Sudan’s recurring nightmare
The horrific death, destruction and displacement of millions of people continues as the civil war in Sudan – a ‘forgotten war’ in the eyes of the world – rages on. New African‘s Editor Anver Versi traces its origins and argues that we in Africa cannot afford to neglect it, with its global and regional implications, and must find a speedy solution.
Over the 40-odd years I have been reporting and writing on issues in Africa and elsewhere, I don’t recall a time when I have felt such dread, even despair as over the last few years. It seems to me that the world has become unhinged and is plunging ever faster into hitherto unexplored darkest caverns of the soul.
I am of course referring to the hideous orgy of death and destruction staged daily in so many benighted places on earth, heaped on totally innocent people and supervised by a score or so of people who have long forfeited every shred of what we call humanity. The slaughter of civilians, especially children, with such fiendish relish is surely the nadir of human civilisation. There is no excuse for it. It is pure evil.
What is perhaps even more troubling is that a relatively small, but wonderfully vociferous, percentage of people are standing up and demonstrating their disgust at this alarming decline in human ethics. So many more have become indifferent and an equal number find justification for atrocity. When we are no longer shocked by such degradation of the human spirit, we become prepared to emulate it and when that happens – God help us.
While good people around the world are at least joining together to protest at what is happening in Gaza and places like Myanmar, not much recognition is being given to what the UN has termed the ‘greatest humanitarian crisis in the world’ – that found in Sudan, which is once again enduring its recurring nightmare of violent conflict.
The 16 month-old civil war in the country, which has already taken the lives of between 13,000 to 15,000 people, left 30,000 wounded, displaced some 10m and rendered half the 47m population in severe need of humanitarian aid, is being labelled ‘the forgotten war’.
It is not a forgotten war – it is still very much a live war, exerting its toxic, baleful influence all across the region. It is a neglected war. Unlike the soul-eviscerating images from Gaza, or the battlefield scenes from Ukraine on our TV screens, the agony of Sudan remains mostly invisible. Only Al-Jazeera deems it of sufficient import to show images of it.
There are no frantic diplomatic shuffles involving the world’s big powers; no high-level talks and negotiations to try and find solutions; there are no impassioned speeches or thundering editorials taking sides; no viral social memes flooding our mobiles.
Sudan hardly registers even in the African context. Only the UN, the AU and some unlikely outsiders such as the Gulf States, seem to be at all concerned. In the meantime, famine has been officially declared in parts of the country as the warring parties block humanitarian aid – and typhoid is spreading.
The country is all but broken and yet the world seems indifferent. Only very recently has there been some attempt to lower the temperature. At the time of writing, a US-sponsored conference is at long last taking place in Geneva but only one of the combatants, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has sent delegates.
Their opponents, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) have refused to attend because it objects to the presence of one of the observer nations, the UAE, which it says is funding and arming the RSF.
This is the second time since the civil war broke out that an attempt to bring a reconciliation between the warring factions has taken place. The first was held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in May 2023 and the Treaty of Jeddah was signed by the US, Saudi Arabia and both fighting parties. It called for a ceasefire, aid distribution, the cessation of attacks on civilians and ethnic cleansing, and the withdrawal of army units from private property. But within no time, both sides accused each other of breaching the terms and the fighting renewed with even greater deadliness.
This time around, despite the absence of the SAF in Geneva, the US Special Envoy Tom Perriello leading the talks sounded optimistic. He said: “Our
first priority is to look at how to open three roads that collectively would ensure that 20 million people who are currently cut off completely or largely from food and medicine would be able to get that relief.”
The three routes are the Adre Crossing into Chad, Al-Dabba of Northern State and Sennar City of Sennar State. He said that the SAF had been very cooperative in telephone discussions and that once these routes had been opened, the long awaited and desperately needed aid would be able to reach the most vulnerable.
One can only hope that the RSF and the SAF keep to their word and that the aid does reach the desperate civilians. But even if that happens, the fighting is unlikely to stop for a considerable time yet.
