Sudan drowning in blood and hunger

Darfur is engulfed in atrocity, with famine, mass killings and displacement now defining what remains of Sudan’s revolution.

~ Blade Runner ~

The city of El Fasher in the war-torn Sudanese province of Darfur — a region roughly the size of Spain — has fallen into the hands of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) after around a year and a half of siege. During this time, hundreds of thousands of civilians were trapped, food supplies collapsed, and famine conditions began to take hold. Satellite images and eyewitness accounts now reveal scenes of terror: burned neighbourhoods, mass graves and large-scale killings of civilians. The RSF, led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (“Hemedti”) — direct successors of the Janjaweed militias, the so-called “mounted devils” who for years terrorised non-Arab populations in Darfur — have been fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) of General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan for more than two years in what many Sudanese call a “war against civilians”, as women and children are disproportionately among the dead.

The total number of people killed is unknown; estimates range into the tens or possibly hundreds of thousands, but no confirmed figures approach one million. More than 12 million people have been displaced inside Sudan or forced to flee to neighbouring countries — particularly Chad, but also the Central African Republic, Libya, Egypt, South Sudan, Uganda and Ethiopia. Around 25 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, with approximately 24 million facing acute food insecurity and outbreaks of diseases such as cholera. Even the aid that reaches the country is frequently blocked or looted by RSF forces, SAF units or local militias aligned to either side. Only a small number of refugees manage to reach the Mediterranean in an attempt to cross to Europe in unsafe boats, often risking or meeting death at sea.

This civil war began after the overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir in 2019, when a popular uprising forced him from power. Instead of leading to any kind of democracy, the country was seized by rival generals who eventually turned their weapons on each other. It has become a merciless conflict that the UN has called the ‘perfect storm’, with no visible prospect of ending, drawing in outside involvement from regional powers such as the United Arab Emirates and Egypt — backing different sides — as well as Russian interests and private military contractors. The EU has been spending millions to curb migration while military equipment from Britain, Canada and elsewhere is being used in the battlefields.

Less widely known is what remains of the grassroots revolutionary movement that helped ignite the uprising against al-Bashir. Among these forces is the Anarchist Group in Sudan (AGS), founded by students and young workers in 2017. During the revolution, its members helped organise resistance committees — neighbourhood assemblies that coordinated protests, strikes and mutual aid. After the military retook power and the civil war began, many AGS members were arrested, killed or forced underground. Others continued their work in secret: translating and printing anarchist texts, running communal kitchens, assisting displaced families and supporting local defence groups. With the support of international anarchist networks, including Black Rose/Rosa Negra, the AGS acquired a printing press to produce their own material, although constant fighting and repression have limited its use. For them, this is not simply a war between two generals, but the violent destruction of the revolution from below — a deliberate crushing of any attempt at self-organisation, autonomy and popular power.

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