Over 10 million people have been internally displaced in Sudan. Sudanese activists from the frontlines of the struggle for democracy participated in an online press conference organised by the International Peoples’ Assembly (IPA), ‘Peoples Dispatch’ and ‘Madaar’ on Thursday, July 18. Picture: Sudanese Communist Party
By Aseel Saleh
The civil war in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has been raging on for over a year. This conflict has caused tremendous destruction and devastation to Sudan, displacing over 10 million people and putting 70% of the population at risk of famine.
The outbreak of the war occurred in the context of a long struggle waged by the Sudanese people for true civilian democracy. This struggle, which has historic roots, was reignited in December 2018.
After successfully toppling long-time dictator Omar al-Bashir in April 2019, the Sudanese people, organised into trade unions, civil society organisations, local Resistance Committees, and other formations, waged a struggle to oust the military from holding state power. However, after staging a coup in 2021, the military further cemented its grip on power.
Yet, the Sudanese people continued to demand peace, democracy, and justice. Now, even with the outbreak of the civil war between the two military groups vying for power, this struggle continues.
A press conference was organised by International Peoples’ Assembly (IPA), Peoples Dispatch and Madaar on Thursday, July 18, in order to present the voices of the left movements in Sudan, and to introduce their endeavours for justice and democracy to media outlets and journalists.
Sudanese women activists from the Sudanese Communist Party (SCP), the Sudanese Women’s Union, and the Doctors’ sector of SCP have spoken about the situation in Sudan and how their struggle for democracy and peace continues.
The main speakers in the press conference were Niamat Kuku, Member of the Central Committee of the Sudanese Communist Party and a human rights activist; Randa Mohammed from the Sudanese Women’s Union; and Dr Ihssane Fagiri, a leading member of the Doctors’ Sector of the Communist Party, a member of the Sudanese Women’s Union, the founding member of the No to Women’s Oppression Initiative and a member of the Doctors Syndicate Preliminary Office.
The speakers discussed main topics including the dynamics and repercussions of the war, and the impact of the war on Sudanese women in Darfur, in displacement camps and in refugee camps. The press conference also shed light on the health sector and the Sudanese people’s health and how they have been affected.
In addition, the role of international media outlets and solidarity movements, and the obstacles that they have been facing regarding Sudan’s war were also discussed.
Peoples Dispatch has produced a recapitulation of the press conference in three main articles. This article covers the dynamics of the current war in Sudan and its repercussions.
During the press conference, the speakers explained that the ongoing civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), with roots in the Janjaweed, was triggered by a social and economic conflict of interests over national resources creating a social class conflict.
This conflict erupted between political movements, who were supposed to lead the transitional period and implement the motto of the Sudanese revolution that succeeded in toppling former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir in 2019.
Sudan’s natural resources, including fresh water, precious minerals like gold, silver and uranium, wide areas of fertile agricultural lands and even the quality of Sudan’s soil have been coveted by regional countries, namely Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The climate of Sudan also made it a focus of attention amid the global climate change phenomenon.
The geographical location of Sudan in terms of Nile headwaters, and the fact that it links the Mediterranean sea and the Red Sea with the Indian and Pacific oceans in the south was another factor to make it targeted by these countries. In terms of human heritage, Sudan enjoys cultural variety that has developed through different civilisations which made it a target as well.
While Egypt has backed SAF in the ongoing civil war to maintain its alliance with Sudan in its dispute with Ethiopia, the UAE has backed the RSF providing it with advanced weaponry to achieve political hegemony.
The UAE aims at undermining any endeavours towards democracy, by dissolving Sudan’s transitional government, which was seeking to achieve the motto of the revolution, namely, freedom, justice, and peace. Egypt and the UAE, Niamat argued, have been fuelling the armed conflict in Sudan, in a way that serves global capitalism and the interest of imperialist powers.
The danger of the UAE’s support to RSF stems from enabling them to control Sudan’s western borders and allowing mercenaries to infiltrate into the Sudanese territories to fight. These mercenaries along with RSF have been forming armed groups with an extremist Islamist ideology.
Furthermore, remnants of the political Islam ideology, which has not been fully dismantled during the transitional period, has re-emerged in Sudan calling for its own demands through the military institution, i.e. SAF. These demands conform with global capitalism.
“The ongoing war in Sudan is not a purely military conflict between the official army in Sudan and other paramilitary groups. It is a conflict between two powers who succumbed to regional actors to serve their economic and political agenda,” Kuku said.
The warring parties worked on mobilising the masses including social, economic and political movements to gain support. While political Islam formed the mass base for SAF, the RSF has also worked to create their own mass base, especially after signing the Juba Peace Agreement in 2020.
The warring parties resorted to armed conflict to resolve the social, economic and political conflict of interests in Sudan. Each warring party is planning to exterminate the other to take over in Sudan and eliminate the transitional government and its motto.
Niamat Kuku remarked that the ongoing civil war will divide Sudan according to the existence of economic resources in each region and connect it to the global capitalist system instead of using the resources to revive Sudan’s economy and end poverty.
The current civil war has had a devastating impact on the Sudanese people, institutions and infrastructure. As per reports published by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations, 10.7 million people have been internally displaced in Sudan, making it the largest IDP population in the world. Additionally, two million people have fled Sudan in less than 2 years.
Although Sudan has wide areas of fertile agricultural lands, more than half of the population is starving. More than 25 million are food insecure. The provision of humanitarian aid through airdrops over displacement camps in Darfur was possible six months ago. However, international organisations failed in bringing humanitarian aid into Sudan by any means.
With regards to the mass internal displacement taking place in Sudan, Dr Ihssane says that resistance and emergency support committees are providing the Sudanese people with aid, as the international community and the United Nations have abandoned the Sudanese people to suffer alone.
Sudan has become a battlefield for the conflict over resources in a way that serves imperialism, neoliberalism and global capitalism. The Zionist entity has benefited from the war in Sudan as it aims at controlling Nile headwaters too. Israel has supported Egypt’s intervention in Sudan. In return Egypt has supported Israel in blocking the border crossings of Gaza.
While the international community is allowing aircrafts to supply warring parties in Sudan with weapons, it does not allow aircrafts to drop humanitarian aid.
This is the first in a series of three articles on Sudan. This article was published on Peoples Dispatch.