China continues to provide diplomatic, financial, and strategic support to Sudan’s Muslim Brotherhood-linked SAF government, despite documented attacks on Christians and other civilians, while using debt relief and resource agreements to expand its long-term influence over the country’s mineral wealth. Photo courtesy of Xinhua.Sudan has climbed to No. 4 on Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List of the world’s most dangerous countries for Christians. It is one of only three nations on the 50-country list to receive the maximum possible violence score.Sudan’s civil war erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Mohamed “Hemedti” Dagalo. The conflict grew out of the October 2021 coup the two generals jointly carried out against the transitional civilian government. The UN estimates the war has killed more than 1.5 million people and displaced roughly 14 million, about a quarter of Sudan’s population.In Darfur, the U.S. State Department has formally determined that the RSF and allied militias committed genocide against the Masalit and other non-Arab ethnic communities. Amnesty International has separately documented RSF-perpetrated sexual violence, including rape, gang rape, and sexual slavery, which it characterizes as war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.In January 2025, following the SAF’s recapture of Wad Madani from the RSF, video evidence circulated showing government-aligned troops executing and beheading South Sudanese civilians. Reports indicate that between 13 and 29 people were killed.The UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan has documented indiscriminate SAF aerial bombardment of civilian areas alongside RSF atrocities. The mission has also accused both sides of restricting humanitarian aid and access in besieged areas such as Kadugli and El Fasher.The SAF is directly implicated in attacks on Christians, particularly in the Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan, home to Sudan’s largest Christian population. Documented incidents include a Christmas Day 2025 SAF drone strike that killed at least 11 people traveling to a church service, the June 2026 killing of a Catholic priest, and repeated shelling of churches since the war began in 2023.Human rights and religious freedom organizations, including Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Open Doors, and the Tahrir Institute, have documented attacks by both the SAF and RSF on churches and Christian communities throughout the conflict.Beyond the SAF’s direct role in attacks on Christian communities, the army’s composition has also drawn accusations that Islamist networks have embedded themselves within the Sudanese Armed Forces, supplying manpower, financing, and logistical support in exchange for political protection and a pathway back into Sudan’s institutions.The Jamestown Foundation reports the accusations against al-Burhan date to earlier in the war, citing his alleged alignment with Islamist supporters of the former al-Bashir regime, known locally as “Alkaisan” or “Kizan,” a term used for Muslim Brotherhood members.The U.S. State Department designated the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist on March 9, 2026, with its Foreign Terrorist Organization designation taking effect on March 16, 2026. The State Department said the group’s armed wing, the al-Baraa Bin Malik Brigade, has contributed more than 20,000 fighters to the war, many trained and supported by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and has carried out mass executions of civilians based on race, ethnicity, or perceived affiliation with opposition groups. The action followed the Treasury Department’s September 2025 designation of the brigade under Executive Order 14098.Sudanese observers trace the composition of al-Burhan’s Transitional Sovereign Council to Islamist figures, including Ahmed Haroun and Ali Karti. They also identify Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim Mohamed Fediel, a U.S.-sanctioned figure, along with militia leaders al-Misbah Abu Zaid Talha and Abu Aqla Keikel, as having served openly alongside al-Burhan since the SAF-RSF split in 2023.Al-Burhan has denied accusations of alignment with the Muslim Brotherhood. In August 2025, he dismissed five senior generals identified as Islamist extremists following a meeting in Switzerland with U.S. Special Envoy Massad Boulos on August 13. The dismissals were widely interpreted as having been made at Washington’s request. However, MEMRI characterizes the move as a cosmetic purge, citing his continued reliance on Muslim Brotherhood-linked personnel and financing.China’s economic engagement with Khartoum predates the current conflict and has continued throughout the war, providing the SAF-led government both financial support and diplomatic cover at the UN Security Council.The relationship began with the establishment of formal diplomatic relations in 1959 and intensified in the mid-1990s, when the China National Petroleum Corporation invested billions of dollars in Sudanese oil fields and the Port Sudan pipeline network. China entered the sector