The Sudanese April War: A match of lies and deception

Al-Zain Osman

Sudanese people fought a war in the south for more than half a century before it ended at the negotiation tables, and South Sudan went on to form its independent state. The end of the southern war heralded the beginning of a new war in the Darfur region, which was not handled differently and also ended at the negotiation tables. For 204 days, the conflict between the army and the Rapid Support Forces has been raging, entering its seventh month, amid demands for its continuation and a military resolution according to the slogan "Bil Bas" (Enough), which is supported by the wars proponents without considering the catastrophic consequences and effects of the war.

Earlier, the commander of the Sudanese army, General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, who is fighting a war against his deputy in the Transitional Sovereignty Council, General Hemeti, described it as a senseless war. The use of the term "senseless" for what has been happening in the country for the past seven months raises the question of what drives the continuation of this senselessness?

The Forces of Freedom and Change, which recently met in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, and formed a front to stop the war and restore democratic rule, accused the ousted presidents regime and its leaders of being responsible for the outbreak of the war, which some have called the "Karti War," referring to the Islamist leader and Secretary-General of the Islamic Movement, Ali Karti. This is the same accusation made by the commander of the Rapid Support Forces, Hamdan Dagalo, who said in his latest recorded statement that the army commander receives instructions to continue the war from Ali Karti.

So, is the involvement of the previous regimes leaders and components in the war the only reason it has continued for so long, despite both sides conviction of the impossibility of a military resolution? In answering this question, political analyst and professor of political science, Musab Mohamed Ali, told "Citizens" that what has increased the intensity of the war and its continuity until now is both sides investment in lies, describing the post-April war as the war of big lies, starting from the justifications for waging it by both sides. While the army commander says it is a war for dignity, the commander of the Rapid Support Forces says it is a war against the remnants of the previous regime and for the establishment of democratic transition. The irony, according to Musab, is that both sides are partners in the coup against the revolution and its civilian authority. The most evident truth in this war that is raging on the bodies of Sudanese civilians is that both sides are practicing lies in front of witnesses and are trying to twist the truth in order to achieve a media victory, regardless of the truth on the ground.

"The deluders," supporters of the wars continuation, are accused of using media deception and distorting facts to mobilize citizens to support the war option. This deception began with the first shot fired, where the wars resolution was set to take six hours, after which everything would return to normal. The six hours were soon changed to phrases like "the army is close to defeating the Rapid Support Forces," a moment that has lasted for seven months and is still ongoing. The media deception operation did not stop at setting a time for the resolution of the war, but continued with determining the extent of losses among the Rapid Support Forces. Pages were active in reporting news such as "a number of enemy combat vehicles were destroyed, and dozens of them were killed in a confrontation with the Special Operations forces, and a number of areas were also liberated." Moreover, the media deception campaigns adopted a method of denying the fall of military areas into the hands of the Rapid Support Forces, a deception that did not even spare the ongoing negotiation process, which is shrouded in secrecy in the Saudi city of Jeddah.

Seven months of ongoing war have witnessed all kinds of violations, with Sudanese civilians paying the full price in terms of their blood, property, and mental well-being. It is a war fueled by lies and deception. A war where people need the truth in receiving its news and double the truth in the process of moving toward putting an end to it through negotiation, as there is no military resolution in sight in the near future.