Currently, a fierce battle has been centred on El Fasher, the biggest urban city in the Darfur region, which is besieged by the RSF. If El Fasher falls, it will complete the RSF’s domination of the east of the country. But they have met strong resistance from the non-Arab Zhagawa tribes who accuse the more-Arabic RSF of attempted genocide.
Destructive proxy war
However the latest civil war in Sudan may have started – and Sudan does have a very unfortunate history of long-
lasting civil wars – it is no longer
merely a jousting for power between two army generals. It has become a proxy war with several interested parties. The longer the war continues, the more entrenched some of the outside positions will become and it will open the door for even more forces to join in the dismembering of the country.
Although the war is one and a half years old, its origins are becoming obscured by the dust of battle and the fog of propaganda so it is worthwhile to go back to the beginning.
Omar al-Bashir, the dictator who ruled Sudan for 30 years, it will be remembered was ousted in 2019 by a combination of a civil uprising, and finally a putsch by his own military. A civilian-military government, led by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok lasted for only a short time before the military once again took full control, with Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, head of the army proclaiming himself President in 2021.
His deputy was the leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti. The RSF was formed in 2013 by Bashir to ‘subdue’ the rebellious Darfur region. At heart was an ethnic element, with Darfur seen as part of ‘Black’ Sudan as opposed to ‘Arab Sudan’, although the distinction will have escaped most outside observers. The RSF derived most of its troops from the nightmarish Janjaweed militia that carried out unspeakable atrocities, including wholesale rape and near genocide.
Since then, Hemedti has built a powerful force that has intervened in conflicts in Yemen and Libya. He has also developed economic interests including controlling some of Sudan’s gold mines, and established financial and military ties with some of the Gulf States, including the UAE.
Following the military takeover of the state in 2021, he saw himself as co-ruler along with Gen. Burhan. But it soon
became clear that there was room for only one apex leader and discussions about incorporating the RSF into the army broke down amid bitter recriminations.
The two sides began to square up and mark out their territories, beginning in the capital Khartoum. The first shots were reportedly fired in April 2023 and a no-holds barred battle was rapidly engaged. The two army factions fought street by street and house by house, shelling each other’s positions and even employing helicopters and jet fighters. The terrified population was caught in the crossfire and often found themselves under attack by the parties, who used the opportunity to rape and pillage at will. A massive exodus of civilians began.
The fighting expanded throughout the country. The RSF initially captured Khartoum and Darfur but the SAF recaptured the capital and engaged their enemy in Darfur. The RSF maintains control of the west, while the SAF holds the north and east, including Port Sudan.
A vicious character
The fighting has taken a particularly vicious character, targeting civilian populations with indiscriminate bombardment, using rape and starvation as a weapon of war. The population has fled in terror in any direction they think they can find relative safety. Some three million have fled the country and millions more are displaced or trapped as the battles surge around them.
As always happens when a large country struggles to survive, it becomes easy prey to outside forces with their own interests to advance through proxy battles. While no country is showing its hand openly, it is no secret that the UAE is behind the RSF while Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran are supporting the SAF. Arms made in Iran, China, Serbia and Turkey have been spotted. Russia is believed to be playing both sides although given its wider Africa policy, especially in West and Central Africa, it could come down on the SAF side.
Sudan, the third largest country in Africa, sits at the crossroads between sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East and occupies the vital central geographical and communications position in the continent. What happens in Sudan has an effect on the whole of the rest of Africa. A peaceful, prosperous Sudan means a prosperous continent; a fractured Sudan holds the rest of the continent back several years if not decades.
In a world that it becoming increasingly impervious to the suffering of ordinary people, particularly if they are Black or Brown, it is imperative for us in Africa to take the situation in Sudan very seriously, even if the rest of the world chooses to ignore or neglect it.
Sudan is part of our collective whole, just as a limb is part of our total body. Its people are our brothers and sisters and part of what makes us uniquely African. We cannot be complete if one part of
us is broken and bleeding. We can no more ignore it than we can ignore a wound in ourselves. We cannot continue to sit back and hope for the best. We
have to act. Where are our wise peace-makers when we so urgently need them? Let us send out the call wherever we may be.
