1000 Days of War in Sudan

By: Yusuf Abdel-Mannan

A thousand days during which the people endured killing, torture, displacement, looting of wealth, and the enslavement of women.

What is astonishing, despite all this, is the silence of an organization that claims to (No to the oppression of women)!!, because it is complicity and sometimes participation in the looting of people’s property and the liquidation of armed forces officers.

This forced Commander Minni Arko Minnawi to wound Khalid Silik’s pride when he told him that the Janjaweed had entered his house, raped his family, and that he was one of their supporters..!!

Many organizations have aligned themselves with and submitted to the militia, while others have fallen silent and disappeared.

Where is the so-called (Darfur Lawyers Association), who used to make a great deal of noise and clamor, claiming to defend the people of Darfur? But when the Janjaweed killed and raped women, the (Darfur Lawyers Association) remained silent, as if their ears were deaf, their eyes veiled, and their hearts blind.

A thousand days of war have passed during which the militia targeted the White Army (medical personnel) and fled from confronting the Green Army (military personnel).

More than two hundred patients were killed in Al-Naw Hospital in the heart of the national capital, Omdurman, by Katyusha rockets, RPGs, and mortar shells.

The militia had collaborators who provided them with the coordinates of civilian targets. The White Army—doctors, nurses, and laboratory technicians—stood firm in their patriotic stance. They refused to leave the hospitals, and some of them were martyred, while others suffered permanent disabilities, all to heal the wounds of the nation.

Meanwhile, there are doctors who betrayed their professional oath and the honor of humanity, joining the ranks of the militia. Some of them rented hospitals and health centers for the militia, pocketed the payment, and some flew overseas, enjoying the wealth of Sudanese blood. Tomorrow they will return because we are a people without memory and without reason. Tomorrow, those who killed four hundred elderly people and children in El Fasher Hospital will return, cold-bloodedly targeting their ethnic identity. Perhaps we will even see Abu Lulu al-Riziqi roaming the country’s roads, driving his car, guarded by ruthless mercenaries!

1000 days of immense sacrifices made by the youth of this nation and its loyal men. The souls of more than ten high-ranking officers, holding the rank of Major General—a very high rank—in the regular and supporting forces, ascended to martyrdom because the armed forces’ leaders emerged to fight the Janjaweed. The Janjaweed, in turn, fought the army and civilians with mercenaries from all over Africa. Their sponsor even went so far as to bring in mercenaries from Colombia in South America! But these mercenaries were of no use to them; they were defeated by our country’s Major Generals, some of whom attained martyrdom, such as Ayoub, Mohamed Fadlallah, Muawiya Hamad, and others—among the finest men Sudan has ever produced.

More than one hundred officers with the rank of Brigadier General sacrificed themselves so that Kamil Idris could return to Omdurman and begin the journey of reconstruction, rebuilding a city ravaged by international gangs—a city that is the fruit of a century of development and cumulative construction. How can we rebuild our country in a single year when Sudan, which endured a thousand-day war, still bleeds its wounds, and the rift has widened beyond repair—and the repairer is alone, without a partner?!

There is no close friend to protect it from the harm inflicted by the United Arab Emirates, which spent over a trillion dollars supplying lethal weapons, vehicles, and military equipment to militias, and spent a considerable portion of it buying off neighboring governments! And buying the silence of cheap organizations that claim to monitor human rights, but in the case of Sudan, they closed their eyes, muted their tongues, and plugged their ears, so they no longer hear, speak, or see!

The UAE bought off political parties, tribal leaders, and men who were once our rulers, and, in a strange twist of fate, have become our enemies!