.
Pretoria has called for a stronger African Union role in mediation and sanctions on army leaders and extremist militias.
It has also urged support for investigations by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to verify violations and the opening of humanitarian corridors to mitigate what UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk described in April 2025 as “the world’s largest unfolding catastrophe.”
