THE AFRICAN Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa) has strongly condemned the violence in Sudan, reframing the conflict not as a civil war but as an “externally enabled rebellion and proxy insurgency” deliberately targeting civilians, workers, and national infrastructure.
The accusations, the organisation said, are based on findings from a high-level solidarity mission to Port Sudan in January 2026.
In a statement dated 30 January 2026, ITUC-Africa asserts that the international community’s mischaracterisation of the crisis has led to damaging inertia.
The group’s mission, undertaken following a resolution from its Peace and Security Meeting in late 2025, gathered first-hand testimonies from Sudanese workers, trade unions, women, students, and public institutions.
The report documents a catastrophic human cost, with millions displaced, livelihoods shattered, and essential services like electricity, water, hospitals, and schools systematically attacked.
It highlights the deliberate use of sexual violence and terror as weapons of war, with women and children bearing severe trauma.
Most damningly, the statement accuses external actors of sustaining the violence, specifically naming the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a “key external actor providing financial, logistical, and strategic support to armed groups responsible for atrocities.”
It draws parallels to patterns of proxy warfare observed in Libya and Somalia, accusing the UAE of being a “financier of destabilisation in Africa.”
Beyond the allegations, ITUC-Africa calls for urgent international action: an immediate and verifiable ceasefire, guaranteed humanitarian access, and a pursuit of justice and accountability for all perpetrators, including external enablers. It warns that “silence in the face of mass suffering is not neutrality – it is complicity.”
Looking forward, the organisation demands an international summit on Sudan’s reconstruction, one centred on justice, worker-led recovery, and the reinstatement of trade unions as crucial to rebuilding the country’s social and economic fabric.
“There can be no sustainable peace without justice,” the statement concludes, emphasising that African workers stand in solidarity with Sudan for a future built on peace and social justice.
