Reading the statistics, it is natural to fall into despair.
The counter-revolutionary war in Sudan is entering its fourth year. Thousands of civilians have been senselessly murdered, and many more have been injured, brutalised and traumatised beyond imagination. Millions of children have missed vital periods of schooling, and hundreds of thousands are in the throes of famine . Bloodstains from massacres have been visible from space.
The hallmarks of genocide have once again been determined in Darfur. Drone attacks have hit schools and weddings. According to the United Nations, three years into this war, the number of survivors needing support for sexual violence has quadrupled . Despair, in some ways, feels like the only appropriate response.
But on a day like today, I refuse to indulge in despair. Instead, I may entertain rage; the white-hot emotion that sears my chest daily as I reckon with how much of my dear Sudan this counter-revolutionary war has destroyed. I rage at the injustice, the exploitation, and the deliberate abandonment of the Sudanese civilians who so bravely overthrew a dictator of almost thirty years a mere six years ago.
But on a day like today, I am drawn to feeling something more profound than my regular dose of rage. A feeling that is as much emotion as it is a commitment. A sensation that is in fact a belief: a deep, strong, unshakeable conviction that this war will end. It must end.
Indeed, it can end – if only those in positions of power make different choices. When you put it that simply, that clearly, a glimmer of light can be seen in the darkness.
Warmongers and genocidaires depend on our despair to continue their pillage. When we despair, we abandon; when we abandon, we condemn a people to a false fate. This is the bigotry of low expectations, but at the structural level: if ‘we’ don’t believe the Sudanese people can have the freedom, peace and justice they organised, protested and died for, and when it appears that their efforts have collapsed, we sigh and say, it was always going to be this way, wasn’t it? It was inevitable.
But this war is not inevitable. This destruction is not unavoidable. This conflict – this famine, these massacres, these war crimes – none of this is the natural fate of Sudanese people. These are deliberate choices, policy positions, and actions being allowed by the international community.
From the UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, to Russia, Turkey, Iran: leaders in positions of power all over the world are, in various ways, enabling the massacre of Sudanese civilians, because right now, there is little incentive for the war crimes to stop.
There have been reports of munitions from China and Bulgaria, even military equipment from the UK , turning up in Sudan, yet scant attention or culpability. Why should either party involved move towards peace when they can continue to export gum arabic, livestock, and gold ? When they can profit from the nation’s resources without taxation, without reparation, lining personal coffers instead of supporting the welfare of the people?
Yet, the warring parties and those who support them pay almost no cost for their actions. When there is so little accountability for the industrial-scale despoiling of Sudan, it is no wonder it continues.
We have to demand more. We have to demand better for the Sudanese people. We have to demand accountability, action, and attention to the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, this blight on all our souls.
At this point, literally anything helps. Talk about Sudan, once a day, to someone new. Donate to grassroots organisations like the Sudan Solidarity Collective , or the Darfur Women Action Group . Support Tagatu3’s Academic and Cultural Boycott of the UAE , which demands that cultural and academic institutions divest from any investment projects made with the Emirati state, royal families, and complicit institutions. Join a virtual teach-in organised by the Sudanese Resistance Front . Attend a protest in your area. Ensure your gold is genocide free. Join the People’s Arms Embargo . Sign up for Atar , a magazine that delivers news from the ground, and support local journalism. Volunteer for the Sudan Digital Archive . Wear a t-shirt or a tote . I don’t care what you do, but do something . The train might have left the station, but it is time to pull the emergency brake. This war cannot be allowed to continue. If it does, we all accept that a people can be condemned to depths of depravity for nothing more than the gross appetites of greedy men.
I don’t believe we accept that at all. I believe we know better. And if enough of us raise our voices, in every and any way we possibly can, then maybe, this god-forsaken war will finally end, and the Sudanese people can begin that long road back to each other; back to the peace, freedom and justice we so deserve. Yassmin Abdel-Magied is a Sudanese-Australian author and social justice advocate. She is a regular columnist for The New Arab. Follow her on Twitter: @yassmin_a Have questions or comments? Email us at: editorial-english@newarab.com. Opinions expressed in this article remain those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The New Arab, its editorial board or staff.