News Right Now: Death and Displacement

This past week in Sudan, we’ve witnessed even more havoc and chaos wreaked upon our brothers and sisters who can’t escape the civil war which has been going on for about 14 months now. The war started when two military groups, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) became allies to overthrow the previous president and his successor. When General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan of the SAF took the ousted leader’s place in 2021, tensions grew between the SAF and RSF, ultimately breaking out into a full-blown civil war with rape, pillage, massacres, and ethnic cleansing characterizing its horrors.

Since then, each group has battled fiercely to obtain control over various parts of Sudan. This has resulted into immense oppression on the people of Sudan, with shocking statistics like displacement of a total of 10 million people (half of whom are women and children), a death toll that can’t be accurately counted but is at least at 15,000, and the entire country being on the brink of famine. Both the RSF and SAF have shown a disgusting and horrific disregard for civilian life, plowing through villages, raping, pillaging, and massacaring, all to gain the upper hand in territory over the other group. The RSF, which was born out of Arab militias called Janjaweed which were mobilized by ex-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir against East and Central Africans in Darfur, has been reportedly targeting people of non-Arab ethnic groups, torturing, killing, and abusing them with racial slurs. They are even selling women of African ethnic groups at markets, contributing to the skyrocketing rates of sexual violence which characterize this atrocious war.

The shockingly large statistics about the amount of people being killed, displaced, and driven to starvation every day, we find ourselves asking the question we unfortunately have been asking quite often about our Ummah: why is this still happening? Why hasn’t this been stopped? People claim that this civil war, which has impacted the African continent and broken records for violence, is due to a mere power struggle between both leaders of the SAF and RSF. If this were true, military efforts would be focused on assassination of either party’s leader. Just as “Israel” is using the eradication of Hamas as an excuse to commit genocide against our brothers and sisters in Palestine, Burhan of the SAF and Dagalo of the RSF are using this war to wreak irreversible damage on the economic, political, and social structure of Sudan. Doctors without Borders have reported children dying every 2 hours from acute malnutrition. Pregnant women aren’t able to receive prenatal or postnatal care, let alone stay healthy enough to even deliver their children. Ethnic cleansing and genocide on the basis of filthy tribalism which the Prophet (saw) warned us of are the main drivers and motivators of this war.

We know from our history, brothers and sisters, that Islam was the only system to have effectively eradicated issues arising from racism and tribalism, feed its people, provide them with shelter, and maintain their safety so that they may lead lives in which they can thrive and comfortably raise their children for the sake of Allah (swt). The Sunnah of our Prophet (saw) teaches us that an Islamic state is the only entity which can effectively provide for all of its citizens, because its laws are created by Allah (swt), our creator and Rabb. HIS (swt) laws, which are unbiased towards any of his creation, are the only laws which can protect us from falling deeper into the fitnah and barbarity of this civil war in Sudan. We call out to the sincere brothers of Sudan to disobey those corrupt and monstrous leaders who shackle your hands from rising up against the oppression that has been occurring for the past year. We urge you to turn to Allah (swt) and obey HIM and His Messenger to bring the return of the Khilafah Rashida so that the light of Islam may touch this Earth once again and save our brothers and sisters in Sudan and all over the world from the continuous suffering they face. Give Nusra to those working to establish Islam which has the sole governance to solve the issues which plague our Ummah today and contribute to so much loss of life, and rejoice in the glad tidings that Allah (swt) will reward you greatly for your efforts.

Ummah Voice Podcast