O Martyrs, Tell God Everything
Mohamed Ghulamabi
For Mahmoud Darwish from "Ode to the Martyrs":
I hang your names wherever you wish,
So sleep a little, sleep on the steps of the sour vine.
I shall guard your dreams from the daggers of your keepers,
And from the books turning against the prophets.
Be the ode of the one without an ode,
When you go to sleep tonight,
I say to you:
Wake up to a homeland,
Carry it on a galloping horse,
And I whisper:
My friends, you will not become like us,
A noose of an ambiguous gallows!
Thousands of souls have crossed to the other side in this cursed war, martyrs whose lives were stolen, not by weapons they wielded, but by a silent rifle and a mind even more silent, deciding their end. If they were to return from death, they would never choose it, for life always holds unfinished tasks waiting to be completed.
All the martyrs who perished at the hands of the warring factions are immortal. They are not mere numbers in history books but vivid evidence of hardened hearts and closed minds. How, I ask you, could a soldiers heart and mind comply in that moment to snatch an innocent, tender child from his mother’s arms, only to hurl him into the river amid his cries and her desperate pleas?
This writing is dedicated to some of those martyrs—men, women, and children. I attempt to place them in the pages of history while apologizing to those whose names are absent here but remain engraved in the heavens. They fell victim to aerial barrel bombs by the Sudanese military and intelligence forces, allied factions, or the atrocities committed by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their allies.
Here is three-year-old Muhannad Muhammad Musa Al-Ajab from the village of Al-Tumasa in South Al-Jazirah locality. He was snatched from his mother’s arms by an RSF soldier and thrown into a water reservoir. His mother, who had grabbed him and rushed away, hoping to shield him from a stray bullet, was met with sinful hands and a stony heart that discarded him like a rock, not a human being with a right to life and dignity.
On November 5, five-year-old Nuha Yasser Abdullah Al-Eiser from Bureida near Tamboul, sitting in her mother’s lap as they fled to Shendi, was struck by a fatal bullet when RSF forces ambushed their vehicle.
In Al-Masaeed village on the Khartoum-Madani road, physics teacher Nada Ibrahim Ali Hamid Al-Jaali was killed on September 7. After returning from her school and preparing a meal for her family, RSF soldiers stormed her home, demanded money, and attempted to assault her. She resisted bravely, but a soldier shot her, leading to her death the next day in the hospital.
In Wad Madani, the city mourned the death of footballer Mu’tamin Nasr Al-Din "Batmouni," who was killed by RSF members on October 26 while on his way to pray at a mosque.
In mid-September, RSF forces fired on a passenger bus traveling from Kassala to the villages of Al-Halawiyin near the Al-Jazirah region. Among the victims was Tarteel Qareeb Allah Muhammad Ali, a medical student at the University of Al-Jazirah, who succumbed to a bullet wound to the head.
On September 14, Daoud Mahmoud from Barakat Al-Riyasa in Wad Madani, who ventured out to gather edible wild plants for his hungry children, was intercepted by RSF soldiers. Unable to pay the bribes they demanded, he was shot dead.
Among those killed in Sudanese military intelligence detention centers was Salah Al-Tayeb, a lawyer and Sudanese Congress Party member, abducted and tortured to death in May on charges of collaborating with the RSF.
In Al-Hilaliya, over 670 people perished under an RSF siege in November—victims of direct gunfire or neglect due to lack of medical care. Among them were 293 women and 53 children.
In Taibat, the town mourned the December 12 killing of volunteer Muhammad Abdulrahman, known as "Kiro," an active youth leader in humanitarian efforts. He was killed in the city’s market by RSF forces attempting to rob him.
Lastly, Sheikh Hajj Qassem Al-Sayyid Babiker, an 86-year-old man from Abu Saqra Adam village in South Al-Jazirah, was killed by a targeted bullet on November 28.
The count of martyrs is vast in Al-Jazirah State and other regions afflicted by this war. Even if this hurried article fails to name them all, history will remember them. They died sinlessly, and now they rest beside the Just, the All-Knowing, and the Wise. We plead with them to tell God everything about this senseless and cursed war. He already knows but may He end it, bringing peace, security, and prosperity to our land.
