The undefeatable royal city of El-Fasher and plan B, face to face
By Hussien Arko
The ethnic targeting of civilians in El-Fasher, the capital of North Drfur State, mirrors the war crimes perpetrated by the Janjaweed in El Geneina of West Darfur State. Hundreds of innocent civilians, predominantly children, the elderly, and women, are suffering under indiscriminate shelling in densely populated neighbourhoods such as Al-Wehda and Al-Thowra.
Unfortunately, in light of the tragedy that El-Fasher is experiencing, while the cries of the victims rise everywhere and questions remain unanswerable, the world’s conscience is silent. Not that classic questions are waiting for answers regarding the crimes committed by Al Daglo, Janjaweed, or the Rapid Support Forces; rather, the hard questions are about: Who is behind the Militia named Rapid Support Forces? Or, let’s be more frank by posing questions in other ways: Who recreated them after December 2019 and for what purpose?
What motive forces have incited the Militia to make the lives of the entire population in Sudan hell? How was this unruly monster with a hurricane force prepared for such an evil mission to become an easily manipulative tool with which our infrastructure is destroyed and, above all, the people of Sudan are subjected to humiliation, genocide and ethnic cleansing?
These are the core concerns of the people of El-Fasher and the entire population of Sudan. The mission currently given to Al Daglo seems a product of different interests. The mission is clear in the context of a convergence of interests among many interest groups, most notably, Sudanese political forces, known as FFC Central Council, along with the militia of RSF, in addition to foreign agendas that aspire to have a say over Sudanese political decisions.
How did the convergence of interests create chaos and disaster in Sudan? The beginning of the conspiracy was the framework agreement. Before the invention of the so-called framework agreement, Rapid Support Commander Mohmad Hamdan Dagolo was unaware of the full picture of the project redesigning Sudan. It is widely believed that he was ambushed and fell into a trap when a sufficient guarantee was provided for his impunity and when an incentive of power sharing with FFC was offered to him with solid support by some regional governments. At that moment, the man accepted the risk. Then, all of his capabilities and resources became available for his allies to be manipulated for the new project of redesigning Sudan.
Different interests played a vital role in portraying how the ongoing crisis arose in Sudan. In all considerations, the war of 15 April 2023 was generated by a so-called convergence of interests. The current war is not a familiar war. In the view of the bulk of the Sudanese, the current war is something beyond imagination. It is a kind of war that the country has never experienced throughout several decades, whether in the former South Sudan or Darfur. It is an unprecedented war of no choice. It is a war of either to be or not to be, both at the level of the territorial entity of Sudan and its nation.
The link between Mohmad Hamdan and his allies is like the one between a water source (spring) and a riverbed. The role of the riverbed is to carry water from the source but not to provide it. Likewise, Mohmad Hamdan’s mission is to carry evil from sources to his homeland and destroy it. The result of that mission was clearly evident in the rubble of Sudan’s cities and the human tragedy across the nation. The fierce attack on El Fasher today is a part of that mission, and it is just a repetition of the same crimes committed before by the Militia of Al Dagolo in Khartoum, El Geneina, Madani, and Nyala. If the international community is serious and sincere, it must first close down all sources that destroy Sudan.
But unfortunately, the sponsors are putting heavy pressure on Mohmad Hamdan Dagolo to succeed in his mission. In plan A, Mohmad Hamdan had already paid a high price to seize power in Khartoum, but he had never succeeded. Today in El Fasher, he repeats the same mistake in order to succeed in plan B which is about to establish an independent state in Western Sudan, otherwise the least option is a parallel government similar to that of Tripoli- Benghazi, and that is why the militia is insisting on besieging and attacking El Fasher.
Since 15 April 2023, the violence and brutality have escalated with no control, like a stray bullet. However, soon, the battle progressed parallel with domestic and foreign efforts to deal with the daily horrific violations of the war, and things began to unfold. In the beginning, there was not enough evidence to point out whether the conflict was linked to an explicit external agenda or foreign interference.
In the early months of the war, Sudanese at all levels were cautious not to accuse anyone, though there were so many reasons that made everyone smell a rat. Over time, the media provided a lot of information, even if not in precise detail; it provided important indicators of what was going on behind the scenes in terms of the type of support and parties that provide support to the militia. The most substantial evidence provided by the media was about a tracked map of air cargo flights that began their journey in a Gulf state and stopped at some African airports, then en route to a neighbouring country. Later, the evidence provided by the media made the officials in Sudan express frankly undeniable proof of foreign interference in Sudan, and they did not only accuse some countries in name, but the Sudanese Ambassador to the United Nations actually submitted a complaint to the Security Council against the UAE.
From the first bullet on April 15, 2023, the military operations were dominated by war crimes rather than military confrontations. Most of the scenes on the battlefield were rapes, looting, occupation of homes and civilians buried alive, and El Geneina was the worst example of war crimes.
The tactics of fighting in El Fasher, the historic royal city of the Sultanate of Darfur, do not differ from the previous ones. The only difference is that there is fierce resistance from the people of the city, so the Militia sought an alternative plan instead of attacking the headquarters of the SAF and the joint forces of the Juba Agreement.
The alternative plan of the Militia is to target the areas populated by civilians from specific ethnicities. They concentrated on bombing randomly at the neighbourhoods of Al-Wahda, Al-Thawra and Timanat. So far, this tactic has worked properly throughout their operations in El Fasher over the past five days, from 11-15 May 2024.
According to the audio recording from pro-Militia activists, the goal behind their tactic is to increase the number of civilian casualties belonging to specific ethnicities in the mentioned neighbourhoods to displace them into camps. In their tactic, the Militia believe that when they carry out their plan, they will at least demoralize the fighters and force them to surrender to the city.
Rough estimates of shelling at the above-mentioned neighbourhoods during the past five days exceeded several hundred, and the result was that many civilians were killed، health facilities were destroyed, and hospitals became crowded with wounded civilians, especially women and children.