4 VIDEO CHATS: Sudan War and Civilisation feat. Layla AbdelRahi & Ushari Ahmed Mahmud Khalil

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: Here are four 30-minute video chats between Dr Layla AbdelRahim and Dr Ushari Ahmed Mahmud Khalil. The chats cover wide ranging topics focusing on Sudan's war and civilisation. After finding Part 2 by accident and viewing it, I am documenting all 4 here.

War and Civilisation 1: What we can learn from Sudan - 14 Nov 2023
War and Civilisation 2: Sudan and the Roots of Turmoil - 9 Dec 2023
War and Civilisation 3: The Genealogy of Genocide - 30 Dec 2023
War and Civilisation 4: The State is Corruption - 6 January 2024

Image credit: Ushari Ahmed Mahmud Khalil Facebook

War and Civilisation 1: What we can learn from Sudan 

14 Nov 2023

To view the 26 minute video discussion click here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/war-and-1-what-92303767

Description:

All raging wars are alike; each peaceful initiative fails in its own way.

September this year marked the 40th anniversary of the implementation of Shari'a Laws in Sudan. 1983 thus took a step out of the geopolitical crossroads into the direction of today.

Even though humanity has waged war for thousands of years, we are still surprised each time a new war erupts. We are baffled by the narrative on the “other” side. We are outraged. Dismayed. And passionately, we fall into the trap of the narrative we believe.

I was a teenager, studying civil engineering and working several jobs at a time, when the Second Civil War in Sudan broke out. The narratives explaining the war seemed lopsided to me, even false. So, I decided to investigate for myself. Ushari and I met at the Sudan Times daily. Bona Malwal was the editor-in-chief at the time. Indignant at the cruelty and injustices around us, we both strove to uncover the truth and right the wrongs. It is rare to meet someone with such integrity and dedication as Ushari. Even after political imprisonment and now in exile, he remains the voice of human conscience.

I hope you will find this conversation interesting and helpful in your own endeavours to better humanity. This is the first of five parts.

You can support Ushari Ahmed Mahmud Khalil’s work by engaging his translation services or donations and follow him on Twitter; YouTube; Faceook.

Ushari Mahmud analyses and reports on the political situation in Sudan. He started as a sociolinguist dedicated to understanding the impact of the diversity of languages in Sudan on the society and politics. His M.A. thesis at the I.A.A.S (Institute for African and Asian Studies) at the University of Khartoum in 1974 was titled “The Phonology of a Dying Nubian Language Birgid”.

He defended his doctoral dissertation in 1979 at Georgetown University on pidgin Arabic in South Sudan, titled “Linguistic variation and change in the aspectual system of Juba Arabic”.

In 1987, he and his colleague, Suleyman Ali Baldo - a defender of human rights - published a report on “Al Dhaein Massacre and Slavery in Sudan” for which both were imprisoned.

His book on language, titled “Arabic in the southern Sudan: History and spread of pidgin creole”.

A relevant article by Zeinab Mohammed Salih: “Viewpoint from Sudan — where Black people are called slaves”.

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War and Civilisation 2: Sudan and the Roots of Turmoil

9 Dec 2023

To view the 32 minute video discussion click here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/war-and-2-sudan-94372301

Description:

In this part of my conversation with Ushari Ahmad Mahmud Khalil, we delve into the root of the unending turmoil in Sudan. We discuss religion and the role it plays in framing the politics around resources.

Sources and further reading:

Mahmoud Mohammed Taha

Glimpses of the life and thoughts of Ustadh Mahmoud Mohamed Taha. Documentary by Steve Howard, Ohio University

Interview with Asma Mahmoud Mohammed Taha (daughter) by Steve Howard

Documentary by Ahmed Al Muhanna in 2 parts (Arabic)

A brief history of Mahmoud Mohammed Taha’s life and work

An overview of events regarding Mahmoud Mohammed Taha

Book: Quest for Divinity: A Critical Examination of the Thought of Mahmud Mohammad Taha, by  Mohamed A. Mahmoud

On the thought of Mahmoud Mohammad Taha

Jean-René Milot wrote a Master’s thesis on Mahmoud Mohammed Taha at the Faculty of Law, University of Montreal in 2007

U.S. and Muslim Brotherhood

See books and articles by the Montreal-born, American journalist Ian Johnson

Investigative journalist Robert Dreyfuss’ work, for example: Cold War, Holy Warrior

Eric Reeves on U.S chargé d’affaires to Sudan Steven Koutsis’ statements on U.S interests and policies vis à vis Sudan

Wildlife trafficking

UN report on wildlife trafficking

European Union funding the Janjaweed to Curb Migration

An independent report by the Swedish Development Forum on EU funding the Janjaweed (RSF) to stop migration

A report by Suliman Baldo “Border Control from Hell: How the EU’s migration partnership legitimizes Sudan’s ‘militia state’” (2017)

