We can't afford to be clueless about Sudan

There has been a civil war in the Muslim-majority country of Sudan since April of 2023. Only six months behind — in terms of genocide on steroids — is the devastation in Gaza. Both are overwhelmingly Muslim populations, with Gaza at around 99.8 per cent and Sudan at 97 per cent. And yet, Sudan barely makes an imprint on the news. [1] [2] [3]

We are to blame for this

There are Muslim populations throughout the world, many of whom we have never heard of, long forgotten, or simply do not care enough about for us to check up on their condition from time to time.

This is a harsh reality. We know of the large Muslim communities in countries like India and Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Arab states, but how many of us have come across the Muslim Tatars of Crimea? (Indigenous Muslims in the Eastern European peninsula of Crimea, currently at the heart of the Russia-Ukraine war.) [4]

Thanks to co-ordinated global efforts, many of us are now enlightened on the plight of the Uyghur Muslims in East Turkestan, as well as the oppressed Muslims of occupied Kashmir, and the finer details of the Hindutva-led attacks on Muslims in India. But we also ought to look closely at Sudan, else we are doing them a grave injustice.

BACKGROUND

Sudan has been trapped in a civil war since early 2023, with two former allies of Omar al-Bashir unwilling to let go of power, both intent on ruling over the other
The leader of the country's armed forces, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo — the once friendly paramilitary force called the Rapid Support Forces — have wrought widespread destruction
The only winners have been external actors such as Egypt and the UAE, and those who view Islam as their enemy have been smiling upon the disastrous situation
Millions have been internally displaced, hundreds of thousands of civilians killed, and thousands more sexually assaulted
With the latest developments, the country is now divided between military and paramilitary control, and analysts have said there is a real risk of partition, further splitting a fractured Muslim population of 50 million

What is happening in the country?

In 2019, the long-time dictator Omar al-Bashir was ousted in a coup. The political vacuum was filled by two of the former leader’s former allies, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan — head of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo (aka “Hemeti”) — chief of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). [5]

These two men helped depose al-Bashir and oversaw a transitional civilian-led military government that was supposed to ultimately move into full civilian rule. And in 2020, a power-sharing deal meant Burhan headed up the new Sovereignty Council, with Hemeti as deputy.

But this did not last very long, with disagreements over subsuming the RSF into the SAF leading to armed conflict. And since early 2023, the result has been 11.7m displaced internally, 4.2m displaced externally, 150,000+ dead, and widespread reports of rape and other forms of abuse. [6]

In addition, there have been allegations and supporting evidence showing that external actors are propping up the SAF and RSF, with the former being supported by Egypt, and the latter by the UAE and Libya’s warlord, Haftar. Even British weaponry is playing a role in supplying the RSF. [7] [8]

In the last week or so, the RSF has taken control of al-Fashir, in western Sudan. It now controls almost the entirety of the Darfur region as well as Kordofan. Many thousands of civilians have been executed or raped, including hundreds shot dead inside a maternity hospital. [9]

This cannot continue

We have to be very grateful for the shift in the global attitude toward Palestine in the past two years. We’ve come leaps and bounds, with much of the mainstream media recognising that genocide is indeed taking place.

But the reality is that the world generally does not care about Muslim suffering, and especially not when it is Muslims harming Muslims. If anything, they may be willing bystanders. After all, a Muslim life is worth less or nothing at all, compared to others.

We should not blame anyone else when we ask why nobody is talking about Sudan, when we ourselves barely talk about it, when we barely know about Muslim communities beyond our own, when we don’t even care enough to take a few minutes out of our day to browse stories that affect different Muslim groups around the world.

So let us be part of the solution by ensuring we take a closer interest in the affairs of Muslims in our localities and far beyond. We should share our findings with family and friends, lobby MPs to raise issues in Parliament, and just stay interested in how Muslims are doing, wherever they are.

If we do not invest our time in knowing what the state of Muslims on “the other side of the world” is like, because they happen to be geographically far away — even if they are in a prosperous position — we have probably lost the sense of unity and oneness that we were taught by the Prophet ﷺ.

We have heard this thousands of times in our lives, but it needs saying again:

Nu’mān ibn Bashīr (radiy Allahu ‘anhu) reported that the Prophet ﷺ said,

You see the believers as regards their being merciful among themselves and showing love among themselves and being kind, resembling one body, so that, if any part of the body is not well then the whole body shares the sleeplessness (insomnia) and fever with it.” [10]