Just a few days ago, after eight extremely difficult years, the guns went quiet in Yemen. The people of the country could finally breathe a sigh of relief. We shared their enthusiasm as we watched the news on our TV screens. Prisoners were exchanged and allowed to go home to their families, allowing them to fully embrace the joy of Eid. However, as usual, our joy was dashed a few days later, as Sudan is at war once again.
May God come to the aid of our people in Sudan. They are bearing the brunt of another war in the streets of their capital Khartoum and other Sudanese cities.
This time, like the last, a power struggle sparked the conflict after the negotiations among the various factions in power reached an impasse. This time, as with all wars, it is very easy to take the genie out of the bottle but exceedingly difficult to put it back in. One certainty is that no one can predict how long the war will go on, just as no one can predict where the sparks of its deadly fire will go.
The Sudanese civil war, like the Libyan civil war, the Yemeni civil war, and the Syrian civil war, will not remain a civil war. As several commentators have reiterated in the media, its devastating negative ramifications will go beyond Sudan. The Arab civil wars that have erupted since 2011 emphatically demonstrate that neighboring countries will not be spared of its repercussions.
The Chadian authorities immediately closed the border with Sudan. The latter’s neighbors will soon receive waves of refugees and migrants, and increased numbers of people will board the death boats to Europe.
The battles will probably seep into Libyan territory unless the international community intervenes swiftly and decisively to put an end to this calamity. Indeed, the war was quick to spread from the capital Khartoum to other areas and cities. Clips of the blasts and destruction have been circulating on social media, and we are beginning to see reports of high numbers of civilian casualties.
As we have seen in previous episodes of the Arab civil war series, arms dealers, drug smugglers, and human traffickers will be the only victors. The promise of democracy and civilian rule will end up buried in the graves of the victims. Military rule, be it in Africa, Asia, Europe, or Latin America, is always catastrophic. In fact, many of the countries that had fallen into the grip of the army continue to suffer the repercussions of their rule to this day, longer after having broken free.
After 26 years under the rule of General Omar Al-Bashir, the Sudanese people found themselves struggling to breathe in the furnace of a civil war. Moreover, reinstating civilian control over Khartoum is no longer on the table. This prospect can only become realistic if the artillery shells are silenced and dialogue is resumed.
The war broke out last Saturday. The next day, the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors announced that more than 300 civilians had been killed and 595 had been wounded. Both warring factions continue to claim to control the presidential palace and Khartoum Airport. The Sudanese army command, in a statement released on Sunday, ruled out negotiations or dialogue with the Rapid Support Forces before the militias are dissolved.
All the information we have been receiving over the past few months pointed to the inevitability of this war between the chiefs of the factions vying for power. Having Generals sitting atop a dictatorial hierarchy is catastrophic in any country, let alone Sudan! This does not imply that political parties played no role in igniting the flames of war. Indeed, both belligerents are backed by civilian political forces. Throughout this period, the international community, too preoccupied with the crisis in Ukraine, showed no concern.
Now that the situation has imploded, we are seeing global capitals, Arab capitals, and the Secretary-General of the United Nations call for an end to the fighting. They are now demanding that all sides abide by the framework for the transitional phase that they had agreed to and allow for the election of a civilian government.
However, who is paying any mind to those demands now? Rather, who can hear them as gunfire, artillery shells, and fighter jets wreak havoc? World Food Program Executive Director Cindy Mccain announced that WFP would suspend operations in Sudan after three workers died from the shelling in northern Darfur and the organization’s plane was hit by shrapnel at Khartoum Airport.
