Nairobi — Hundreds of civilians have died across Sudan, with many thousands injured since the spreading armed conflict between two competing military forces - the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began on 15 April. The international community has called repeatedly for parties involved in the conflict to lay down their weapons, return to the negotiating table and unite the people of Sudan. After several failed cease fires, countries around the world are scrambling to evacuate their diplomats and citizens and are advising those without safe passage routes to shelter in place. Among the African countries working to evacuate their nationals - many of them university students - are Nigeria, Djibouti, Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Sudanese people, tens of thousands of who marched and protested on almost a daily basis after the two rival military forces ousted a civilian-led government in October 2021, halting preparations for elections and a transition to democracy. Now those protestors are trying to survive the current conflict, often without electricity, food, water, or safe places to hide. Nevertheless, they have a message for the world: support our democracy struggle, not just a ceasefire.
Building peace requires supporting Sudanese people's ongoing demand for democracy.
AllAfrica's Nontobeko Mlambo met in Kenya's capital Nairobi with Ethopian scholar Mahder Habtemariam Serekberhan, who is working on her PhD degree in political science at Syracuse University in the United States. In her research, including for her Masters' degree in PanAfrican Studies, she has explored the 2019 pro-democracy uprising in Sudan and the fundamental role of women in liberation struggles.
She said that those outside Sudan who talk about peace must support the aspirations of the Sudanese people. "I think that young Africans and peace seekers must stand in solidarity with the Sudanese people and hold their leaders accountable for their role in furthering their suffering. We need to echo what the Sudanese people are saying: no intervention; and military back to the barracks."
By telephone from Nairobi, Mlambo talked to one of those Sudanese who has been part of the protests - a member of one of the many neighborhood committees, such as doctors, lawyers and students, that organized and coordinated the opposition to military takeover. Munir Biram is a member of the Burri Resistance Committee in the middleclass neighborhood of Burri in Khartoum, Sudan's capital.
Please explain what is happening in Sudan now.
What is currently happening in Sudan is an armed conflict between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support militia.
What has led to this situation?
This led to the occurrence of this conflict for several reasons, the most important of which is the presence of two armed forces in one country, as well as external and regional interventions from countries aspiring to maintain their economic relations in Sudan and extend their influence in Africa, in addition to the Islamist elements within the military institutions and also the political settlement that was supposed to be signed in early April.
What are activists, and civilian peacebuilders doing about the situation?
What we are doing now is providing humanitarian aid to the citizens and trying to build a united front to reject the war and demand an immediate ceasefire.
Please comment on the fact that the media is reporting the events as a civil war. Is it a civil war?
The media does not convey the truth, due to the involvement of these countries in the ongoing war now. There are attempts to portray the current war as a civil war. This is a mistake, because the current war is a war between the senior generals of the security committee of the former regime, supported by international and regional countries, and the Rapid Support militia backed by the UAE.
The current conflict is a war between senior generals, with outside support - not a civil war.
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What would you like to see the international community doing or what is their role right now?
What is happening in Sudan is a Sudanese matter, and we do not want the international community to intervene at all [except to] call on the two fighting sides to cease fire.
What do you think needs to happen for the situation to be solved and for peace to prevail?
What must happen is a cease-fire first, the dissolution of the militias, and the return of the army to its barracks, but I think that this will not happen because the two fighting sides do not have the intention to stop the war. The honorable members of the armed forces must isolate their leaders and turn against them because they are corrupt leaders and involved in war crimes and dissolution.
AllAfrica's reporting on peacebuilding is supported by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York.
