Sudan: Activists uphold calls for peaceful transition

On Friday, deadly clashes between the two rival generals in Sudan have continued despite calls for a three-day-ceasefire in light of the beginning of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of Ramadan.

News agencies reported Friday morning that amid ongoing gunshots and dark smoke billowing into the sky, mass morning prayers were held inside — instead of outside — Khartoum's mosques.

Later on Friday, a humanitarian worker was killed when his vehicle was hit by crossfire in a town southwest of the capital Khartoum, the UN's International Organization for Migration said in a statement.  

Fleeing from violence

Thousands of civilians have already fled the country's capital as a consequence of the armed conflict and in light of a growing humanitarian catastrophe that includes water and food shortages, power cuts, closed down hospitals and grocery shops.

Most residents have been sheltering at home or at safe places for almost a week. They increasingly rely on humanitarian aid.  

"The state of supplies is very dire, the power supply has failed in many places, and many hospitals are also no longer working," Katharina von Schroeder, who works for the aid organization Save the Children in Sudan, told DW from her shelter in Khartoum.  

"We have had some bullets getting into the back of our house, so my family and I are staying inside and try to be safe," Hamid Khalafallah, a Khartoum-based non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy in Sudan, told DW. 

Earlier this week, the Sudanese researcher Yasir Zeidan was forced to relocate to his uncle's house further from downtown Khartoum and its heavily bombarded airport. "We needed to move from my place because it was near the airstrikes," he told DW. "Now, at least, we have food, water and power, and sometimes even internet access," Zeidan added.  

Failed democratic transition

Since the outbreak of the armed clashes last Saturday between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) headed by General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and his rival, General Mohammed Dagalo, better known as Hemeti, who heads the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), at least 330 civilians have been killed, and some 3,000 injured, as the WHO reports. However, confirming numbers remains difficult as many dead bodies remain uncollected in the streets, deepening the humanitarian emergency with the risk of disease.

Initially, both generals had collaborated in the aftermath of Sudan's 2019 uprising, which ousted the long-time dictator Omar al-Bashir.

A military council under Burhan's lead was installed to oversee Sudan's transition to democratic rule. In October 2021, Burhan, with the help of Hemeti, led a coup against the civilian Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and replaced him with a Sovereign Council under military rule.

Then, earlier in April, tensions between Burhan and his deputy Hemeti had escalated over the integration of the RSF into the country's army.  

Civil society battles humanitarian disaster 

Meanwhile, the country's civil society, who are organized in neighborhood-based resistance committees, have become coordinators of much-needed humanitarian help.  

"The pro-democracy movement’s networks and experience of organizing are currently being utilized in the Sudan crisis," Michelle D'Arcy, the Sudan country director of the humanitarian organization Norwegian People’s Aid, told DW.

"Neighborhood committees are doing their best under the very dangerous circumstances to help each other with evacuations, medical care and basic needs", she said.  

Muhammad Ali Hassan, for example, shared on Twitter that they have 750 food baskets available. "One basket suffices a family of 6 people, implementation begins as soon as safe paths are available.

Despite their focus on helping people on the ground, democracy activists have not lost their political focus, a return to the democratic path after the end of the clashes either.

"We should not allow this war to become a full-fledged civil war. It is still possible to reach a solution on its current phase," Yasir Arman, a leading figure of the political coalition of democracy-demanding groups, Forces of Freedom and Change (FCC) stated on social media on Thursday.   

He also called on "the Sudanese people [to] form a united civilian front against war and for the protection of civilians and democracy."  

Fighting unites activists against the military

"The civilian camp remains very active and committed to the democratic path," Theodore Murphy, Director of the Africa Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) told DW.  

While he agrees that "there is an immediate priority, which is addressing the humanitarian situation and calls for a cessation of hostilities," he also highlighted that "a very close second in the minds of the civilians is how to ensure that what follows this terrible fighting will be a retention of Sudan's democratic potential."  

This view is echoed by Jonas Horner, senior analyst on Sudan, and former deputy director at the International Crisis Group.  

"Ultimately, this fighting has set civilians against the military and in many ways, this makes them more united and more determined than ever to deliver on the promise of a civilian led dispensation in Sudan," he told DW.  

Sudan's democracy at risk?

However, both analysts fear that the current fighting and the eventual resolution could come at the cost of Sudan's democracy. 

"It's very possible that, if one of the generals emerges victorious, since they're no longer challenged by the other general, they'll feel empowered to install a new form of dictatorship, in other words, to extinguish the hopes of a democratic future," Murphy said.  

On the other hand, he also sees that "there's been a state of almost constant protests, sometimes larger, sometimes smaller but I think it will prove very difficult, if not impossible, to govern Sudan, completely bypassing the democratic movement and I think that's also the best hope and the best argument for retaining the flame of democracy in Sudan."  

Meanwhile, Sudan's de-facto leader, Abdel-Fattah Burhan, has addressed the public for the first time since the beginning of the clashes.

"We are confident that we will overcome this ordeal with our training, wisdom and strength," he said in a broadcasted speech on Friday, vowing to preserve "the security and unity of the state" and "a safe transition to civilian rule." 

Andrea Grunau contributed to this report.  

Edited by: Maren Sass