Militias in Sudan: How to Turn Them from a Curse to a Blessing
Ameer Babiker Abdallah
The current situation in Sudan demands thinking outside the box. Personally, I have gained much from bitter experiences by transforming their negative impact into something positive, and I believe this approach is necessary to escape the crisis in which our absent state has entangled us. By turning the proliferation of militias and non-state armies, in whose swamp we are now submerged, into a blessing, we can lay the foundation for the state we dream of building.
First, there are several factors that must be addressed to place us in a position for positive thinking about the future. These factors relate to the current chaos, which needs to be dismantled, dusted off, and reorganized in a way that supports building a state based on citizenship and mutual agreement. In a recent book, Sudans Peace... The Swamp of Militias and Non-state Armies, I explored this phenomenon from various angles and consequences, and over time I’ve written several articles aimed at establishing a military sociology that can understand Sudan’s unique situation.
The first of these factors is recognizing that we live within the borders of a state not by mutual consent but by force, despite the fact that we have lived within these borders long enough to develop commonalities that outweigh our differences. It is time to think seriously about drafting a long-overdue social contract based on these shared elements and to establish mechanisms capable of managing differences in ways that serve our common destiny based on citizenship.
The second factor is the military institution. After gaining independence, Sudan inherited a military institution that, despite its shortcomings, remains the most organized structure within the state due to its functional nature. The failures that have plagued its performance throughout national rule stem from the lack of a comprehensive state doctrine, as I discussed in a previous article, The Sudanese Army... Military Doctrine and the Absence of the State. A key observation that elevates the military institution’s status is its inherent capacity to accommodate diversity through its established laws and customs.
The military institution has remained the most cohesive during internal conflicts and has represented the primary concern for every regime that has ruled the country, with each looking at it with suspicion. Therefore, ruling systems, especially those that came to power through coups, have always taken precautions to prevent its abilities from being used against them. This was seen with President Jaafar Nimeiry and later with President Omar al-Bashir, who both weakened the military by creating parallel forces to suppress it and, if necessary, confront it militarily.
The third factor is tribalism and militias. The spread of tribalism and its effects on the Sudanese political landscape is not a recent development but has significantly escalated since the era of the Salvation government. This phenomenon is closely related to the first factor and has also been tied to the emergence of militias, with the state’s continued failure leading each tribe to adopt its own militia, pushing the country back to earlier stages of social and historical development.
As I wrote in the introduction to the article The Sudanese Army... Military Doctrine and the Absence of the State, despite the bleakness of the ongoing war, which has been raging for nearly a year and a half, and the dark tunnel into which it has plunged the country along with the catastrophic consequences it has produced, the war has shed light on important aspects of political, social, and military life that have remained in the blind spots of the national states journey.
Thus, we face a bleak reality with catastrophic repercussions that stretch across the countrys lands, and we must find paths leading toward light. It could be said that this war has returned us to the starting point from which we should launch the establishment of a state that encompasses us all, based on the commonalities we have shared under the forced circumstances we have endured together for centuries.
This reality makes it clear that we are in a state of fluidity as a nation. We have a military institution that requires substantial political effort to formulate a mutually agreed-upon social contract that establishes a comprehensive state doctrine upon which its military doctrine can be built. Meanwhile, more than a hundred tribal militias exist on its soil, and no matter how varied their capabilities, they remain a reality that must be seriously addressed, with an aim to channel them toward the future of a state based on citizenship.
Turning this bleak reality into beacons of light on the path to a future state requires dealing with these militias through a comprehensive perspective for rebuilding the state and its institutions, including the military. Just as the military has been the most affected and distorted by the practices of successive Sudanese regimes, the opportunity now exists to turn these tribal militias into a blessing by integrating their members into the military with agreed-upon quotas to build a unified, professional army that all Sudanese can find themselves within. The military institution, with its internal laws and provided it is kept free from meddling hands, is capable of leading the process of national integration and reinforcing the principle of citizenship.
This requires extensive dialogue and out-of-the-box thinking to arrive at an optimal formula for integrating these militias in a way that reinforces the state rather than undermining it. This would mark an end to one era and the beginning of a new one, where the state no longer needs to declare war on opposing militias or create militias to support its internal conflicts against its own people. We should not rely on the conventional disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) programs promoted by international organizations in similar cases, as these programs may suit countries with well-established institutions capable of implementing such plans. Instead, these programs should be adapted and localized to align with our current circumstances.
Without a parallel, integrated effort to reform all state institutions, rebuilding them according to a comprehensive framework based on citizenship and establishing a democratic political system capable of managing diversity for the unity of the country, this step will remain isolated and yield no positive impact; we will remain stuck in place.
