All was relatively quiet on the Sudanese front until 1989, when the Islamist-backed Omar Al-Bashir, the recently deposed president of Sudan, led a coup against the democratically elected government of Sadiq Al-Mahdi, ushering in a dark chapter in the rich history of the country.

Al-Bashir and his mentor Hassan Al-Turabi then went on to orchestrate their savage rule, disguised under the bright name of Islamic Sharia, that led to a chain of disasters: the secession of South Sudan to become an independent country and the formation of merciless mercenaries called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The RSF, a heavy stick that Al-Bashir used in the western Sudanese province of Darfur and better known among the Sudanese as the Janjaweed, committed all sorts of crimes, including rape, burning people alive, and ethnic cleansing. The group has been cited for crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur. Having finished with Darfur, Al-Bashir then turned to the RSF for his own protection, sinking the country into an abyss.

Since the fall of the Al-Bashir regime in 2019, when the Sudanese people took to the streets to demand an end to his 30-year rule, divisions have surfaced between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) led by Abdel-Fattah Al-Burhan and the RSF led by Al-Bashir’s handpicked henchman Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti.

The RSF leader did not want to commit to a deal known as the Juba Agreement under which the RSF would be merged into the SAF and suggested that this process should be extended over ten years. Hemedti apparently wanted to retain a major role at the helm of power, a narrative which he is now refuting by pretending that all he wants is to see the establishment of democracy in Sudan.

With the growing tension between the two armed groups in the country, the nation sank into a devastating war, leaving more than 10 million Sudanese people displaced internally or forced to flee to neighbouring countries, among them Egypt. The idea that a militia like the RSF could turn Sudan into a democracy has proven erroneous, to say the least. Hemedti’s spreading of the idea that Islamists have been steering the course of action in the SAF is also not far short of an appalling absurdity.

The SAF backed by other agencies that have tirelessly worked for the betterment of the Sudanese people is working to impose new realities on the ground and bring to an end once and for all the present heinous war. However, the question still arises of the attitude of those powers that have provided support for the RSF.

The regime led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in Ethiopia, for instance, has been at loggerheads with the SAF since the latter recaptured Sudanese territories in Al-Fashaka that Al-Bashir had earlier given up to Ethiopia. The position taken by the current government of Sudan regarding the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), to which Al-Bashir was the first donor, has also been a blow to Addis Ababa, which had earlier tried to convince the Sudanese people of the supposed “benefits” of the dam.

Other groups such as the Coordination of Civil Democratic Forces in Sudan, known as Taqaddom and led by former Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok have tried to provide political cover for the RSF, echoing the narrative used by Hemedti. It is no wonder that Sudanese Attorney-General Al-Fateh Tayfour has issued a red notice for the arrest of some of Taqaddom’s leaders, including Hamdouk, against the backdrop of charges of collaboration with the RSF.

From the first, Egypt has held to the view that a national army entitled to maintain security and stability in Sudan cannot be seen in the same way as an insurgent militia that dances to the tune of others. Unfortunately, it seems that few were prepared to listen to this moderate voice until the crisis mounted and risks turning into a wider regional conflict and further humanitarian disaster.    

However, it seems that the world’s major powers, particularly the US, distracted by the forthcoming presidential elections and the other wars in the Middle East, have now realised that the RSF have had their day. The SAF have been resolute in the legitimate fight they have been forced to engage in since April 2023. With Sudanese army units advancing on different fronts, particularly in Khartoum and Al-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, jubilant Sudanese people have turned out in the streets of Cairo to express their hope that the guns will finally fall silent in their home nation.

Egypt has already started its two-year membership of the African Union (AU)-led Peace and Security Council, and this continental body should now revisit its position on the suspension of Sudan from the AU. Sudan, one of the founding members of the now defunct Organisation of African Unity (OAU), should be empowered to resume an effective role in managing African dossiers at the AU. The lifting of AU sanctions against it would send a clear message to each and every party fuelling the conflict in Sudan that enough is enough. It would also lead the incumbent Sudanese authorities, temporarily based in Port Sudan, to correct factual errors on how the conflict started and why it has lasted.   

If there is a lesson that can be learned from the tragic war in Sudan, it is that the peoples in the region should be left to their own devices. After all, before democratic practices and freedom of expression were consolidated in Europe, people there went through two world wars, ethnic cleansing of various kinds, and the emergence of Western and Eastern blocs governed in precisely conflicting directions. Nevertheless, the West as a whole has failed to learn the lessons of its own history and wants its own priorities to be imposed on this troubled part of the world.

It may take some time before the SAF restore order and free all the country’s territories from the grip of the insurgent militia. However, the offensive is paying off. The RSF are losing ground, particularly among some Sudanese who had earlier been seduced by catchy slogans like a “civil-led government” that the RSF had imprudently employed to gain public sympathy and appeal to some regional and Western powers.

The writer is an expert on African affairs

* A version of this article appears in print in the 17 October, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly