Sudan has become the forgotten war and famine as top diplomats have used up their bandwidth focusing on Gaza and Ukraine. The latest outbreak of violence in Sudan in 2023 has displaced 10 million people, some fleeing abroad, and left as many as 25 million, half the population, facing acute hunger. Recent severe flooding has added to the agony.
A civil war broke out in April 2023 between the national army and a renegade paramilitary force (RSF), which evolved from the Janjaweed militias with neither side able to achieve a decisive victory anytime soon. There are ethnic divisions with the renegade group adhering to a racist, Arab-supremacist ideology, and targeting African minorities for extermination. War crimes are being committed on a large-scale by both sides.
There are allegations that the RSF is being armed by the United Arab Emirates which is denied.
And see below from a previous post April 17 2023, there also seems to be Saudi and Russian/Wagner Group support for the RSF.
Sudan has had a muddled history in the 20th Century starting effectively as British Crown Colony after an Anglo-Egyptian agreement in 1899 and gaining independence on 1 January 1956. What followed were political disruptions, coups, a civil war and the eventual secession of South Sudan on 9 July 2011.
The 1956 chart has a stark Mars Saturn in Scorpio square Pluto in Leo and Jupiter in early Virgo which was guaranteed to be a recipe for rolling crises and jeopardy in years to come. Ther was also a Venus opposition Uranus square Neptune, hinting at a capacity for fanatical beliefs. When the most recent upsurge of violence started in April 2023 tr Pluto was starting to move round the Neptune, Uranus, Venus T square – and will continue on for some years. The Solar Arc Mars was also opposition the Uranus. Solar Arc Neptune is conjunct the Capricorn Sun exactly now for a rapidly deteriorating situation. With the Uranus heading to oppose the Saturn and square the Pluto from mid 2025 onwards into 2026. Nothing cheerful ahead.
Previous post: April 17 2023.
A local violent squabble in Sudan, Africa’s third-largest country, between the president and his vice-president, leaders of the transitional government after a 2019 coup that ousted long-term dictator Omar al-Bashir, could have wider ramifications. Both Egypt and Saudi Araba have a stake in the game, as well as the Russians through Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group.
Inside Sudan it pits the armed forces against a paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) originally known as the infamous Janjaweed for its atrocities and genocide in Darfur, resulting in 400,000 deaths. Although Saudi Arabia is calling for peace it has heavily supported the RSF financially in recent years and hired RSF troops to fight against Houthi rebels in Yemen’s civil war. The outcome may eventually depend on which of the rival generals can secure financial backing from either Cairo or Riyadh.
The RSF has also been linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner Group, brought into Sudan by Bashir to help shore up his faltering regime in 2017. Following a meeting with Putin Bashir promised to make the country Russia’s “key to Africa”. Ever since, Wagner has supplied large quantities of weapons and equipment and it continues to operate a gold mining company, reportedly smuggling vast quantities of gold out of the country, amongst other things helping to fuel the war in Ukraine.
Gulf states are concerned about instability on the Red Sea — a key trade route — and fear the rise of Islamists in the region as does Egypt who supports the non-RSF side. The concern is that it could spiral out of control at which point Egypt might assert itself and Ethiopia. One commentator said: “If it is possible, my wish is for the two military sides to be defeated. Sudan would be much better without either of them.”
Chad, Eritrea and South Sudan could face a deluge of refugees, adding to their own internal struggles. A power vacuum could enable extremist groups across the region to take advantage of what is happening, as Al Quaeda did in the early 1990s, which would obviously undermine British and American security.
Richard Kemp in the Telegraph suggests: “Sudan may be just the first African nation to implode under Russian influence. In the Central African Republic, Mozambique, Libya and Mali, Russian mercenaries have worked to reinforce existing conflicts, prop up despotic regimes, suppress efforts towards democracy, loot natural resources, secure strategic advantage for Moscow and drive out Western influence. The forces unleashed by their efforts will not be easily contained.”
Sudan, 1 January 1956, does have the devastating and confused tr Pluto square Neptune exactly now and throughout 2024, with tr Pluto moving on in 2024/25 to upend the Uranus as well. Plus an explosive tr Uranus opposition Mars from this June, running on in a highly disruptive opposition to the Saturn and square Pluto in 2025/26. There’s nothing to suggest a peaceful truce anytime soon.
18 degrees fixed at the moment for these few significant days until May 11th are highlighted in:
Egyptian President Al-Sisi’s relationship chart with Bin Salman (MBS)of Saudi with tr Uranus in a high-tension, eruptive opposition to the Saturn, moving into oppose the Mars in June onwards. Also sending a high-voltage jolt through Al Sisi’s Presidency chart, 8 June 2014, as tr Uranus opposes the Saturn. In his own chart as well, 19 November 1954, tr Uranus is heading to square the Mars in Aquarius from early May onwards which could light a fuse, certainly bad tempered, insecure leading to rash decisions.
MBS, 31 August 1985, could also be tempted into rash over-reactions come this August with tr Uranus opposition his Saturn and through 2024 squaring his Mars.
The Egypt/USA chart looks rattled with tr Uranus conjunct the composite Sun at 18 Taurus.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, 1 June 1961, has a volatile, explosive Mars Uranus in Leo of which the midpoint is catching the 18 degree tr Uranus square exactly now, so he will be on red alert.
This decade is turning out to be an absolute horror.
The post Sudan – a humanitarian disaster too far first appeared on Astroinform with Marjorie Orr – Star4cast.
