Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan and his former deputy and current rival, Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo.Getty; AFP
We do not hear much about the violence in Sudan these days. Yet, the people of Khartoum are under siege, struggling to find food, water and medicine. They spend their days praying they are not robbed by militia roaming the streets and breaking into homes, or being bombed by the Sudanese Armed Forces who claim to be fighting for the sake of their war-torn nation.
At the same time, a different conflict is unfolding in Darfur in the remote west of Sudan. There, a systematic Janjaweed campaign of ethnic cleansing is sweeping across an area the size of France, with an untold number of civilian casualties.
Sudan is becoming a failed state, but it seems much of the world lost interest once the emergency evacuations ceased. While there is a twenty-four-hour focus on Ukraine, the suffering of Khartoum and Darfur are neglected.
A meeting in the British Parliament this week heard that ceasefire agreements made by the men with guns, the Rapid Support Forces/Janjaweed (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), are broken within minutes of being signed. Sudanese speakers asked why diplomats believe that the men who overthrew Sudan’s civilian transitional government in 2021 could be trusted to obey a ceasefire today or to eventually hand over power to the civilians they are currently killing.
It is reported that the citizens of Khartoum have shown bravery and resourcefulness in creating a social survival network, supporting civilians, even as the bombs fall and mercenaries destroy hospitals. The same local Resistance Committees have been facing the guns of the Sudanese security forces ever since the citizens’ revolution in December 2018. Speakers at the Parliamentary meeting in London urged the international community to deliver humanitarian aid to these groups, rather than the army in Port Sudan, which reputedly steals the aid and sells it on the black market.
The Parliamentary meeting heard that the RSF and the SAF have massive commercial interests registered in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The militias might think twice about flattening Khartoum if their financial assets were frozen by the governments of Saudi and the UAE. Andrew Mitchell, the British Minister for Africa, told survivors of the conflict that the UK was considering all options to exert leverage on the SAF and the RSF.
Dr Ahmed Abas of the British Sudan Doctors’ Union told British Parliamentarians that France has 5,100 soldiers headquartered in Chad. He suggested the French could create a safe corridor from Adre in Chad to El Geneina, a mere 28 kms away. This would enable the delivery of humanitarian aid to West Darfur which has been under siege for 61 days.
Speaking at the London meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Sudan, Saif Nemir asked why France doesn’t improve its reputation in Africa by helping the embattled one million citizens trapped in El Geneina. Local people know from experience that the RSF would probably run away if faced by a professional foreign force.
Nemir told of his parents’ 12-hour journey through ten checkpoints, manned by aggressive and racially abusive young Janjaweed soldiers, to reach the Chad border. His parents had been trapped in El Geneina for 59 days with no power or internet, and without deliveries of food, water, or medicine.
Parliamentarians heard from Dr Abas that the aid operation in eastern Chad is chaotic and overwhelmed, with people living in makeshift tents constructed from scarves. The rainy season is approaching and will make delivery of aid even more challenging. There is the threat of cholera in the ever-growing refugee camp which has received 150,000 Darfuris in a short period.
Dr Abas reported that in El Geneina, there is no power, water, food, or medicine. Hospitals have been destroyed and 5,000 civilians have probably been killed. Meanwhile, it is understood that El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, is surrounded by RSF/Janjaweed. Dr Abas said the RSF systematic targets non-Arab civil society and its institutions and NGOs.
Maab Saifeldin who escaped from Darfur during the earlier genocide told the Parliamentary meeting that boys aged 10 are targeted for death; girls aged 12-17 are targeted for rape to "change the DNA of Darfur", and bodies litter the streets and highways. Dead Darfuris are being used as speed bumps in El Geneina. As co-founder of the UK Sudanese Legal Network, Saifeldin asked why young people in Darfur cannot dream of the same peaceful future she now enjoys in Britain.
The UK’s Africa Minister, Andrew Mitchell, told the meeting that Britain continues to work with all partners including the African Union, IGAD, the Troika and the Quad, trying to secure a negotiated ceasefire.
