Sudan Archives - Arab Digest

While public dissent over normalisation is met with court sentences and dispersal, the Marrakech Air Show showcases the seamless expansion of Israel and Morocco’s military-industrial partnership.

Managing dissent: Morocco, Israel and the Palestine Question

Summary: with American backing Morocco and Israel continue to deepen their diplomatic and business ties while overriding the support for Palestine and the Palestinian people of the vast majority of Moroccans.

October 9, 2026

The Sudanese government has offered Russia a naval base in Port Sudan, an unprecedented perch overlooking critical Red Sea trade routes and Russia’s first naval base in Africa.

The Red Sea’s emerging two-shore axis

Summary: a recent study reveals that Yemen’s Huthis are expanding their networks along the African coast; their recent seizure of the Red Sea coastline has heightened concerns that security in the crucial waterway is now highly compromised.

October 8, 2026

A photo provided by a Middle Eastern intelligence agency shows vessels for purported chlorine-based weapons with a building with architectural features resembling a barjeel in the background.

Sudan’s Chlorine Controversy

Summary: allegations regarding the Sudanese Armed Forces’ deployment of weaponised chlorine gas have led to US sanctions. The Sudanese government firmly denies the claims, alleging it is a UAE-backed disinformation operation designed to distract from atrocities committed by the Rapid Support Forces.

October 5, 2026

Yemeni civilians in a Djibouti camp after crossing one of the world's most contested waterways, leaving behind looted property and livelihoods amidst collapsing international support.

Yemen’s people bear the brunt of the Huthi war

Summary: the Huthi offensive caught the IRG forces and the Saudis off guard and with rapid advances and the seizure of new territory it is the Yemeni people who yet again pay the price.

September 28, 2026

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune confronts UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at the 2024 G7 Summit in Bari. Tebboune's gesture came months after he publicly accused Abu Dhabi of funding regional conflicts, a rift that has now culminated in Algeria severing diplomatic ties.

Algeria-UAE rupture shows a region rearranging its alliances

Summary: Algeria’s severing of diplomatic relations with the UAE is a statement that the North African country has lost patience with what it sees as Abu Dhabi’s meddling in its neighbourhood.

September 18, 2026

The UAE’s Extradition Machine: How African Warrants Are Testing Dubai’s Global Image

Summary: for years, Dubai was known as a place where fugitives could disappear behind the city’s wealth, skyscrapers and international connections. Increasingly, it is becoming the opposite: a place where foreign governments can have people arrested and sent home.

September 4, 2026

Arab Digest top five podcast countdown: #4 Football, Sudan and Sheikh Mansour

Summary: the role of the UAE in fuelling the Sudan conflict is well established and well known as is the Gulf state's ownership of Manchester City football club. FIFA has turned a blind eye.

August 5, 2026

Egypt’s massive new defence hub trades traditional regional power projection for a desert fortress aimed at the "enemy within".

The Sisi National Security Doctrine

Summary: further to our 8 July newsletter our contributor Maged Mandour considers the internal and external implications of President Sisi’s National Security Doctrine following the inauguration of the military complex known as the Octagon and the creation of a new security committee.

July 28, 2026

Sudan: three years of the EU looking the other way

Summary: the EU chose to put economic considerations ahead of firm action to prevent a genocide in the Sudanese city of El-Fasher. Now another Sudanese city faces the same fate. Action not words is required from the EU.

July 15, 2026

Sudanese gold miners fleeing as Egyptian military aircraft strike sites in the Jabal Al Uqayat area of the disputed Halaib Triangle, claimed by both Egypt and Sudan.

Egypt’s borders

Summary: Egypt stands accused of conducting air strikes on artisanal gold miners on the border with Sudan with dozens reportedly killed; settler organisations in collaboration with the IDF are calling for “security outposts” along Egypt’s border with Israel in the Negev Desert.

June 24, 2026

Deep-seated geopolitical tensions over Yemen, Sudan, and the Red Sea are compounded by the UAE's exit from OPEC, which threatens to spark a future world oil price slump that Riyadh views as a direct threat to the Saudi economy.

Unhappy neighbours: Saudi Arabia and the UAE

Summary: it has been a long time since the UAE and Saudi Arabia have seen eye to eye and the Iran war and subsequent MOU have done little else but paper over the cracks.

June 23, 2026

Trump tosses a Hail Mary pass with the Abraham Accords

Summary: as uncertainty escalates over just what Donald Trump is hoping to achieve with an Iran peace deal his efforts to bring more Muslim nations into the Abraham Accords fold has already backfired badly.

May 28, 2026

Sudan

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