The tens of millions of euros the EU paid to Sudan in exchange for “cooperation” with the migrants were to finance the RSF paramilitary forces, rapid intervention forces led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who had been fighting the country’s African regular army for days. This is a grievance that has been voiced by human rights NGOs and the international media for years and that is resurgent amid the new and bloody civil war that is grieving this State, strategic among other things for streams. migration of immigrants to Europe.
Khartoum Process
It all started in 2014 when the EU and Sudan committed to an agreement renamed the Khartoum Process, an agreement in which the African state pledged to combat illegal immigration to Europe in exchange for financing for development. Above all, Italy is pressing for this agreement, and it is no coincidence that the initiative was launched with great fanfare in Rome. Italy’s interest is clear: Sudan, due to its location, can act as a wall for flows from the Horn of Africa (Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea) as well as Yemen directly to Libya and from there to our shores.
paramilitaries of the RSF
The deal includes the European trust fund for Africa, a fund set up by the EU to ‘cure’ the root causes that drive people to migrate, but foreseeing a series of actions whose projects are pending. countering migrant smuggling and paying for reception facilities (described by some activists as prisons) where illegal immigrants are cramped. For Sudan, this fund provides a good resource of 217 million euros, of which 13 million is specifically allocated to various migration management projects.
According to various investigations and testimonies, some of these resources went precisely to the RSF militias, who allegedly made migration management a business to finance themselves and strengthen their military spending. To become the de facto second power within Sudan alongside the officially recognized power internationally. The central crux of this anti-immigrant activity is the Libyan border: in recent years, RSF troops would have had the role of rounding up illegal immigrants arriving in Libya and returning them to their homeland. Real pushbacks in the desert.
blame the UN
RSF’s role in managing the flows was also confirmed by UN secretary Antonio Guterres, who last 31 January condemned the deportation of “more than 400 migrants and asylum seekers, including women and men,” from Libya in a letter. Chad and Sudanese children, most of whom were deported to Sudan”. Avvenire writes that UN agencies wanted to visit and interview the migrants, but “not been granted access to international organizations.” it was possible to detect that immigrants were subjected to “trafficking, torture, sexual and gender-based violence, extortion.” Many are “hired” directly into slaves by militias.
Blackmail of immigrants and Russia
In other words, the EU, and thus Italy’s anti-trafficker funds, began to finance paramilitaries, traffickers, some of whom have been accused of crimes against humanity since the time of the Darfur war. themselves. And this is according to the UN summit. Brussels has so far ensured that its funds do not go to RSF, and it is unclear whether flows into Sudan continue. Avvenire reported that on February 7, a post appeared on paramilitary social media that appeared to be a direct message to the EU and Italy: the post showing images of several dozen sub-Saharan migrants captured in the desert, “Egypt for irregular migrants seeking to reach Europe via the Mediterranean Sea from Sudan. , Libya and Chad is a preferred transit country without modern control systems on its borders”.
It means border control equipment, tools and weapons. Blackmail is on. Moreover, given the recent meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and the heads of the RSF, and then, again, according to Avvenire, contacts between the Sudanese paramilitaries and the Wagner group. So, according to our intelligence, Russian mercenaries working in Africa to push more and more immigrants towards Europe.
Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
