Devastation in the Sudanese city of Omdurman -- image via X video screenshot
With the passing of the 500th day of the devastating war in Sudan, the Sudanese Communist Party has released selected translated excerpts from the document titled "Five Years Since the Revolution... One Year of War," published in August 2024 by the party's Central Committee of the Sudanese Communist Party and a Public Communiqué demanding an end to the war as well as mass action to stop international intervention from dividing the country and looting its resources.
- Decisive popular mass action to stop international intervention from dividing the country and looting its resources.
- Stopping the war is essential for implementing the Geneva Conference resolutions and ensuring humanitarian aid reaches those affected.
The devastating effects of the war persist in Sudan, displacing millions and causing the injury and death of thousands. The conflict has led to severe human rights violations against civilians, women, and children, and has resulted in widespread destruction of infrastructure. It has crippled industry, healthcare, education, and agriculture, heightening the risk of famine and further war crimes, while also disrupting water, electricity, and internet services. Moreover, floods and rains have ravaged villages, including the collapse of the Arbaat Dam in the Red Sea state, impacting over 24 villages and cities in the northern state, as well as areas in Kassala and West Darfur.
The threat of famine looms over 26.6 million Sudanese, with 24 million children affected by food shortages. Over 70% of agricultural production areas are out of operation, leading to the failure of the 2023/2024 winter and summer seasons. This has prompted calls to declare famine in Sudan and highlighted the urgent need to stop the war to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid.
We previously warned of the dangers of intervention and the regional and international competition over Sudan's resources. This threat has become evident with Burhan’s visit to China for the Sino-African Summit, where he praised China's political and military support and agreed to more land grants for China. The ongoing war in Sudan cannot be viewed in isolation from the escalating regional and international competition over the country's resources, involving rival powers such as the US and its allies, Russia, China, the UAE, Egypt, Turkey, and Iran. Neighboring countries like Chad, accused by Burhan’s government of supporting the Rapid Support Forces alongside the UAE, are also implicated in the resource plundering.
The recent Geneva Conference failed to achieve a ceasefire, with the absence of the army hindering attempts to halt the fighting. Burhan’s statements in his last press conference prolonged the war by rejecting participation in Geneva and calling for the formation of a temporary technocratic government. This was countered by the Rapid Support Forces proposing a government in Khartoum to limit Burhan’s authority. This situation highlights the danger of dividing Sudan post-Geneva Conference with the formation of two governments, reminiscent of the Libyan experience. Resolving these issues independently requires Sudanese unity and grassroots pressure to stop the war.
Despite the Geneva Conference’s assurances on aid delivery, a ceasefire is the guarantee for aid to reach those affected.
We emphasize the following:
- The de facto governments in the army and Rapid Support Forces’ areas, if formed, do not represent the people of Sudan and cannot enter into agreements on land or other issues in the absence of a democratically elected civilian authority. Thus, the Sudanese people are not bound by these agreements.
- Both warring parties are involved in war crimes, crimes against humanity, foreign intervention, and affiliations with external powers. Just as the UAE arms the Rapid Support Forces, countries like China, Iran, Egypt, and Turkey support the Sudanese army.
- Burhan’s claim during the China meeting that aid reached all parts of Sudan is false.
Acknowledging the recommendations of the Fact-Finding Mission Committee on the need for the presence of international forces to protect civilians, it is crucial to organize the public movement as the decisive factor in ensuring Sudan’s unity. This escalation is evident in the strike by workers at Suakin Port and in Kassala, in the public outrage over the detention and torture of citizen Amin Mohammed Badr to death, demanding justice, and in the rising public protests against environmentally harmful mining.
