When Will We See a People-Led Anti-War Movement in Northern Sudan?

It is indeed sad that the Northern Sudanese conscience is dead. I often wonder what will wake us up. And what will it take for every Northerner to say, “No, not under my watch, not another war with ourselves”?

I think that will only happen when this new war against the “new” South reaches Khartoum. I know that it is awful to say that, but maybe that is what we need. To taste war first hand, since it seems we are not human enough to say no to the suffering of our own sisters and brothers, (in Darfur, in the Nuba Mountains and in Blue Nile State), louder than the disbanded, weak and low whispers we are hearing now.

Today, we are a country on the brink of extinction and steps away from a full-fledged war that is about to engulf all of Sudan. Except for the North and East, all other regions of Sudan are now war zones and areas of humanitarian crisis. As of early June 2011; 200,000 civilians from South Kordofan have been displaced and 150,000 civilians are also displaced from recent clashes in Blue Nile State. In both cases civilians’ access to basic shelter and medical assistance is limited.

Our dysfunctional opposition parties announced that on Friday September 9, 2011 they will lead an anti-war march and will hand the President a written message protesting the war. We all waited for Friday with hope, only to be told that the march was canceled because the government refused to grant the opposition necessary permission for the anti-war protest.

As I write this there are rumors that an armed coalition, dubbed the “Brigade of the Free Ones” that includes armed factions from Blue Nile State, the Darfurian Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Movement is being formed to confront the regime. If this is true, Khartoum will not be spared.

Northern Sudan’s triangular capital and its shanty towns are packed with displaced and dispossessed citizens from the margin; those who fled older conflicts and long-term economic neglect. We Northern citizens are about to lose an important opportunity to stand in solidarity with those fellow citizens and say, “No to war”. Yet there is nothing, but a deafening silence in Khartoum, in Madani, in Atbara, in Al Gadarif, in Kassala…

Some call it a state of national insensitivity. I would go as far as to call it simple inhumanity. Yes, it was simply inhuman to have resided over the longest war in contemporary human history, with our now new neighbor, South Sudan, without the emergence of a national citizen-led anti-war movement. And now we are repeating our history soon after the end of the transitional period under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).  

As these new wars escalate, and the government spends more on its war apparatus, get ready for those long and frequent power cuts, not to mention the deterioration of the already chronic water shortage problem. In addition to the collapse of all other services that are already lousy. And you, the biggest culprits, the silent and diminishing middle class. You are the few who benefited from six years of “peace” under the CPA. The party will soon end for you as investors run away and the economic boom turns into an indefinite recession.

It is time we all say no to war now. Before we disintegrate even more, before we seize to exist, we have to act. By doing and saying nothing we are as culpable as those waging the wars and carrying the guns. History and our fellow citizens, who have lost their homes and their loved ones, will not forget.