UN project ReliefWeb on Baldo’s report: “Border Control from Hell: How the EU’s migration partnership legitimizes Sudan’s “militia state” Support Forces (RSF) to stop migration to Europe”

A question to the European Parliament on EU funds for the Rapid Support Forces (Janjaweed) in Sudan to curb migration to Europe

Criticism of EU and UN training and funding the RSF or Janjaweed in Sudan

An article by Bashair Ahmed and Salih Amaar “Escaping Sudan’s Prison: Deciphering the Realities of the EU-Sudan Migration Deal”

Russia, Sudan, and South Sudan Relations

South Sudan:

Putin and South Sudan leader agree to cooperate on security Military base

Russia and South Sudan agreement on mining uranium and lithium in South Sudan

Sudan:

Cooperation on gold and rare metals mining in Sudan

Expert on world politics and professor of political science Natalia Piskounova’s analysis of Sudan’s strife for dominating mining resources

Sudan and Russia agree on military base 

Music By Ayman Mao

Tags Sudan geopolitics religion resources war

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War and Civilisation 3: The Genealogy of Genocide

30 Dec 2023

To view the 28 minute video discussion click here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/war-and-3-of-95549957

Description:

Sources and further reading

History of slavery in Sudan

Map of eastern slave trade route through Sudan

Professor of Anthropology from South Sudan, Jok Madut Jok, on slavery in Sudan

UN definition of “crimes against humanity”

“My Career Redeeming Slaves” by John Eibner, in the Middle East Quarterly, Dec 1999, pp. 3-16

Ushari and Baldo

On Ushari’s detention and imprisonment for his work on human rights

Sudanese forces for change: beware of Sadiq Almahdi

Map of 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries Sudan

Report on Sharia law and the death penalty

South Sudan Secession

The timeline in the video comes from the Center of International Media Assistance

Al Arabiya on the referendum for the secession of South Sudan

Photo credits

The following come from archaeologist Shadia Taha:

Photograph of camel caravan entering Suakin port in the 1830s from Durham Sudan Archive

Map of trade routes

Plan of Suakin’s districts on the three islands and the historic centre from British Museum

Suakin, between the sea and the desert: connected landscapes

Photographs from and more info on the ancient Sudanese Kingdom of Kush

Photographs of John Garang, Ushari, and myself were taken by Atem Yaak, journalist and former Deputy Minister of Information (from my personal archive).

Photographs of SPLA/M leadership.

Omar al Bashir and John Garang sign peace deal and John Garang joins the government.

Photograph of Addis Ababa airport 1984

Photograph of Juba, capital of South Sudan

An early 20th-century IWW poster depicts the workers who hold the edifices of capitalism on their shoulders. Above are the government and religion. From 1911 IWW newspaper/WikiMedia Commons.

This poster echoes Leo Tolstoy’s famous quote from “What Then Must We Do?”:

“I sit on a man's back choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am sorry for him and wish to lighten his load by all means possible… except by getting off his back”.

Photograph of woman, man, and sheep in Khartoum market by Marwan Ali from AP

Photographs of the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue and an American soldier from AP

Photograph of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Ghaddafi from a 2015 article on Donald Trump

Photograph of Old City, Mosul, Iraq by Felipe Dana, AP

Photograph of destroyed Iraq, 20 years on by Khalid Mohammed, AP

Photographs of Iraq from Wiki commons:

Lamassu from the Assyrian gallery at the Iraq Museum, Baghdad

One of the oldest Christian monasteries, Dayro d-Mor Mattai monastery in Bartella, Nineveh, Iraq. Holds a rich collection of Syriac Christian manuscripts

The head of an Akkadian ruler from Nineveh, presumably depicting either Sargon of Akkad, or Sargon's grandson Naram-Sin in bronze

Tags Islamic Brotherhood SPLA/SPLM Sudan civilisation domestication genocide pol slavery war

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War and Civilisation 4: The State is Corruption

6 January 2024

To view the 30 minute video discussion click here:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/war-and-4-state-95977497

Description:

Sources & References

Map of Sudan comes from ISS 

EU tied to violence in South Sudan

Working at the nexus of human and nonhuman animal exploitation

Music by Tinariwen Sahara 

Contact information for Ushari Ahmad Mahmud Khalil

Tags SPLA/SPLM Sudan civilisation politics war

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END

‘No diplomatic end to Sudan’s war in sight' -Baldo

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: Peace meetings between Messrs Burhan and Hemeti could happen as soon as Hemeti makes his fighters leave Khartoum and move out of the residential homes and properties they've commandeered in Khartoum. It's as simple as that. Once that happens, Gen. Burhan said (many times) he will attend ceasefire and peace talks. The fact that none of it has happened proves Hemeti is not genuine in wanting peace and security for the people of Sudan. He wants Sudan and what's left of it by the time he's hauled off to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

__________________________

From Radio Dabanga
Dated Friday, 12 January 2024; 18:00 NEW YORK - here is a copy in full:

‘No diplomatic end to Sudan’s war in sight,’ warns Suliman Baldo

Map of Sudan showing areas under SAF (in red) and RSF (in yellow) control as of December 21, 2023 (Source: @ThomasVLinge via X)

As the war between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) soon enters its ninth month, there remains no tangible end in sight to the widespread suffering endured by the country and its people. That is despite a flurry of diplomatic mediation efforts, says prominent Sudanese researcher Suliman Baldo.

