Lives being lost to violence in Sudan

Do our LIVES Matter?

Sudanese are fighting the military and dying for it: Where is the outrage?

Sudanese are being murdered, raped and terrorized for demanding a better life, and no nation has stood up for them. The Sudanese people have been protesting for months for a change in government because the current regime has made life unbearable for them. Sudan was led by Omar al-Bashir till his forced resignation in April 2019. He was the president of Sudan since the military coup of 1989, in which he quickly established an oppressive and racist government that would rule over Sudan for three decades.

He was never a popular President, the Sudanese always had a hard life under him. There has never been any real political, media or personal freedom under his regime. Omar al-Bashir also had a violent and prejudiced relationship with the Africans of the South, a trait that would lead to his downfall. The South revolted and peace was only established when the South was given the chance to have a referendum over its independence. In 2011, the South voted overwhelmingly (99%) to become its own independent state, and that’s when things started to fall apart for Omar Bashir.

The South was key to Sudan’s economy, upon its independence the South took 75% of the oil fields. Oil was Sudan’s major export, in 2010 oil was 90% of Sudan’s exports and it contributed 36% to its budget. Nonetheless, the two nations were still tied to each other, South Sudan had the oil fields while Sudan had the pipelines and ports. But Omar Bashir positioned Sudan to be in conflict with South Sudan. So after losing a major resource, he perennially made actions that made a productive and peaceful relationship with the new nation impossible. After losing the South he also had to deal with the rebellion in the Darfur region.

An old African saying, ”when elephants fight its the grass that suffers.”

After losing the oil fields and funding endless military actions, Omar Bashir made a bad economy even worse. As usual in these circumstances, the elites were sheltered from hardships but the ordinary people were not.

Eventually, the people had enough and made a peaceful protest. The protests started in December 2018 and the people demanded that Omar Bashir step down and hand over power to a civilian transitional government. The protests eventually become too large and too exposed to the media for the Bashir regime to use its normal tactics of brutal violence. The people had nothing to lose. Omar Bashir eventually stepped down and was arrested by the military who sought to take over the government. Clearly, they did not listen because the protesters demanded a civilian government and would not yield on that demand.

The Sudanese were set on removing the entire military system and not just one man. The protests became untenable for the military who had a stake in the status quo. The military decided to turn its guns on the protesters. There has been condemnation from the international community, but no real action yet. The AU demanded the military step down and return to civilian rule. None of the warnings have been heeded by the military.

The military has borrowed a popular play from African dictators, they shut down all media and the internet. Social media played a big part in spreading the message of the protesters’ discontent and the military decided to cripple them by taking their biggest tool from them. Without social media, the military believed it would be able to unleash terror on the Sudanese citizens without the world knowing. Sudanese in the diaspora have been essential once again in keeping the world updated on events happening on the ground. Reports have been made or murder, rape, theft and property damage perpetrated by the Sudanese military. Sudanese nationals have kept each other and the world updated using social media under hashtags like;

#IAmTheSudanRevolution

#SudanUprising

#khartoummassacre

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The military seems confident it will get away with these atrocities, but the protesters will not yield easily either. At the time of publishing this article, the opposition had agreed to restart negotiations with the military with conditions. The Sudanese revolution was started by the people, it will be ended by the people.

Written by. Sipho Sebele

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