Sudan now holds the status of largest displacement crisis in the world, and the International Rescue Committee has designated it the largest humanitarian crisis ever recorded. But unless you have been closely following the global liberation struggle, you may not have even heard about it. Unsurprisingly, major news stations in the United States have not been eager to run coverage of the ethnic cleansing campaign being committed by militias backed by the UAE, a major US ally in the Middle East. While social media has been an incredibly useful tool for the people in exposing the crimes of governments like the genocide in Palestine, the genocide in Sudan has not picked up the same coverage, in part due to internet blackouts across the country. The RSF and SAF aim to seize the nation’s resources, like gold and agricultural products, for the benefit of foreign capital at the expense of the people of Sudan. More people in Sudan are living in famine conditions than in the rest of the world combined. More than 20 million people face severe food insecurity and 70% of Sudan’s hospitals have been destroyed allowing preventable disease to run rampant. Women face increasing sexual violence, and millions of children are being denied education and are permanently affected by these famine conditions. This is an attack on the lives and the futures of the Sudanese people.

The current civil war in Sudan is mainly a power struggle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The SAF is the government army. The RSF is a paramilitary group that evolved from the Janjaweed militia. The Janjaweed militia was an armed group that had been funded by the previous government to suppress popular uprisings, it was later formally organized under the RSF and continued its role of brutally suppressing popular movements. These two factions carried out a joint military coup against the government of Omar al-Bashir, al-Bashir had been president of Sudan from 1989-2019 until a growing popular revolution movement was co-opted by a military seizure of power. The coup was denounced by the Communist Party of Sudan as “a military coup to reproduce the same faces and institutions against which our great people revolted”. After two years of a civilian elected government, the SAF and RSF staged another coup establishing a transitional military government.

Disagreements between the SAF and RSF over leadership and the integration of the RSF into the SAF lead to the ignition of a civil war. This civil war has been devastating to the people of Sudan and many atrocities have been committed by both sides, with accusations of ethnic cleansing being especially levied against the RSF. The gold production of the country has more than doubled since the start of the civil war with most of the gold being smuggled into the UAE. In return the UAE has been providing arms to the RSF to keep the fighting going and the gold flowing. As hunger and death spreads in Sudan, foreign nations continue to make money off of their raw materials in a disgusting example of neocolonialism.

Make the struggle of our comrades known. Do not allow them to be exterminated while the governments of the world remain silent. If you have the resources, you can contribute directly to the work of our comrades here (https://opencollective.com/support-sudanese-comrades). If you would like to know more, read this statement from the Anarchist Group in Sudan 

(https://tdugout.substack.com/p/statement-from-the-anarchist-group). We must fight against imperialism on all fronts; it is both our moral and revolutionary duty to do so. The fight against imperialism is the fight against capitalism. Imperialism is the only way capitalism can continue existing. It is the legs holding up the table on which the ruling classes feast. We must tear down these legs and return the feast to the people. All Power to the People!