by Mike James

As we hear news about wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, we forget there are other conflicts in places like Haiti, Myanmar, and Sudan.

An armed conflict has been going on in Sudan for about the past year between Sudanese government forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The war started about a year ago due to a power struggle between the army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan "Hemedti" Dagalo.

After President Omar al-Bashir was removed from power by a popular uprising in 2019, a transition government was taken out in a coup by al-Burhan and Dagalo in 2021. The army and the RSF initially shared power, but a power struggle between the two was exacerbated by an internationally backed Framework Agreement in December 2022. This attempted to integrate the RSF into the army as part of a wider reform of the security sector and the transition to democracy.

"The Framework Agreement … brought to the fore key existential issues for both forces and their leaderships, such as [RSF] integration into a single army, military divestment from lucrative sectors of the economy and the prospect of [soldiers] facing justice for past abuses," Jonas Horner, an independent researcher on Sudan, told Al Jazeera.

"Most of all … the two forces feared being left weaker than the other."

The war has led 8 million people to become refugees out of a population of about 49 million. Most of the refugees have moved to the countries of South Sudan and Chad. The United Nations estimates that around 222,000 children could die of malnutrition in the coming months.

The United Nations' World Food Program (WFP) says the roots of the hunger problem are due to access and funding. Within Sudan, WFP trucks have been blocked, hijacked, attacked, looted, and detained.

Getting permission from the government for food convoys can take weeks, and the military won't authorize opening keyroutes into the country. Aid workers also say there's no clarity on engagement with the RSF. During fighting, the RSF and its allies have repeatedly looted warehouses full of aid, although the paramilitary group is trying to encourage aid organizations to work in areas fully under its control. In other areas, no one is fully in control. Some areas are run by armed groups, each wanting to receive payments from passing traffic. Many gunmen survive off what they can extort and rob, including aid convoys.

Jesus did tell us we will always have the poor among us (Matthew 26:11). He probably understood that sometimes the poor become poor due to our wars and lust for power. The decisions of men who desire their way have led to millions of people in Sudan fighting starvation.

The Bible teaches that wickedness reigns in this present world (1 John 5:19). Satan does hold sway over the minds of the majority of humanity (Ephesians 2:2-3). The military leaders in Sudan are thinking more about their interests than the interests of their people. But this should not surprise us the god of this world has done the same (Isaiah 14:14).

There is a history of this in Sudan. Prior to independence in 1956, Sudan was a colony of the British Empire. The first Sudanese civil war lasted from about 1955 to 1972 without any real resolution. In 1983 civil war again broke out in the country due to the Islamic north trying to impose sharia law in the south, which was dominated by animists and Christians.

The second civil war lasted until 2005. In 2011, after the second conflict ended, South Sudan gained independence from Sudan.

One of Christ's requests of His Father was for His followers to be one (united) like the Father and Son are united. As we look at the rest of the world and the disunity it demonstrates, let us work to be more united as believers in Christ. We should not be following the lead of the world, but the lead of Christ.

Sources:

"Hunger Stalks War—Ravaged Sudan," by Diana Zeyneb Alhindawi and Katharine Houreld, The Washington Post, April 1, 2024

"Sudan: The Quick and the Terrible," Frontline World, PBS, January 2005, https://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sudan/facts.html#:~:text=Civil%20war%20was%20sparked%20in,dominated%20by%20Animists%20and%20Christians.

"First Sudanese Civil War," Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Sudanese_Civil_War

"Second Sudanese Civil War," Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Sudanese_Civil_War

"South Sudan," Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Sudan

"After a Year of War in Sudan What is the Situation Now," by Areesha Lodi, Al-Jazerra, 11 April 2024, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/11/why-did-war-break-out-in-sudan-a-year-ago-where-does-it-currently-stand