In his analysis ‘Sudan’s Interminable War, published by the International Centre for Dialogue Initiatives on Tuesday, conflict resolution expert Suliman Baldo* observes that while both the SAF and the RSF “initially believed they would crush the other in days”, the conflict has dragged on into “multiple localised ethnically driven clashes beyond either party’s control”.

On the ground, the RSF has succeeded in expanding its territorial control in Darfur, Kordofan, and Khartoum, while SAF remains in control of northern, central, and eastern regions, including de-facto administrative capital Port Sudan. In December, an RSF offensive “wrestled the central Gezira state from the army’s control and threatened its presence in the White Nile and Sennar states”.

The war unmasked SAF’s ineptitude, Baldo asserts, “as its senior commanders became too steeped in grand corruption practices to pay attention to the decay of SAF as a fighting force”.

Their adversary, the RSF, is “ethnically aligned, with plunder as the main motivation of its fighters”. The paramilitary force “proved incapable of providing for the population” in El Gezira after it took over the former safe haven for those who fled Khartoum and El Obeid in the early days of the war.

At the end of December, the Wad Madani Resistance Committees lamented the deterioration of security, health and humanitarian conditions in El Gezira, continued attacks by the RSF, the lack of functional hospitals, and the ongoing waves of displacement in the state.

The region is divided over Sudan. Sudanese policy analyst Kholood Khair and civil society activist Asmahan Akam wrote in Time magazine in December that “Egypt, Iran, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia support the SAF while the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a UN Security Council member, backs the RSF in seeming violation of the body’s own arms embargo on Darfur, first enacted in 2004 and just renewed (with a yes vote from the UAE) in March 2023”.

‘No tangible solution’

The SAF, with junta leader Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan at its head, conditions a ceasefire on the RSF evacuating private and residential areas. Baldo explains that this is most likely to be rejected by the latter, as it maintains a tactical advantage in doing so, especially in Khartoum where it continues to lay siege to several SAF command stations.

Whilst ongoing conflict threatens SAF’s collapse, Baldo believes, “a traffic jam of diplomatic initiatives” has yet to bring forth any sustainable nor tangible end to the conflict.

The Jeddah talks, facilitated by the US and Saudi Arabia, stalled due to belligerents’ failures to honour commitments. The United Nations (UN) “was relegated to an observer’s seat as Sudan unilaterally terminated its political mission”, whereas “offers of mediation by Russia, Turkey, and a Sudan neighbours’ initiative launched by Egypt in July failed to generate traction because the RSF declined to cooperate with any”.

By the end of 2023, the Horn of Africa Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), whose members include Djibouti, Kenya, the Sudans, Uganda, Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea, emerged as a lead mediator for a humanitarian ceasefire and civilian-led political negotiations.

IGAD convened in Djibouti in early December, for an extraordinary assembly session on the situation in Sudan, where members agreed to redouble efforts to achieve a peaceful resolution, including mediating head-to-head talks between El Burhan and RSF commander ‘Hemedti’.

“However, several challenges emerged in the final days of 2023 and early 2024 that risk derailing the IGAD’s role in these processes.”

Hours after the IGAD communiqué of the summit was released, the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs initially denied El Burhan’s agreement to meet with Hemedti without conditions, stating that the communiqué’s content “was not based on consensus nor legally binding.”

Baldo notes that the FA Ministry is “dominated by Islamist allies of the SAF” who are most likely behind the initial rejection of the offer. El Burhan later agreed to meet with Hemedti.

Another challenge facing IGAD’s role is the official reception and hospitality received by Hemedti during his Africa tour, in which he was hosted by the heads of four IGAD member states, including chairperson Ismail Guelleh, the President of Djibouti.

“Hemedti’s reception as a visiting dignitary bestowed on him a diplomatic legitimacy that provoked the ire of the SAF, and made less likely that Burhan would agree to meet with him under the IGAD’s auspices after this slight”, the expert explained.

Last June, Sudan’s Sovereignty Council, chaired by El Burhan, declared that “Kenya is not neutral and is home to RSF rebel leaders”.

Last week, acting FA Minister Ali El Sadig announced that Sudan summoned the Kenyan ambassador to protest against the official reception of Hemedti by the Kenyan president.

* Dr Suliman Baldo is an expert in justice, human rights and conflict resolution in Africa and served as the Africa head of International Crisis group, the International Center for Transitional Justice, and has also held human rights and mediation posts in the United Nations. He has provided expert advice on human rights in Mali and Darfur and currently leads the Sudan Transparency and Policy Tracker. (Source: International Centre for Dialogue Initiatives website)

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