Bloodshed in the Shadows: Can Sudan Be Saved from the Darfur and Al-Jazira State Massacres

Unceasing and terrifying fighting continues and intensifies throughout Sudan, and especially in the states of North Darfur and Al-Jazeera, which have, in recent months, become scenes of inter-communal conflict opposing two armed factions under the orders of two generals, Abdel-Fattah Al-Bourhane, and Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, not to name them. The consequences of this senseless struggle for power in this country that dreamed, a few years ago, of freedom and democracy, are particularly horrific because beyond the appalling figures that are communicated, whole lives are never at stake . The future of this painful country is even more uncertain as every call for dialogue and a ceasefire launched to the protagonists by neighboring countries and the international community has remained a dead letter. Instead they were followed by intense bombings, targeted assassinations by snipers, and unprecedented violence that increasingly turned into ethnic cleansing. In this general chaos, it is the city of El Fasher and the state of Al-Jazeera that, in recent days, holds the palm of horror, with sinister and apocalyptic images showing dead and dying people burned in their own houses full of consumption . All this happens almost behind closed doors and under the helpless gaze of the United Nations, while Sudan is today and more than ever a complete humanitarian crisis.

Sudan risks waiting for Godo if it waits for the solution to the crisis to come from The Hague

However, the alleged perpetrators are known, and General Dagalo’s Rapid Support Forces (FSR) are the most frequently cited, especially in the ethnic attacks carried out in recent weeks. But as one news follows another, we see, with increasing indifference, the increase in violence in this soon-to-be-forgotten war, which is making fewer and fewer headlines in the newspapers due to outbreaks of conflict new or conflicting cases. new humanitarian tragedies elsewhere in the world. At the rate things are going, anyway, we can ask ourselves who will save this Sudan from one against the other, disfigured by armed groups full of hatred and sympathy towards each other. Unfortunately, we should not rely on the actors in the drama to lay down our arms, any more than we should bet a kopeck on the ability of regional, African and international institutions to curb this crisis that is irreversibly extending over time and space , with great risks of flooding to neighboring countries. Perhaps all that remains is the sword, not of Damocles, but of Karim Khan, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) who has been investigating possible war crimes involving the Sudanese armed forces and the Rapid Aid Forces. Let’s hope that the legal wrath will be much more convincing than the threats of isolation and embargo expressed by the international community, something that the ultras of both camps do not care about. But Sudan is in danger of waiting for Godo if it waits for the solution to the crisis to come from The Hague, when we know it is necessary first to issue summons to the possible suspects to appear, then organize hearings to confirm the charges before arrest warrants are issued. which could arise against the non-cooperation of some states that are parties to the ICC statute, like what we saw in the 2000s, when former President Omar El-Bashir and his men were in the Court’s eyes. In short, we can confirm that all the indicators of peace are red in Sudan, and it takes an extra soul and start saving from the actors of the tragedy to dominate their egos and their murderous impulses, in order to restore to this huge. country on the continent in the form of a viable and unitary State. Undoubtedly, it is easier to write it on paper than to receive it, and especially on the ground.

Hamadou GADIAGA