We affirm that escalating popular mass action and the efforts of Sudanese inside and outside the country are crucial to preventing the division of Sudan. This escalation begins with stopping the war and thwarting international intervention aimed at dividing the country and looting its resources. It involves prosecuting war criminals and improving deteriorating economic, living, and security conditions, such as rising prices, the devaluation of the Sudanese pound, and the displacement of thousands from their jobs in industry, services, and agriculture. Additionally, it necessitates linking the cessation of the war with reclaiming the revolution, ensuring national unity, and preventing division. This includes removing the military and Rapid Support Forces from politics and the economy, making security arrangements to dissolve the Rapid Support Forces, National Congress Party militias, and the forces of armed movements, creating a unified professional national army under civilian government supervision, and continuing the revolution to achieve its goals and the transitional period’s tasks.
Secretariat of the Central Committee
Sudanese Communist Party
The attempts by civil forces, who allied with the Supreme Security Committee and integrated it into the government under the pretext that "there is no solution to Sudan’s crisis except by submitting to the United States and the West, gaining their favor for debt relief, and continuing to receive loans," have failed to convince the people who chose the path of revolution for change. These forces also sought reconciliation with so-called "moderate Islamists" to achieve national unity, claiming it would bring stability and attract foreign investments for the country’s revival. However, the past years of the transitional period have revealed the fallacy of their development concept and exposed their lack of understanding of the revolution’s goals.
Our people recognize that any state founded on parasitic capitalism, whether its ideology is Islamic or secular, is merely an extension of a larger global agenda. This became evident during the reign of the ousted regime, which professed opposition to the U.S. and the West while simultaneously advancing their agenda in Sudan and the region. This reality has been further confirmed during the transitional governments of the revolution, which have been characterized by economic crimes against the people and the state, the erosion of rights and equality before the law, and a pervasive lack of security. Throughout this period, there have been breakdowns in security, widespread human rights violations, and conflicts that have resulted in attacks and wars against citizens in cities, villages, and displacement camps within conflict zones, spreading even into previously safe areas in the region and neighboring states.
Efforts to force citizens to relinquish their land for seizure and resource exploitation through both economic and non-economic means were met with massive popular resistance. This resistance culminated in the coup of October 25, 2021, and later escalated into war between the two military factions, driven by secondary contradictions over who would dominate power and control the transitional period to serve their own interests and secure the backing of regional and international powers.
Clearly, the solution cannot be found in reverting to the same policies imposed by international, regional, and local initiatives, nor in relying on the same social forces that strayed from the revolution and instigated the war to crush it. These forces fragmented the revolution's base and sowed chaos to terrorize and subjugate the citizens, forcing them to choose between accepting the “soft landing” project for the sake of security or abandoning the principles and slogans of the revolution.
Our party’s literature, both before and after the war of April 15, 2023, has consistently emphasized that the primary conflict in our country is both a national and international struggle. The central contradiction remains between the projects of radical change and the “soft landing” approach adopted by the transitional governments. The October 2021 coup and the April 15 war were tools used by the proponents of the soft landing, both domestically and internationally, to resolve the conflict in their favor. These events were simply continuations of a political project aimed at crushing the revolution, terrorizing the citizens, and dispersing and dismantling the active revolutionary forces.
In response to the war and in opposition to it, the party has adopted the slogan, “Stop the war and reclaim the revolution through the broadest grassroots mass front,” aiming to defeat the war and its political and social objectives, hold those responsible accountable and bring them to trial, and then return to the December Revolution project, which the masses embraced as their path to change.
The party’s declaration of its political stance on the war is not just a public statement but a reflection of its practical struggle toward the cause, serving as a political address to the masses. The party, along with its institutions and branches, aligns words with revolutionary action, focusing on organizing, engaging with the masses through all available means, and working to dismantle the war, its consequences, and its objectives. The struggle involves stopping the war, securing the right to a safe and dignified life, and compelling responsible parties to provide essential services and means of livelihood, all while refusing to legitimize the war by siding with either of the warring factions. The party rejects granting any legitimacy to the outcomes and opposes any compromise that would restore the partnership between the remnants of the ousted regime and the “Progress” faction under external supervision to form a government that serves their interests. The party remains committed to mobilizing a peaceful mass struggle that escalates to defeat the conspiracy against Sudan and its people and works to reclaim the revolution.
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