The atrocities which have occurred over the last week in Sudan have been a long time in the making. In 2019, President Omar al-Bashir, who had ruled the North African country for 30 years, was ousted in a coup. This was followed by a power-sharing agreement between the official army, the civilian parties and the RSF (a paramilitary group), intended to be a transition to democracy. But the arrangement broke down in 2023, when tensions broke out between the two military factions and eventually erupted into a war on civilians.

Since then, an estimated 150,000 people have died, and around 12 million have been displaced. The UN has described the situation as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, and there is evidence of war crimes committed by both sides. The RSF, in particular, has been accused of a long list of atrocities, including rape, sexual violence, torture and enslavement. 

An already desperate situation was made even worse over the weekend, when RSF forces managed to capture Al Fashar – a city in the Darfur region – after laying siege to it for 18 months. There were immediate reports of mass killings, summary executions and forced displacements, with experts comparing the situation to the early days of the Rwandan genocide. Human rights organisations (along with the US government) had already accused the RSF of ethnic cleansing and genocidal conduct in Darfur, specifically aimed at the Massalit people and other non-Arab communities. Now it has near total control of the region, the next stage could be even more brutal.

“We’re looking at Al-Fasher as the culmination of a decades-long campaign in the Darfur region and across Sudan,” Maddy Crowther, co-executive director Waging Peace, a non-profit which supports the Sudanese community in Britain, including asylum seekers and refugees, tells Dazed. “If Al-Fasher fully falls, then its population will be forced into displacement, whether that’s internally or across borders, to Chad, South Sudan or Egypt. It will be a ‘successful’ genocide, a ‘successful’ ethnic cleansing, and there’s something particularly horrifying about seeing that live-streamed directly to your phone.” Below, you’ll find a list of ways you can help.

DONATE

To provide immediate humanitarian assistance to people on the ground, there are a number of organisations you can donate to, including the Sudan Benefit Fund, which supports community-run emergency response teams in Sudan; Sudanese American Physicians Association, which is providing healthcare access and medical assistance; Cairo Sudan Aid, which provides various forms of assistance at border areas, from food and water to SIM cards, and Darfur Women Action group, which supports women in the region most affected.

WRITE TO YOUR MP

“We are realistic about the limitations of what MPs alone can achieve. But we have had it repeated to us time and time again that MPs are not hearing from their constituents about Sudan,” says Maddie.

While Britain has in place an arms embargo against Sudan, a recent Guardian report revealed that the RSF has been using British-made weapons – most likely channelled through the United Arab Emirates, which has been accused of arming and funding the group (accusations it denies). According to Amnesty International, “The UK kept approving arms sales to the UAE, even when the risks were staring it in the face. This raises serious questions about the UK’s potential complicity in mass atrocities.”  Campaigners are calling on Britain to impose a full arms embargo and increase political pressure on the UAE, and to increase humanitarian aid to Sudan. This latter demand is particularly important at a time when Labour is slashing the foreign aid budget to fund an increase in military spending.  

Finally, the Sudanese community in Britain is asking for accountability and a role in any future peace talks, which the UK government is likely to have a role in. “The history of Sudan shows that when [the peace process] doesn’t involve meaningful justice and accountability for human rights abuses and atrocities, the peace has a tendency not to last, and in fact, as we’re seeing now, to considerably worsen and have absolutely dire consequences for the country,” says Crowther.

There’s a lot going on here, and it might be difficult to know where to begin, but Waging Peace has created a template letter to make it easier to contact your MP.

PROTEST

Last week, a large crowd gathered outside Downing Street to protest what organisers described as “Britain’s material complicity in atrocities unfolding in Sudan’s besieged city of El Fasher” and demand an arms embargo against the UAE. There is another demonstration planned this Saturday (November 8), which will begin at Gloucester Road Station at 1pm. For more updates about this protest and others to come, follow London for Sudan on Instagram or Talk About Sudan on TikTok.

SHARE INFORMATION

It is important to keep talking about Sudan. “Although it’s been an incredibly painful time, it has felt very different for members of the Sudanese community to see what’s happening being talked about and receiving attention,” says Crowther. “So as facile as it may sound, continuing to share information about what you’re seeing in Sudan does have a direct impact on the communities that we support here in the UK – we’re told that all the time.”