Revolution in Sudan was put under siege

Today is the six year anniversary of the protests that marked the beginning of the revolution in Sudan

Protesters on the train from Atbara to Khartoum in December 2018, Sudan

 (Picture: Osama Elfaki)

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By Khalid Sidahmed
Tuesday 17 December 2024  

SOCIALIST WORKER Issue 2936

Six years ago this month, protests over lack of bread and fuel spread like wildfire across Sudan.

Within days, health workers had taken up the movement’s demands. This gave it a revolutionary momentum and transformed it into a challenge to the whole regime of then dictator Omar al-Bashir.

Over the following months, huge sections of Sudanese society would join protests. It culminated in mass sit-ins in the major cities and general strikes, leading to the downfall of the dictator in April 2019.

The current conflict in Sudan is a counter-revolutionary war, backed by imperialist and regional powers, to crush the Sudanese people’s struggle for freedom, peace and justice.

This violence is a reaction to the 2018 revolution, which was a bold attempt to dismantle over 60 years of military dictatorship. Two militias—the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo—plunged the country into chaos.

Desperate to preserve a decaying system, these remnants of the old regime unleashed a war of devastation in 2023. Over 14 million have been displaced, more than 150,000 killed, and vital infrastructure, healthcare and education have been destroyed.

Both militias loot the country, hoarding Sudan’s wealth while the people bear the cost of their greed and brutality. The RSF profits from gold smuggling and hiring out mercenaries to Gulf states to fight wars in Yemen and Libya. The SAF enriches itself through state assets and deals with imperialist allies.

Sudan’s crises are rooted in the scars of colonisation and the exploitation that followed its 1956 independence. The British Empire divided regions and ethnicities to maintain control while looting Sudan’s resources. Decades of imperialist interference entrenched a system of corruption and dependency.

The major imperialist and regional powers continue to shape Sudan’s tragedy. Britain and the European Union (EU) facilitated the RSF’s creation through the “Khartoum Process”. This provided training for Sudanese security and border forces in order to control “illegal migration” from Sudan to Europe.

The US and EU, along with the African Union, pressurised civilian opposition forces to accept a power sharing government with the SAF and RSF in 2019 after the fall of al-Bashir. Israel’s complicity is clear—Israeli security officials met SAF and RSF leaders in 2021. They then carried out a coup against their civilian “partners” in government.

In February 2023, Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen and al-Burhan signed a “peace treaty” prioritising military cooperation, exposing the cynicism of “peace” as a tool to mask imperialist ambitions.

The regional powers, including the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, are arming both sides in order to seize Sudan’s gold and wealth, but most importantly to crush the revolution. A victorious revolution would threaten their imperialist and capitalist order, inspiring millions worldwide to rise up.

Their corporate-controlled media frames Sudan’s war as an ethnic conflict or humanitarian crisis, obscuring its political roots.

Both militias are criminals. Condemning the RSF while ignoring the crimes of the SAF—or vice versa—serves only to divide and weaken the revolutionary forces.

Similarly, singling out the UAE as the sole villain distracts from the systemic issues that underpin Sudan’s crisis. The struggle is not against one militia or one foreign power but against the entire system.

But Sudan’s revolutionaries have already shown extraordinary courage and resilience. The revolution had the potential to become a fight for a new society, one in which the wealth of the nation serves the people, not warlords and imperialists.

Rebuilding a revolutionary movement requires international solidarity—not with governments, but with the resistance committees, unions and grassroots organisations that embody the spirit of the revolution.