US envoy Massad Boulos has been swept into a wave of online hostility triggered this week by unusually direct attacks from the leadership of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).
The escalation began when Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan accused Mr Boulos of acting as “an obstacle to peace” and said the wider Quad group – the US, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt – had become “biased”.
Senior SAF figures and political allies, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, echoed the criticism, accusing the envoy of trying to “force Sudan into submission” and “misrepresenting the army’s position”. The remarks were among the sharpest levelled at a US official since the war began in 2023.
The criticism quickly spread online. SAF-aligned influencers and accounts amplified claims that Mr Boulos was biased towards the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
One English-language Sudanese account on X wrote: “Massad Boulos is not a mediator. He is part of the problem. Burhan was right.” Another said that “Boulos keeps repeating lies to make the RSF look reasonable. We reject any plan designed outside Sudan".
Several high-profile Sudanese accounts accused the envoy of “engineering an RSF victory”, portraying his mediation efforts as part of a “Western agenda” aimed at weakening the state.
The rhetoric also spilled into satire. Sudan’s victory over Lebanon in a football match on Wednesday became a viral trend on X, with users joking that the team played harder after being told Mr Boulos is of Lebanese origin. “When the players heard the US envoy is Lebanese, they scored immediately,” one post read. Another said Sudan had “defeated Massad Boulos’s team".
The political pressure extended to the government level. Acting Foreign Minister Mohieddin Salem said on Wednesday that no external party had the right to dictate negotiations to Sudan, insisting peace
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