SUNDAN ADDS INSULT TO AFRICA’S INJURY

The recurrent crises in Sudan remind a resilient country and a long-suffering continent of the long road to peace and the unmistakable profile of the men who have kept Africa in the backwater for far too long.

The Sudanese people starkly and stoically hoist a hologram of fortitude and even defiance. This defiance has been anything but reckless or suicidal. If anything, it has been measured and methodical, recently proving its worth as democracy’s last stand in one of Africa’s great hopes.

This defiance emblazoned in Sudanese men and women, young and old, has proven to be the undoing of many dictators. On 19 December 2019, street protests began what is now known as the “Sudanese Revolution.”

The revolution was to consume the 30-year- long blood-streaked rule of Omar al-Bashir. By the time al-Bashir was deposed in a military coup, an ICC arrest warrant was hanging over his head.

The exertions of the International Criminal Court, whose work has proven more symbolic than substantial, were however, not enough to deter defiant Sudanese protesters who remained in the streets of Khartoum to insist that they wanted to see substantial change that went beyond removing al-Bashir.

Since al-Bashir was toppled on April 11, 2019, and the military decided to handover power to a chaotic mix of military men and civilians known as a transitional government, the Sudanese people have known no little tumult and trouble.

The arrangement lasted all of two years before it was terminated by another military coup on 25^th October 2021. Today, one of Africa’s great hopes is on the ropes, suffocated by a military stranglehold that first took roots when al-Bashir took power in a military coup in 1989.

Now, the country where a massacre at the heart of the revolution resulted in the murder of 128 people and rape of over 70 on June 3, 2019, is again the center of global attention. Fighting first broke out on April 15 after matters between Sudan’s regular army and a paramilitary force known as Rapid Support Force (RSF) which was responsible for the June 3 massacre came to a head.

Since Sudan relapsed into military rule in 2021, the country has been ruled by a council of generals led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan who is the head of the army and in effect the country’s president, and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo who is the head of the 100,000-strong Rapid Support Forces.

The fighting has already resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians with thousands displaced as a result of the fighting, plunging one of the world’s poorest countries into greater peril.

It Is another sad development for Africa and a country where the military continues to harbour an inexcusable and utterly egregious entitlement to power. Whether Africa can live up to its promise continues to fade as misguided military men leading rapacious advancements against institutions of state continue to gain traction.

While these happen and civilians are left at the mercy of criminals masquerading as military men, regional bodies look on helpless.

It is tragic that at a time an African country of great potential such as Sudan should be working towards lifting many of its 46 million people out of backbreaking poverty, it is instead grappling with a conflict that is nothing more than the power tussle of two crazed military men.

The African Union and the United Nations must muster a far more forceful response to the crisis. The military in every African country must also be told in no uncertain terms that it has no place in the corridors of power.

Action must also be taken against all those who while hiding behind military fatigues are harbingers of insecurity.

Experience the world over has shown that meaningful national progress can only be made when strong institutions prop up democratic governments that listen only to the voice of the people and nothing else.

African countries like Mali, Sudan, Burkina Faso where the military hold sway with little or nothing to show for it have to abandon this unproductive path and hit the only road that can lead to true development – that of genuine democracy.

Since it appears that all of Sudan’s problems are not home-made, identifying and holding to account all those who have a hand in this destabilizing conflict is key to fixing a challenge that has left innocent civilians in dire straits.

Ike Willie-Nwobu, ikewilly9@gmail.com