Sudan Crisis: An Appeal to End the Violence

A PRESS STATEMENT
(For Immediate Release)

The occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr was not auspicious enough for the residents of Khartoum to be spared of the exchange of vicious attacks between the fighting Sudanese National Army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo’s Rapid Support Forces.

 

As military leaders, both Generals al-Burhan and Dagalo, have a primary responsibility of protecting the well-being of the people of Sudan and the nation’s peace and stability. Instead, their ongoing rivalry and violent conflict are further breaking the country asunder. It is heartbreaking to watch Sudan descending into a new all-out civil war, tearing families apart, displacing communities and thereby creating a humanitarian crisis in dense urban settlements which have effectively been made into battlefields.

 

The civilian toll is already fast approaching the five-hundred mark as many residents flee Khartoum. According to reports on Friday, thirty-nine out of the capital’s fifty-nine hospitals had become out of operation as they came under artillery fire. Residential apartments and civilian infrastructure have not been spared from aerial strikes, gunship-fire and shelling. Expecting circumstances to worsen, many countries are evacuating their citizens from Sudan.

 

The Jamiatul Ulama South Africa appreciates the complexity of the factors behind the conflict. However, the long-term consequences of continued violence are not difficult to perceive. Sudan’s progress towards transition to civilian rule, peace and stability will be set back many years. A sustained violent conflict will further immiserate ordinary citizens who have already been subjected to immense suffering in recent years.

 

The threat to peace and stability will not remain confined to Sudan for long. Rather, it has the potential to quickly spread to the wider sub-region of the Horn of Africa and the Sahel. That is why it is not enough to say this is only an “internal” matter to Sudan. It is necessary that regional groupings such as the African Union and the Arab League, as well as other powers that have interests in Sudan and are backers of the opposing factions, should extract fresh commitments from the warring parties towards national reconciliation.

 

JUSA appeals to the warring factions to cease fighting and work towards a political settlement. Warfare and violence should yield to peace, and give hope for a future of a prosperous Sudan.

 

Issued by: 
The Executive Committee
Jamiatul Ulama South Africa
Johannesburg 

 

3 Shawwal 1444 / 24 Apr 2023