By: Sofia Chassomeris, News Writer

Content warning: mentions of genocide, ethnic cleansing, sexual slavery, carcasses, and suicide.

Since April 2023, the most recent Sudanese civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) “has killed tens of thousands of people and forced more than 11 million from their homes.” The United Nations (UN) released a report in September that accused both parties of committing “an appalling range of harrowing human rights violations and international crimes,” with the RSF committing “additional war crimes” in the forms of torture, sexual violence, and more. 

In May, the UN warned that the western region of Darfur, particularly the “ethnic Massalit and non-Arab communities in the region,” faced a “growing risk of genocide” from the RSF. The global organization Alliance Against Genocide recognized the targeted attacks as a “renewed genocide” in their 2024 Genocide Watch recommendations, referencing the genocide in Darfur carried out by the Janjaweed militia between 2003 and 2008. The Janjaweed militia are an Arab paramilitary group in Darfur that has “targeted” the aforementioned groups in the region.

The Peak interviewed Dr. Khalid Mustafa Medani, a political science and Islamic studies professor at McGill University, about the current civil war. Medani gave a keynote lecture at SFU in March discussing the situation in Sudan and the many political actors involved.

Medani explained that the RSF is the “latest iteration of the Janjaweed militia.” Prior to the RSF, the Janjaweed committed what was recognized internationally as an ethnic cleansing of the “Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa peoples.” The militia grew and was solidified in 2013 as the RSF.

Medani said the Janjaweed “had long used sexual violence as a weapon of war and this legacy continues in worse fashion under the RSF.” According to the UN, forms of sexual violence “are sometimes deployed systematically to achieve military or political objectives.” The BBC reported that the “large-scale” violence — including rape and sexual slavery — enacted by the RSF has caused many women to either commit or consider suicide.

Al Jazeera described the Sudan Armed Forces as the “coercive backbone of Sudan’s political system,” formed in 1925. The RSF formed as a “non-conscripted force” formally introduced by Sudan’s central government as an “extension and counterweight to the SAF” ten years ago. Following a military coup in 2021, the two became rivals, and their current struggle for power puts them in a “deadlock.” While the leaders of the SAF and RSF worked with each other in the past, “tensions quickly rose” as negotiations around establishing “a new framework for a democratic transition in December” 2022 were “stalled.”

“Both the SAF and RSF are intent on completely defeating the other in order to have complete political and military control of the country,” said Medani. He referenced the Darfur region’s 2012 gold rush, saying both parties aim to “maintain the great wealth they amassed through corruption” of the gold industry.

“The Janjaweed had long used sexual violence as a weapon of war and this legacy continues in worse fashion under the RSF.” — Dr. Khalid Mustafa Medani, professor of political science and Islamic studies at McGill University

“The media has not covered the role of the Gulf countries, especially the United Arab Emirates, in supporting the RSF,” he continued. The BBC reported that the UAE is “the destination for almost all of Sudan’s gold” and that the RSF has fought alongside the UAE’s troops in Yemen since 2015.

Medani also said the RSF uses “earth-scorch policy to depopulate [Darfur] so as to take over their farming lands.” A research report on Sudan from the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada described the ways the Janjaweed militia employed “scorched-earth” tactics in their 2003 campaign. The tactics aim to make land unlivable “by destroying vegetation, seizing livestock, burning buildings to the ground, and contaminating drinking water with human and animal carcasses.” 

Medani brought to light “the work of Sudanese civilian leaders and civilian society, in and outside Sudan, fighting hard to restore peace.” The Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA), for example, has been documenting and advocating against gender-based and sexual violence in Sudan. SIHA reported several cases of women and girls being “fearful of the RSF’s advance and contemplating taking their own lives.”

“Their efforts, as well as the role of regional actors that must intervene strongly, has not been covered,” said Medani.

World BEYOND War (WBW), a global movement to “end all war,” calls for international players to take their “hands off Sudan” in a petition to the governments of Iran, Russia, Ukraine, and the UAE. The petition explains how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has expanded into Sudan: “each country is supporting one side and reinforcing it with troops and weapons.” The UAE and Iran also support the RSF and SAF respectively, with ammunition and drones. 

WBW hosted the 2024 WBW Africa Regional Peace Conference from November 15–16, where speakers and WBW affiliates connected to share current issues and construct solutions for “sustainable peace.”

The Government of Canada has provided “$132.2 million in international assistance funding,” which “includes $100.7 million in humanitarian assistance funding and $31.5 million in development assistance funding to address urgent needs in Sudan and impacted neighbouring countries: the Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, and South Sudan.” Still, a coalition of Canadian humanitarian organizations, including Cooperation Canada and Islamic Relief Canada, called upon the government to “increase coordinated efforts to end hostilities, ensure humanitarian access to respond to the needs, and work toward reconciliation.”