
2025-08-14
The Radar: Sudan's Forgotten War: A Disaster for the Ummah
By Professor/Yasmine Malik
“The horror unfolding in Sudan is limitless”
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk
Sudan is bleeding, and the world barely stirs. Now, the brutal war between the Sudanese Armed Forces, led by Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces, led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti), is entering its third year, plunging the country into chaos and unleashing one of the most horrific humanitarian disasters of our time. Yet, despite the scale of the destruction and suffering, the war in Sudan is being ignored, forgotten, and silenced by global indifference.
This power struggle has claimed the lives of an estimated 150,000 civilians since April 2023 – although aid organizations believe the true figure is much higher. These are not soldiers on battlefields, but women, children, and the elderly, being mercilessly killed in their homes, mosques, markets, and makeshift camps (BBC). The El Obeid massacre, in which more than 300 civilians – including 21 children – were killed by Rapid Support Forces fighters, is just one of countless atrocities. Entire cities have been burned and razed to the ground. Mass graves have been dug in haste. Entire families have disappeared. What is happening in Sudan is not just a war, but a systematic extermination.
Women and girls, as always in wars, are among the most abused victims. Both sides have used sexual violence as a tool of terror and domination. Girls as young as 9 years old have been kidnapped, gang-raped, and then returned home physically destroyed, if they return at all. Survivors speak of public rapes aimed at humiliating communities, and mass sexual assaults in displacement camps.
Medical workers report that they are treating survivors without providing psychological support or justice. Many remain silent for fear of shame or reprisal. (Human Rights Watch, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights)
More than 14 million people have been displaced, making this the largest displacement crisis in the world. More than half of Sudan's 50 million people face the risk of starvation. According to the World Food Programme, famine has swept through at least 10 regions, including the Zamzam camp, which houses 400,000 displaced people. (World Food Program).
Food and water are scarce. Not because of a natural disaster, but deliberately. Both factions have used hunger as a weapon by obstructing humanitarian aid, seizing supplies, and preventing access to basic necessities. Starvation is used to punish entire populations.
In refugee camps, children eat leaves, and mothers go days without food to feed their children. Waterborne diseases, malaria, and cholera spread rapidly. Health systems have collapsed. UNICEF describes the situation as a multifaceted crisis, destroying every aspect of life; health, sanitation, education, and safety. (World Health Organization). Dozens of reports have emerged of torture of political prisoners, abduction of civilians, and forced recruitment of children to fight. Humanitarian workers have also been targeted, killed, abducted, or prevented from reaching those in need. Hospitals were looted and turned into battlefields. Schools were bombed. No place is safe anymore. (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights).
Yet, the media barely whispers Sudan's name. The war is described as invisible, forgotten, or simply erased from the headlines altogether. Unlike Ukraine or Gaza, there are no celebrity endorsements, no mass protests, and no political urgency.
Sudan's silence is no coincidence, its wealth of gold, oil, uranium, and fertile land make it a geostrategic prize. Powers such as the Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, America, Britain, and Russia all have interests in Sudan. The country has become a chessboard for foreign interests.
The war in Sudan is no historical accident. It is a legacy of colonialism, dividing borders, and secular dictatorships backed by foreign patrons. Sudan, like most existing countries in the Muslim world, was under the control of colonial powers. It was denied true independence, its leadership was corrupted, and its people fought each other.
The democratic solutions promoted by the West are part of the problem. These regimes – designed to serve the interests of the elite – have failed Sudan, as they have failed Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan.
There is only one path that offers a real and lasting solution for Sudan and the entire Islamic Ummah. This path is the establishment of the Khilafah (Caliphate) upon the Prophetic method.
The Khilafah will unite Muslims of all ethnic and tribal affiliations, remove foreign influence, distribute resources fairly, establish accountability, and ensure dignity and security for all. History recalls how the rule of the Khilafah during the reign of Omar bin Abdul Aziz eliminated poverty in North Africa to the point that no one deserving of Zakat could be found.
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: «The parable of the believers in their affection, mercy, and compassion for one another is that of a body; when any part of it aches, the whole body responds with sleeplessness and fever.» Sahih Muslim. Our Ummah in Sudan is in distress, the world may not care, but we must care.
The Women's Section in the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir calls on all Muslims to raise awareness, reject false solutions, and call for the establishment of the Khilafah upon the Prophetic method urgently.
﴿O you who have believed, respond to Allah and to the Messenger when he calls you to that which gives you life.﴾
Written for the radio of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
Yasmine Malik
Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
Source: The Radar