Escalation of Calls for Arming in Sudan… What’s the Relationship with the al-Bashir Regime?
Voices advocating for the arming of civilians are on the rise in Sudan, as the Rapid Support Forces advance southward, and the specter of civil war looms over the country after 8 months of bloody conflict for power between these forces led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo and the Sudanese army led by Abdul Fattah al-Burhan.
The Rapid Support Forces have called on residents of the areas they control to volunteer for arming, emphasizing that the goal is to protect these areas.
Calls have spread in areas under the control of the Sudanese army in the states of White Nile, Blue Nile, and the Eastern Sudan region through groups calling themselves “Armed People’s Resistance.” The Baja Oversight Council in the East has organized meetings with local administrations to coordinate engagement in what they term “fighting alongside the Sudanese army and providing support.”
Forces for Freedom and Change and civil society organizations accuse elements of the former regime and its loyalists of backing the campaign and calling for turning the war into tribal confrontations.
The current calls, supported by the Islamic movement and elements of the dissolved National Congress Party, align with efforts to prolong the duration of the war and undermine political solution initiatives. This comes after army elements mysteriously withdrew from the Al Jazirah state and lost control of several states since the outbreak of the war in mid-April, amid concerns that the Rapid Support Forces might reach the Eastern Sudan region, where Army Chief General Abdul Fattah al-Burhan is stationed.
Sudanese have previously experienced arming civilians leading to the exacerbation of conflicts, such as what happened in the Darfur region in the west of the country, claiming 300,000 lives and displacing 2.5 million inhabitants from their homes, according to the United Nations.
An official statistic released in 2018 indicates that there are 5 million weapons in the possession of civilians in various regions. The research group Small Arms Survey (SAS) confirms that 6.6% of Sudanese own firearms, although some military experts estimate the numbers to be multiples of the declared figures, given the state of instability along Sudan’s borders.
