What is happening in Sudan?
A civil war broke out in Sudan in April 2023. The army, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and a paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), are at war with each other. They are each trying to eliminate the other and gain complete control of Sudan, a resource-rich country. The Sudanese people are caught in the middle.
Since this conflict began approximately 9 million people have had to flee their homes. About 7 million have fled to other parts of Sudan, hoping where they have run to will be safer for them. While 2 million have escaped to neighbouring countries or across the Red Sea. Out of a population of less than 50 million, an estimated 25 million are at risk of starvation.
Sudan has broken down
Both the SAF and the RSF prioritise keeping the areas they have secured and gaining more ground. Neither side is interested in providing essential services to the people. The SAF, which has control of Port Sudan, Sudan’s port city on the Red Sea, is hoarding humanitarian aid and supplies coming in through the port, in an attempt to starve out the RSF. The RSF has been looting aid and whatever else it can, and distributing what they have looted in exchange for money and loyalty from civilians in the areas they control. The SAF has been operating in a similar manner.
Many schools, banks, hospitals, the sorts of things that people need in a country, have had to close since the conflict broke out. Agriculture has also been greatly disrupted. Many humanitarian agencies had to close up their operations there as well, as it’s just too unsafe to continue. There are widespread shortages of many essentials goods. Inflation is rampant. Because of the disruption about half the country is out of work.
Sudanese Resistance Committees
The Sudanese resistance committees are a network of grassroots civilian groups that formed over 10 years the previous regime under Omar al-Bashir, which was very repressive and inhumane. They want Sudan to have a democratically elected government that respects the human rights of all Sudanese people. Civilians in these groups are the ones who are working to provide essential goods and services to the people. There are often the ones providing food and healthcare, or trying to fix essential services, like parts of a local electric grid.
The work of these civilian volunteer groups is also severely affected by the shortages and disruption that the conflict creates. For example free kitchens that were run in the southern belt of Khartoum had to close down recently because of a lack of money, food and the ongoing fighting.
Throughout the country, around 25 million people are at risk of famine. Because neither the SAF nor the RSF care whether civilians live or die, the situation looks like it require military intervention by the African Union and/or a UN peace keeping mission to deliver essential humanitarian aid to the people.
Darfur
The situation is dire throughout Sudan, but especially so in Darfur. You may remember that a genocide occurred in Darfur in 2003/4. Darfur is a large region in the west of Sudan. The genocide that occurred there was brutal. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed, millions were forced to flee and a systematic campaign of rape was carried out. It was brutal.
The history of Darfur, and all of Sudan, is extremely complicated. It’s difficult to briefly summarize any of it. And honestly, I’ve only read up on this stuff recently. But I will try to briefly explain the situation in Darfur.
What happened in Darfur in the early 2000s?
Darfur is populated with tribes that are seen as either ethnically Arab or Nilo-Saharan (non-Arab). The tribes are all Muslims but there are great ethnic tensions between them, with the non-Arab tribes reporting oppression by the Arab tribes. In 2003, rebel groups from non-Arab tribes formed the Sudan Liberation Army and began attacking military and public institutions in Darfur.
President al Bashir’s response was to crush the rebels. When this couldn’t be achieved by a quick military strike, he armed and funded militias of the Arab tribes, collectively known by the derogatory label Janjaweed. The Janjaweed carried out sorched earth tactics on the ground in Darfur, while the army, the SAF, carried out a bombing campaign of the area. Hundreds of villages were destroyed, people killed, brutalised or kidnapped and forced to serve with some militia.
The devastation was so horrendous that it caught the attention of world’s media and al-Bashir’s regime was forced to end the campaign. However, the international attention given to conflict failed to highlight the complexities of the situation in Darfur, what the people there needed, and the wider problems with al-Bashir’s strict autocratic rule for all Sudanese people.
The tensions in Darfur never ended
The tensions in Darfur never ended, they just simmered down. What is happening today in Darfur is horribly reminiscent of what happened during the genocide there. Omar al-Bashir regularised the Janjaweed militias into the Rapid Support Forces, the RSF. Since this current conflict broke out in April 2023, The RSF have once again looted, killed, raped or forced to flee people throughout Darfur, and throughout areas of Sudan. A report by Channel 4 says that both accounts by survivors and satellite imagery shows the presence of new mass graves. The SAF bomb areas of Darfur, as well as other areas of Sudan that the RSF controls or where the power is contested, in hopes of driving out the RSF. Many of the areas they bomb are civilian areas.
The Complicated Situation in Sudan
How did the RSF and SAF, who were allies, end up in a power struggle that is killing Sudan? This Vox explainer video outlines the roots of the current conflict in a very comprehensible way.
Different foreign powers are covertly supporting either the RSF or the SAF. The situations is hugely complicated. I do not know enough to discuss how foreign involvement is affecting everything, other than to say that it is essential that the supply of arms to the SAF and in particular the RSF must stop. I think it is incorrect to call the war between the RSF and the SAF a proxy war. Conflict between Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, aka Hemedti, leader of the RSF, and General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, leader of the SAF, seemed inevitable given the amount of resources and troops they both control. So I don’t have enough knowledge of the situation to know how accurate the analysis of this Warographics video is. But it really is eye opening regarding the amount of foreign involvement in this conflict.
Sudan needs positive foreign intervention
There is a worrying lack of foreign intervention demanding peace talks and ensuring the flow of humanitarian aid to the people of Sudan. The SAF is hoarding aid and whatever else that comes in through Port Sudan. Meanwhile the RSF is looting any aid and whatever else it can wherever they find it. It looks like ensuring the distribution of humanitarian aid to civilians in Sudan will require some foreign military intervention. Why are the African Union and/or the UN not doing something about this?
Sudan deserves peace, democracy and justice
Another thing that is very noticeable about this conflict, is how ordinary people have pulled together to attempt to help others survive this brutal war. I mentioned the resistance committees that organise whatever they can with their meagre resources for the people in their locality. But they are also stories of people running from soldiers, from either side, and surviving because of the help and kindness they received from others along the way. I think it says something really wonderful about Sudanese culture. These people deserve the democracy and justice that they have been clamouring for.
Sudan is in need of help. It needs the attention of the world’s media once again. And it needs the type of intervention that will seek long term solutions. The people want a fair democratically elected government. It isn’t enough to end the conflict of these two military leaders. But that must happen. Right now this conflict is killing Sudan and approximately 25 million are at risk of famine. Please speak up for Sudan.