Beyond Slogans: Free Sudan
Adapted from Weaving Our Worlds and Hamza Al-Muqawi
Aid Blocked. El Fasher falls. Ethnic cleansing. Famine. Millions displaced. Beyond slogans like Eyes on Sudan, how can we act in solidarity with people in El-Fasher, in Darfur, in Sudan?
The people of Sudan rose up against President Omar al-Bashir’s dictatorship in December 2018. Since then, a counter-revolutionary war is being waged, currently between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). What is happening is not a civil war, it is a war to extract land and resources, maintain an export-oriented economy, and establish a reality that blocks the path of justice and sovereignty.
Historical context
Sudan is the hinge between Africa and the Arab world, between the Sahel and the Red Sea. Its geography made it a prize for colonial conquest, and its revolution makes it a threat to the global order that feeds on subjugation.
Its gold fields, fertile plains, and maritime corridors define it as both resource and route. This has condemned its people to a century of engineered dependency. The creation of the Gezira Scheme transformed the Nile plains into an industrial cotton appendage for British capital, binding Sudan’s infrastructure to the needs of export, while social investment languished. This colonial economic structure condemned the rural periphery to neglect and enforced poverty. Even after independence, the state inherited this architecture, sowing the seeds of revolt.
The 2018 uprising was triggered by the collapse of bread prices, yet it confronted an entire system built on exploitation and austerity. The uprising was so threatening to Sudan’s elite and their foreign patrons that the counterrevolution was swift, brutal, and globally coordinated. The biggest driver of this counterrevolution is the UAE. Through port investments, military outposts, and gold laundering, the Emirates have embedded themselves across Africa, constructing a trans-African corridor of power.
The military and RSF responded to the revolution with open violence: live ammunition at protests, disappearances, and the infamous Khartoum massacre, where the bodies of demonstrators were dumped in the Nile. The regime calculated that making examples of martyrs, weaponizing terror and rape, would destroy collective hope.
Agents of empire funded the violence, including RSF’s 2023 attempt to seize control, to suppress revolution and secure access to recourses. Where the state recedes, militarized businesses take over. Displacement and famine open territory for mining. Looting creates dependency on aid controlled by those funding armed conflict. Each ruined village becomes a future investment zone.
Rapid Support Forces (RSF)
RSF are a genocidal paramilitary headed by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti). Hemedti was one of perpetrators of the 2003 genocide against Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa people in Darfur and part of the al-Bashir regime. During the 2003 genocide, Janjaweed militias received arms and logistical support from the regime in Khartoum. Founded in 2013 from the remnants of these Janjaweed militias, RSF was backed by President al-Bashir. RSF were initially EU-backed border guards to stop migrants from crossing the border between Darfur and Libya and across the Mediterranean into Europe. RSF and other forces were later used to violently crackdown on the Sudanese revolution, including the Khartoum massacre on June 3, 2019.
UAE’s Role
The United Arab Emirates, a key US ally, is the main military power backing the RSF responsible for the genocide in Sudan. Sudan is critical to the UAE’s strategy of domination in the region. The UAE has funneled US$6 billion into Sudan, stealing land and resources, and is the main importer of Sudan’s smuggled(stolen) gold. The UAE also has foreign reserves in the Sudanese central bank, massive agriculture projects to secure its growing food imports, and a multi-billion dollar Red Sea port. The UAE has been smuggling weapons to the RSF through Libya and Chad, even disguised arms as humanitarian aid. The UAE has also used the RSF and other forces in Saudi-UAE interventions in Yemen.
Canada’s Role
Nearly half of Canada’s weapons transfers in 2023 — valued at $1.04 billion — were destined for Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar. The UAE sends many of these Canadian weapons to the RSF. Multiple photos show rifles with the logo Sterling Cross Defense Systems, an Abbotsford, B.C.-based company that produces firearms and ammunition, in the hands of RSF fighters.
In 2012, Canadian-owned firm Streit Security Vehicles sent 30 armoured vehicles to Sudan, breaching the UN arms embargo. Canadian PR firm, Dickens & Madson, headed by former Israeli arms dealer Ari Ben Menashe, has also been hired to launder RSF’s PR image.
Palestine Action YYT, In solidarity
Palestine Action YYT believes that solidarity is something material, something you live by, something you can hold in your hand. We renew our call from last year: we welcome folks to bring Sudanese flags to our marches or reach out to us if they’d like to give a speech or organize an event about Sudan. We stand (and march) in solidarity with everyone on the path to liberation, from Turtle Island to Palestine.
Actions You Can Take:
1. Learn:
learn about what is happening in Sudan, the historical context; see Hamza Al-Muqawi article “Sudan at the Crossroads of Empire” for a comprehensive primer and WOW’s resource list below.
2. Donate:
3. Organize:
Demand an Arms Embargo on UAE from Canada.
Mobilize to end state complicity in genocide in Sudan.
Advocate for and support displaced Sudanese refuges.
4. Boycott the UAE:
Do not travel or vacation in the UAE.
Don’t book flights with UAE airline (Emirates, Ethihad,..)
Do not buy stolen blood gold from the UAE.
Do not buy dates or other UAE agricultural products.
For more resources:
https://abuhureirah.substack.com/p/sudan-at-the-crossroads-of-empire