The US tries its hand at peace-making in Sudan

Opinion|Published 7 months ago

A boy prepares straw to be used as a cooking fire inside a hut at a camp for people displaced by conflict in Sudan's eastern Gedaref province on May 15, 2024. In the Horn of Africa, the siren for the survival of Sudan is a dull echo. Food is scarce and guns abundant, the writer says. – Picture: AFP

Tens of thousands have been killed in the 15-month conflict in Sudan. A tide of displacement has engulfed the nation, and with an estimated five million children forced to flee their homes, Sudan is becoming the world’s epicentre of deracination, the writer says. – Picture: Wikimedia Commons

By Kim Heller

It has been a fifteen-month long spell of warfare in Sudan. Civil strife has become the disorder of the day for stricken citizens. None escape the turbulence of furious battles between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Tens of thousands have been killed in the 15-month conflict. A tide of displacement has engulfed the nation, and with an estimated five million children forced to flee their homes, Sudan is becoming the world’s epicentre of deracination.

ACLED, a non-profit organisation which assesses armed and violent conflict across the globe, classifies Sudan as one of the fifty most violent countries in the world. Several analysts believe that the nation has yet to heal from the 2003 – 2005 Darfur genocide.

In his recently published book, ‘Sudan in Crisis,’ Professor Kwesi Kwaa Prah writes of the slow-motion genocide in the war-torn nation, as “ugly, systemic, drawn out and merciless”.

Laetitia Bader, the Director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) in the Horn of Africa has spoken out against RSF abductions, torture and rape against women and children. There are chilling accounts of brutal rapes that have led to women and girls dying “due to the violence associated with the act of rape”.

According to the HRW, neither side has taken measurable or meaningful action to prevent rapes or investigate such atrocities.

In the Horn of Africa, the siren for the survival of Sudan is a dull echo. Food is scarce and guns abundant. Prospects for recovery have become faded in the ever-foul vapour of violence and violation. Multiple efforts to broker peace have failed. Ceasefire talks held in Egypt and Jeddah between the SAF and RSF did not silence the guns.

A boy prepares straw to be used as a cooking fire inside a hut at a camp for people displaced by conflict in Sudan's eastern Gedaref province on May 15, 2024. In the Horn of Africa, the siren for the survival of Sudan is a dull echo. Food is scarce and guns abundant, the writer says. – Picture: AFP

Appeals from the United Nations and the African Union to the warring groups to put down arms have fallen on deaf ears. The war rages on.

General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has spoken of the SAF’s intent to fight until victory over RSF is achieved. He has been resolute that the war will not end as long as RSF occupies civilian areas.

While this provision formed part of the Jeddah Agreement, it has yet to be effected. The US is now trying its hand at peace-making in Sudan and has facilitated a new round of talks. Scheduled to take place in Switzerland in mid-August, the talks will be co-hosted by Saudi Arabia. The United Nations, the African Union, Egypt, and United Arab Emirates, are all expected to participate, albeit as observers.

The leader of RSF, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo has expressed interest in participating in the talks and has stated that he supports dialogue on a comprehensive ceasefire across the country as well as the facilitation of humanitarian access to those in need.

The US has called on SAF and RSF to approach the talks constructively, commit to ending the cycle of conflict, and developing a peaceful pathway towards a negotiated political solution. A military solution is no answer. It will simply lead to further graves and the possibility of Sudan becoming the largest cemetery in the world is not far off.

Professor Prah writes how giving preference to militarist solutions to national struggles for emancipation and democracy “places the gun above politics”, and seeds warlordism. This has led to bloody conflicts and warlordism becoming the hallmarks of many African states. Professor Prah argues that this is an expression of the dynamics of weak and unstable neocolonial states.

There is hope that the new peace talks break the deadly Sudan stalemate. The call for a negotiated settlement is the only road ahead if Sudan is to survive. But this will be but a dream unless there is full frontal exposure and accountability of the chief causes and protagonists of the conflict.

A comprehensive and correct understanding of the socio-cultural and religious diversity and divisions in Sudan will also be required in the crafting of an authentically representative, harmonious, and equitable society. A through analysis of the robustness of existing governance and government structures, is also vital in order to build a democratic and functional undercarriage for a renewed Sudan.

The United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken has spoken of the need to bring the “senseless conflict” to an end and has reiterated the US’s commitment to working with partners to end this devastating war.

But Blinken’s description of the Sudan crisis as a “senseless conflict” is a faulty starting point. For it ignores the role and culpability by key beneficiaries who are either fuelled by a gluttonous greed for Sudan’s resources or driven by religious imperialism in the new scramble for Africa.

Hala al-Karib, the regional director for the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa claims that there are considerable resources being invested in this war, especially on “the RSF side”. A recently published Amnesty International report exposed that the conflict in Sudan is being fuelled by a constant flow of weapons into the country, from countries including China, Russia, Serbia, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Yemen.

Amnesty International’s Senior Director for Regional Human Rights, Deprose Muchena, said that their research has uncovered how weapons entering the country are “placed into the hands of combatants who are accused of international humanitarian and human rights law violations”.

The US has been criticised for its failure to engage with UAE on the state of Sudan. Julian Pecquet wrote in the Africa Report on 23 July that “Abu Dhabi’s support for the genocidal Rapid Support Forces is becoming impossible to ignore. The Joe Biden administration is under growing pressure to call out its Emirati ally’s support of genocidal paramilitaries in Sudan.”

There have long been allegations that the UAE provides weapons to RSF as part of an attempt to reduce Islamist influence in the Horn of Africa. There have also been claims that UAE lords over the illegal arms trade in Sudan. The UAE has denied these claims.

While the US initiative should be welcomed, one does hope it is a genuine call for peace rather than a cruel and meaningless political stunt ahead of the crucial US election in November.

For the people of Sudan, yesterday’s yearnings lie buried deep in the ruins of each daybreak. Peace talks that fail to deliver real solutions will simply add to the mountainous ruins of Sudan and the heartbreak of its people.

* Kim Heller is a political analyst and author of ‘No White Lies: Black Politics and White Power in South Africa’. This article was written exclusively for The African. To republish, see terms and conditions.

** The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of The African