The civil war in Sudan, between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support forces (RSF), which has been going on since April 2023, has recently taken an even darker course, with the capture of the large city of El Fasher by the RSF. Fears have now been expressed that the situation could become irretrievable.
Among those who fear that the situation in Sudan is out of control is António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Spiralling out of control
It was reported on 4 November that Guterres had said that the violence in Sudan is spiralling out of control as he called for it to end, among evidence that there appears to be little appetite for a ceasefire proposed by US.
It was further noted that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which are allegedly backed by the United Arab Emirates, had seized El Fasher in Darfur in late October following a deadly siege of the city, which had lasted almost 18-months. It was also reported that a number of RSF troops had posted videos of civilians being shot, including a number in the town’s maternity hospital, where it is thought hundreds were killed.
The UN has described the terrible situation in Sudan as one of the worst humanitarian crises of the 21st Century, resulting directly from the two-year civil war between the Sudanese armed forces (SAF) and the RSF. It was also noted that in the civil war as a whole, “more than 150,000 people have been killed and more than 14 million displaced from their homes.”
It was further reported that: “prosecutors at the international criminal court said on Monday that they were collecting evidence of alleged mass killings, rape and other crimes in El Fasher.” Guterres was said to have called upon the two rival armies to “come to the negotiating table, bring an end to this nightmare of violence – now.”
The death of a hero
One of the people killed by the RSF was Mohamed Khamis Douda. The news was announced in early November that he had been killed, after RSF militiamen on the edge of El Fasher had reportedly asked the few people who had managed to escape the besieged Sudanese city if Mohamed Khamis Douda was still inside. The RSF shared videos threatening to kill him, hoping that the films would reach Douda, an activist and official spokesperson for the Zamzam displacement camp in Sudan’s Darfur region.
It was also stated that:
“Even as the hunger and fear of living under siege and bombardment made him desperate to leave, Douda remained inside El Fasher, constantly working to let the outside world know what was happening to the people there. Then, on Sunday 26 October, Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces overran the city and it was too late. His friends and family have confirmed to the Guardian that Douda has been killed.”
Douda was said to have found himself, as the official spokesperson for Zamzam, in the displacement camp in Sudan’s Darfur region, right in the middle of what has become the world’s largest humanitarian catastrophe. During the RSF’s massacre there in April in which hundreds of civilians were killed, he was injured and had to be carried to the relative safety of nearby El Fasher.
Despite the dangers, it was noted that: “since then, Douda had been in regular contact with the Guardian, describing daily survival in a place that for months has seemed doomed to fall to the RSF.”
It is thought that Douda was murdered within hours of the RSF troops taking the city of El Fasher.
Preventing and ending mass atrocities
The campaign organisation, Preventing and Ending Mass Atrocities (PAEMA), whose mission is to “support communities in conflict-affected regions to prevent and end mass atrocities, pursue justice, and build foundations for sustainable peace,” have commented on the death of Douda.
Shayna Lewis, at Preventing and Ending Mass Atrocities, said: “This is the loss of an entire generation of Sudanese activists and Sudanese youth, who not only led the revolution [of 2019] and lived the values of peace, justice and freedom. That generation is being strategically wiped out with reports of lists that the RSF have of civil society members.”
Lewis also described Douda as a hero who had given his life to tell the world of the atrocities in Zamzam and El Fasher. Lewis went on to say: “I can’t overstate how much of a loss Mohamed’s death is for the wider community of civil society, for Sudan as a country, losing one of the true heroes of the war.”
Stopping the bloodshed
Time and again over the last two and a half years there have been atrocities in the civil war in Sudan. Each has led to the international community issuing condemnations and saying that the violence must end, but each time the atrocities have continued.
It should be one of the international community’s main priorities to intervene to end the killings and violence. It would appear that a major part of that must involve ending the supply of arms to the RSF, especially through the United Arab Emirates. While the UAE have denied supplying arms to the RSF, it is still generally considered that they are a major source of the weapons going to the rebel force.
Indeed it was reported on 31 October that British MPs from different parties had called on the UK government to review the sale of arms to the UAE, because of fears that they “that could be used in Sudan after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized the city of El-Fasher in North Darfur and massacred civilians there.”
It was noted that MPs from the Green party, Labour, the Independent Alliance, the SNP, and Liberal Democrats had demanded a suspension of arms sales to the United Arab Emirates in comments to Middle East Eye last week.
It was further reported that it had emerged in late October that “British military equipment was found in RSF hands in combat zones in Sudan.”
The supply of weapons to the RSF must be ended. The people of Sudan have waited helplessly for too long for the necessary international intervention to end this brutal civil war and for the opportunity to rebuild, and get on with their lives.
How you can help
You can help by writing, and asking others to write to Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and make the following points:
- ‘Thank you for highlighting the plight of people across Sudan during your first week as Foreign Secretary.’
- ‘Diplomatic pressure on the United Arab Emirates who are backing the fighters of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has helped prevent a massacre before. I urge you to use your power, now.’
- ‘Please pick up the phone to your UAE counterpart, demand safe, voluntary passage for civilians as well as humanitarian access, and make it clear that the UK will be watching closely what the RSF is doing in El Fasher (with the support of the UAE).’
To find other ways you can help the people of Sudan please see:
The UN Refugee Agency United Kingdom for UNHCR.
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