Written by Justice For Sudan and agreed at the student encampment University of Liverpool
There are approximately 15,000 dead, with widespread plundering and rape, combined with displacement and famine. Human rights organizations describe horrific scenes of people caught between two equally brutal military forces – – the State army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). What was visited upon the Darfur region 20 years ago is now widespread. Violence between the two military forces broke out in Sudan in April 2023. Children are dying of hunger and sick people are not buying medicine so that they can afford food.
The central purpose was to put an end to the revolution. And each side is also working with many foreign powers from the USA and Europe through the Middle East to China and Russia for their own control and pillaging.
Over the years, the IMF had repeatedly dealt harshly with Sudan, cutting off loans for even the slightest non-compliance with its conditions. In the 1970s and 1980s these conditions resulted in so-called IMF riots. Scholars studying IMF programs over the past 40 years found a correlation between these measures and coups.
Hunger has drastically increased since then, in part because of the fall in grain production, which during the 2023–2024 harvest season was 46 percent below that of the previous year—a shortfall estimated at 3.7 million tons. With soaring prices and cereal production cuts – Sudan is in the middle of a humanitarian disaster.
While battles mostly centred in Khartoum in the beginning, they spread as each of the parties consolidated power in areas it controlled. The fighting has severely restricted the regular movement of food and aid convoys, and the hunger crisis in Sudan has deepened.
Nearly 25 million people – half Sudan’s population – need aid, the UN has estimated. The conflict has forced more than eight million people to flee their homes. (some accounts put the number at 11 million).
Not even one meal a day
Human Rights Watch has “documented SAF’s indiscriminate bombings, targeting of activists, and widespread abuses by RSF, including pillage and rape connected to occupation of residential areas. Both SAF and RSF have actively been hampering aid delivery, with the SAF hindering access to aid workers and supplies or point-blank denying access and RSF repeatedly looting humanitarian supplies.”
An aid convoy in Port Sudan, under the control of the army, needs five different stamps before being able to move to reach civilians in need – a process that can take from days to weeks, the source said. In January, more than 70 trucks were left waiting for clearance for more than two weeks.
More than 70 aid trucks have been stuck in North Kordofan state since October, the source said, in an area the army controls but surrounded by RSF. The convoy cannot leave unless their safe passage is guaranteed through some form of taxation, be it money, goods or fuel.
The 2018-2019 revolution
We arrive at this moment in Sudan because of the masses not taking power after initiating the revolutionary uprising against the Bashir dictatorship. At the time, Sudanese society was provoked by the revocation of subsidies for wheat and fuel at the behest of the International Monetary Fund, with predictable consequences. Economic demands morphed into political demands.
As it turned out, the dictator was toppled in a coup d’état by the opportunist generals, who pledged to cede power to a civilian government after a two-year transitional period. Instead, the generals staged another coup and continued its repression against the Sudanese revolutionaries.
Both military wings then make money out of aid.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is to step up its investigations into crimes and atrocities allegedly being committed during the war in Sudan and has appealed to all victim groups, civil society organisations, national authorities, and international partners, to provide video, audio, testimony, and other evidence to advance the ICC investigations.
The UN World Food Programme is urgently expanding its emergency food and nutrition assistance in Sudan amid the looming threat of famine, as conditions for civilians deteriorate and fighting intensifies in battle zones like El Fasher and Khartoum state.
In refugee camps across Darfur, families cannot get even one meal a day as they have not received aid for nearly 11 months, said Adam Rojal, spokesperson of the General Coordination of Darfur Displaced People and Refugees.
The food crisis has been compounded by the nearly two-month mobile network shutdown, which has also cut people off from remittances sent by relatives overseas, a critical lifeline for many that they have been using to receive via mobile banking apps.
Lethal shelling in North Darfur
On the 9 June 2024 the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), supported by Russia, infiltrated El Fasher (capital of north Darfur) Southern Hospital, shooting at patients and staff and killing and wounding a number, including the director of the hospital, Ezzedine Ahmed, and the director of the accidents and emergencies dept. The Southern Hospital has been the site of several attacks by the warring parties, highlighting its importance as a tactical location. While the nearby Abu Shouk camp for the displaced has faced more artillery strikes from the RSF, killing three children and an adult. These attacks continue in many areas.
Media sector.
All press and media institutions operating inside the country ceased operations, journalists have been displaced and lost their jobs.
This interruption of professional and field news coverage has created a “media blackout” across the country, Kamal Elsadig, editor-in-chief of Radio Dabanga.
Destroying a country
The West is treating Port Sudan as the de facto representative of the Sudanese state.
The army wants the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) to become their junior partner! General Yasir El Atta [member of the Transitional Sovereignty Council and Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF)] has said that he is ready to sacrifice 48 million citizens to achieve this. Sudan’s population is 45 million.
The movement lacked the leadership of a class independent and revolutionary party with a solid working-class and socialist program. The Sudanese Communist Party did not accept this role, but rather collaborated with the military regime. The popular organizations in Sudan likewise lacked defence bodies, which are necessary under revolutionary conditions to meet violent repression.
Nevertheless, the Sudanese revolution serves as an example for the people of all nations in the semi-colonial world. The fortunes of Sudan are inextricably linked to the rest of Africa and the Middle East. Sudan’s revolution should be studied by other working-class forces on the continent and in the world, learning from its successes and its mistakes.
Information taken from:
https://www.aljazeera.com/where/sudan/
https://www.dabangasudan.org/en