after Western oil companies had been driven out by U.S. sanctions. Sudan still owes Beijing more than $5 billion from that period.South Sudan’s 2011 secession transferred roughly 75 percent of the former unified country’s oil fields to the new state. CNPC formally moved to withdraw from its remaining stake in Block 6 in December 2025.On June 28, 2026, China and Sudan signed a protocol in Port Sudan canceling four interest-free Chinese government loans totaling 344.52 million yuan, about $50 million, effective immediately. Sudan’s Finance Minister, Gibril Ibrahim, signed for Khartoum, while Zhang Tao, acting chargé d’affaires at the Chinese embassy, signed for Beijing.Sudan’s external debt stood at $66.8 billion at the end of 2023, and the war has reduced the country’s economy by roughly 40 percent, according to UN estimates. The loan waiver came days after the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced new sanctions on Sudan. One economist described the waiver’s economic impact as negligible but its symbolism as significant.Separately, Sudan’s minerals minister, Nour El Daem Taha, traveled to Beijing to negotiate an agreement granting a Chinese company the right to explore for copper in Red Sea State. The agreement would run for 30 years, with Sudan retaining 30 percent of the profits. Its total value has been estimated at $300 million. The Eastern Sudan Advisory Council alleged that Sudan’s share would be reduced further through repayment of outstanding Chinese debt from future extraction revenue.The loans-for-minerals strategy gives Beijing a tremendous strategic advantage, particularly as it backs the UN’s and EU’s calls for a green transition. Global copper demand is projected to roughly double by 2035 as the energy transition and electric vehicle production accelerate. China already controls more than half of global critical minerals production and roughly 87 percent of processing and refining capacity.The Sudan agreement mirrors China’s resource-backed financing model, which it has used across Africa since the 1990s. Under this approach, infrastructure investment or debt relief provided to a resource-rich, cash-poor country is repaid through future mineral exports. The same framework underpins China’s copper and cobalt operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Analysts describe Beijing’s approach as pairing modest debt-forgiveness measures with long-term resource agreements that secure access for decades, regardless of who governs Sudan after the war.The Beja Congress, which represents the Beja people of eastern Sudan, along with the Eastern Sudan Advisory Council has called for an immediate halt to any agreements involving the region’s mineral wealth until the war ends and a peace settlement is reached.Both organizations argue that eastern Sudan is rich in mineral resources but has remained chronically underdeveloped. They contend that local communities have historically not shared in the benefits of resource extraction, citing gold mining as a precedent. They also argue that a wartime junta with no legislative authority to bind the state risks having any such agreement challenged by a future government. Beijing, however, appears unperturbed by either the conflict or the potential illegitimacy of a wartime junta. Similarly, Xi Jinping appears unconcerned that the country’s leaders may profit from these agreements while local communities continue to suffer.The UN Security Council unanimously renewed the Darfur arms embargo and targeted sanctions in both 2024 and 2025, with China voting in favor and expressing support for efforts to stem the flow of illicit arms. However, China has also sought to limit the scope of the sanctions regime. It has argued that the arms embargo should apply only to Darfur rather than the broader conflict and has supported removing language specifically attributing conflict-related sexual violence to armed actors.Historically, from 2004 to 2007, China threatened to veto sanctions and opposed the deployment of UN peacekeepers without Khartoum’s consent. However, it ultimately abstained rather than exercised its veto on individual measures. The current UN arms embargo applies only to non-state actors in Darfur and does not cover the SAF.Direct China-to-Sudan arms sales are well documented from the 1990s and 2000s, before the current war. Those transfers included tanks, fighter aircraft, helicopters, and pilot training.Chinese-made weapons remain on the battlefield, though current evidence points to indirect transfers rather than direct sales. Amnesty International traced Norinco GB50A guided bombs and 155mm AH-4 howitzers found in Sudan to UAE re-exports to the RSF, rather than direct Chinese sales. A July 2024 Amnesty investigation also documented Chinese-made mortars, drone jammers, and small arms in use in Darfur, generally transferred through third countries. Chinese-made Wing Loong II and FeiHong-95 drones used by the RSF were likewise supplied through the UAE.The post China Supporting Muslim Brotherhood-Aligned Regime Killing Christians in Sudan appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.