Greed and Economic Desperation Are Fueling Sudan’s Civil War
The militias wreaking havoc in Sudan also profit from plunder and can pay their recruits a wage much higher than any civilian job available to them. This simple calculation is one of the most important factors behind the country’s horrifying war.
Sudan’s civil war is generating big profits for militia leaders and their allies outside the country. The profiteering is not an incidental feature of the war — it’s one of the main engines driving it. (Ebrahim Hamid / AFP via Getty Images)
I used to pass the biscuit factory in Soba without going in. People I knew went in for a twelve-hour shift on a line that smelled of sugar and oil. In 2021, the number that stuck was 1,500 pounds for the shift.
In Haj Yousif, where Iqbal lived, the rent for a single room was 30,000 pounds a month. You had to work twenty factory days just to cover rent. Meanwhile, the Rapid Support Forces were offering people 15,000 a day, a uniform, and a phone.
Those three numbers explain more about Sudan’s war than any map I have been shown since. What happened in Sudan was not primarily a story of people choosing violence. It was a story of people choosing the wage that was available.
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