In Darfur, Sudan the civil war is heating up. The regime in Khartoum lost its last stronghold in the western region to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militias, the city of El-Fasher. The loss of El-Fasher, the North Darfur State Capital, to the RSF is a huge loss to the formal military regime led by General Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan, army chief of staff. The conflict in El-Fasher boiled into genocide with RSF paramilitary fighters in vehicles, on camels and on foot rampaged through the city streets murdering and detaining hundreds of people in the latest atrocity of a war that has raged in the country for over 31 months. United Nations Secretary General António Guterres called it a “terrible escalation” in the conflict.
Medical groups reported that RSF fighters killed dozens of civilians and detained hundreds of others since taking over the military’s base in the city on Sunday. The army said it withdrew from the city, hoping to save civilians from further violence after more than a year of RSF attacks on the city. Military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan said the army retreated because of “the systemic destruction, and the systemic killing of civilians” by the RSF. In a surprise statement Tuesday night, the Sudanese government said it ordered the expulsion of the Country Director and the Director of Operations of the World Food Program and declared them “persona non grata” without giving a reason. The two have 72 hours to leave the country. It added that “this decision does not affect the ongoing cooperation with the World Food Programme in Sudan.”
The war started in April 2023 when simmering tensions between the Sudanese military and the RSF exploded into open fighting in the capital, Khartoum, and elsewhere in the country.
Violence in Sudan has escalated to catastrophic proportions. The trade in arms and other ammunition to both the RSF militias and the regular army needs to be stopped. This includes selling such arms on the black market to both parties. RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo should not be allowed to seize power due to his ruthless nature. The best course of action is for international legal authorities to quench the flow of weaponry to the RSF. Then use the opportunity to argue for a ceasefire. The current depressing brutality of this genocide casts a dark shadow on the African Union (AU)’s agenda to “Silence the Guns”. When it comes to the expulsion of the Country Director and the Director of Operations of the World Food Programme with out giving a valid reason eye brows will be raised. When such statements are made the ones being exiled will like to know their cause of offence.
The conflict has seen the misery, death and ruination of the Sudanese people. An end to the arms trade to Sudan especially from the UAE and Egypt as well as Turkiyë. This should be followed by a ceasefire. All this is wishful thinking.
For the past 30 months, army leader al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who heads the RSF, have been fighting over control of Sudan. These two men, once allies and among the most powerful generals in the country, jointly ousted President Omar al-Bashir from power in 2019. They also played significant roles in a subsequent coup in 2021 when al-Burhan seized control from Sudan’s transitional government. Both generals have faced Western sanctions due to their involvement in war crimes. However, Dagalo’s RSF, along with its allied Arab militias, has been accused by the United States of committing genocide during the ongoing civil war. This marks the second time in two decades that the US has declared genocide in Sudan.
The US government said when making the declaration in January that the RSF had executed “direct attacks against civilians,” including the systematic murder of “men and boys – even infants – on an ethnic basis.”
The current genocide taking place in Darfur, of young men and boys is akin to the Bosnia genocide in the former Yugoslavia. The former alliance now turned bitter feud between al-Burhan and Dagalo has come to cost Sudan its social stability and territorial integrity. Both men should be made answerable for their actions. The conflict they are fighting has dragged their own people through blood. It is also time; the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Turkiyë be made answerable for their own part in the carnage. The UAE is allied with Dagalo and the RSF while the Turks are supportive of Al Burhan and his military junta. An end to supplying weapons to both sides needs to come to an end.
Only then can Al-Buhan and Dagalo end the conflict and ceasefire called fourth. Till then no one is going to be happy with the idea of a splintering Sudan. Not South Sudan, not Uganda, not Ethiopia, not the Central African Republic, not Egypt most of all. Only time will tell if a major refugee crisis can be prevented.
Article written by:
Yacoob Cassim
Journalist at Radio Al Ansaar
