Sudan’s warring factions are inviting civilians to join their fighting ranks in a signal of more war as the conflict approaches two years.
It is a call that also taps into the ethnic divisions caused by the war in which the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have also amassed armed militias on their sides.
This week, SAF leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan announced that they were mobilising and opening their arms for access to civilians who agree to fight for the army.
SAF is backed by some armed militia leaders as well as senior leaders of the deposed regime of Omar al-Bashir, who are now helping to mobilise fighters in Al- Jazeera State, raising concerns about the replication of violence seen in eastern Al-Jazeera.
The RSF had last week attacked villages in this state, south of Khartoum, killing at least 120 people according to rights watchdogs.
On October 30, the US State Department condemned the killings, but also suggested it may do little to stop foreign entities arming the factions.
“The United States condemns the heinous attacks carried out by the Sudanese Rapid Support Forces in al-Jazeera state over the last week,” said State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller. “We call on the RSF to halt violence against civilians immediately and stand in support with the Sudanese people to sustainably end the conflict.”
RSF has been backed by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) throughout the war. And although Washington has asked, generally, that all foreign entities stop supplying weapons, Washington says foreign policy decisions are the prerogative of individual governments.
UAE officially denies supplying weapons although a United Nations experts team said there was credible evidence to the contrary.
The RSF itself has used access to humanitarian aid as a weapon to entice civilians to join their side. Those who refuse have been denied aid as relief workers were blocked from reaching their areas, tortured or even killed, according to recent findings by Amnesty International.
The watchdog also raised alarm of increasing sexual violence, especially against women from ethnic groups deemed opposed to the RSF, firmly placing another charge of war crimes on the RSF led by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo ‘Hemedti.’
Human rights watchdogs have reported that both sides have violated the law since the war erupted, however. And it points to the international community’s struggles with pitching peace to the warring factions who now see war as the ultimate path to victory.
This week, US Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello travelled to Nairobi as part of his four-nation trip that was to also take him to Uganda, Saudi Arabia and Egypt; countries in the region deemed to have the ear of one or both factions in the war.
Perriello was expected to “meet with Sudanese civil society leaders and government officials from the host countries,” a dispatch indicated, saying he was to also meet “multilateral leaders”.
This would be his fifth trip to the region and was expected to “emphasize the need for immediate humanitarian access into and within all regions of Sudan, the importance of civilian protection, the urgency of all efforts to end the war...”
The trip means the US sees a solution in establishing a third track of mediation, focusing on more political groups beyond just SAF and RSF. But this has failed several times.
Perriello himself has never visited Sudan since he took office in February, which may point to difficulties securing audiences with the actual factions in the war.
Egypt has had influence on the SAF, Kenya has had influence on RSF and is a close ally of the UAE. However, Nairobi was once rejected as a mediator in Sudan after SAF argued it was biased.
Both al-Burhan and Hemedti have travelled to Nairobi in recent times for separate meetings. President William Ruto has also met with civilian groups several times in Nairobi to push for the third track.
Calling civilians to arms, however, may be a dangerous move for Sudan. It came as humanitarian workers reported disease outbreaks across 14 of Sudan’s 18 states, compounded by shortages in essential services and lack of security.
The unchecked arming of civilians and the escalation of hate speech have also forced civilians to flee toward relatively safer states such as Al-Gadarif, Kassala, and the Nile River states.
At least 18,000 people have died and nearly 12 million people displaced, three million of who have sought refuge in neighbouring countries, according to UN estimates.
