Sudan's Forgotten War: A Disaster for the Ummah
"The horror unfolding in Sudan is boundless"
Volker Turk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
(Translated)
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 destruction and suffering, the war in Sudan is being ignored, forgotten, and silenced due to 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, mercilessly killed in their homes, mosques, markets, and temporary camps (BBC). The Al-Nuhud massacre, which claimed the lives of more than 300 civilians - including 21 children - at the hands of Rapid Support Forces fighters, is just one of countless atrocities. Entire cities have been burned and razed to the ground. Mass graves were hastily dug. Entire families have disappeared. What is happening in Sudan is not just a war, but a systematic genocide.
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 returned home physically destroyed, if they return at all. Survivors speak of public rapes aimed at humiliating communities, and mass sexual assaults in IDP camps.
Medical workers report that they are treating survivors without providing psychological support or justice. Many remain silent for fear of shame or retaliation. (Human Rights Watch, UN 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 starvation. According to the World Food Programme, famine has swept through at least 10 areas, 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 being used to punish entire populations.
In refugee camps, children are eating leaves, and mothers are going days without food to feed their children. Waterborne diseases, malaria, and cholera have 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, kidnapping of civilians, and forced recruitment of children to fight. Humanitarian workers have also been targeted, killed, kidnapped, or prevented from reaching those in need. Hospitals were looted and turned into battlefields. Schools were bombed. No place is safe. (UN High Commissioner for Human Rights).
Yet, the media barely whispers Sudan's name. The war is described as invisible, forgotten, or simply deleted 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, as its wealth of gold, oil, uranium and fertile land makes 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 not a historical accident. It is the 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 deprived of true independence, its leadership was corrupted, and its people revolted against each other.
The democratic solutions promoted by the West are part of the problem. These systems - designed to serve the interests of the elite - have failed Sudan, just as they have failed Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan.
There is only one path that offers a real and lasting solution to Sudan and the entire Islamic Ummah. That path is to establish the Khilafah according to the method of Prophethood.
The Khilafah will unite Muslims of all ethnic and tribal affiliations, eliminate foreign influence, distribute resources fairly, establish accountability, and ensure dignity and security for all. History records how the rule of the Khilafah during the reign of Umar ibn Abd al-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 similitude of the believers in regard to mutual love, affection, fellow-feeling is that of one body; when any limb of it aches, the whole body aches, because of 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 according to the method of Prophethood urgently.
﴿O you who have believed, respond to Allah and to the Messenger when he calls you to that which gives you life.﴾
#SudanCrisis #أزمة_السودان
Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir Radio
Yasmine Malik
Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir
