Is Hate Speech Fueling Future Wars in Sudan?
Sudanese Media Forum
Report by: Hiyam Taj Elsir
Khartoum, May 9, 2025 (Media Women Network) – Womens leaders have called for resisting advocates of war, hate, and racism using all effective peaceful means while highlighting the grave consequences of the ongoing war on peoples lives. They stressed the need to oppose any incitement to discrimination, hostility, or violence, and to ensure that advocates of hate and racism are not left unpunished for their crimes.
The women leaders also called for the creation of monitoring and evaluation units to track trends in hate speech, collect reports, and alert key institutions and civil society—locally, regionally, and internationally. They also demanded the establishment of research centers to study and monitor violations in conflict zones, analyze and document forms of hate speech—both explicit and implicit—and enact strict laws that criminalize hate speech and racism in all their forms.
They emphasized the need for heightened moral sensitivity when tracking hate speech on social media and in sarcastic humor in the public sphere, and for banning organizations and propaganda activities that promote hate speech, racism, and incitement. Participation in such activities should be treated as a crime under public law.
Social Exclusion
Nahla Al-Khuzragy, Director of the Future Organization for Consultation and Development in Darfur, stated that hate speech is a manifestation of social exclusion, which has been evident in state policies and caused deep grievances. She provided a historical account of hate speech from colonial times up to the war that began on April 15, 2023, noting that social injustice and lack of fair and balanced development triggered conflicts in South Sudan, the Nuba Mountains, and Blue Nile. The central government imposed Islam and Arab identity as replacements for African religions and Christianity. Regional marginalization led to uprisings in the East and Darfur. Colonial-era policies like “closed districts,” slave trade, and concentration of power and civil service positions in certain elite families deepened inequality. After independence, these elites maintained control through the military.
This direction led some groups to claim that civil service jobs, military academies, and police colleges were exclusive to specific ethnic groups. To address this, peace agreements with armed movements in Darfur included affirmative action for Darfur’s youth in access to higher education, military colleges, and other institutions, responding to complaints of regional discrimination.
Nahla added that Christians in Sudan faced religious discrimination and persecution. After the Naivasha Agreement, a newspaper promoted hate speech against Southern Sudanese citizens before their secession. The editor-in-chief, also the head of the Just Peace Forum, regularly published racist columns and public speeches against Southerners.
Liberation Movements
To resist regional marginalization, armed movements in Darfur were formed along tribal lines, sparking social conflict, competition for arms, and violent clashes between ethnic groups. The National Congress Party exacerbated this by arming specific tribal groups and creating the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which fought African communities in the region. Land and property were distributed to certain groups, deepening tensions between herders, farmers, and other tribal communities.
Following the outbreak of war in April 2023, social media witnessed intense hate speech among the warring parties and their allies. The RSF was labeled “Arab outcasts” and “Um Kakuuk,” while their supporters referred to the army and allied rebel movements as “State of 56” and “Fulani invaders.” Supporters of the December Revolution were called “agents of embassies.” Hate-filled narratives went further with the introduction of the “Western Faces Law,” enforced in relatively safe areas where many displaced people had fled. Many were arrested under this law. Eastern Sudanese leaders also posted hate speech targeting Darfuri leaders, and displaced persons who had fled the violence were not spared either.
Marginalized Groups
Sociologist Elham Malik said that hate speech and racism are not new social problems but rather the outcome of a long history in Sudanese society, including ethnic, cultural, religious, class-based arrogance, and systematic, institutionalized discrimination against vulnerable and marginalized groups.
She noted that the roots lie deep in Sudans history of slavery. Successive governments in both central and peripheral regions perpetuated this. During Anglo-Egyptian rule, the British colonial administration passed laws banning slavery, but they were neither activated nor enforced, and the reality persisted well into the mid-20th century (1924).
After Sudans independence in 1956, elite dominance and exclusion continued. During the Al-Ingaz (Islamist) regime, the problem worsened due to religious-based governance, creating lasting resentment through 30 years of “empowerment policies” for Islamist elements and exclusion of others.
A War of All Against All
Elham warned that the ultimate goal of hate speech among advocates of continued war—should they lose—is to drag society into a state of chaos where all Sudanese communities collapse into defending their immediate social units (tribe or region) over national unity, thus triggering a full-scale civil war: a war of all against all.
She stressed that this is the sinister aim of hate speech: it allows war propagandists to avoid accountability for inciting conflict while achieving one of their three goals—either ruling Sudan, burning it, or dividing it geographically and ethnically. She called on civil and democratic forces to block the path of this divisive rhetoric by adopting clear policies and establishing monitoring centers to track hate speech, along with enacting strict laws to criminalize it.
The Fire of Sedition
Meanwhile, lawyer and human rights activist Salwa Absam stated that hate speech and racism pose a threat to humanity and have ignited numerous deadly conflicts worldwide. She added that racism and regionalism have long been root causes of conflict in Sudan and have been exploited by military regimes and power seekers for political and religious ends, deepening divisions and marginalizing others. She pointed out that both were used in the current war, inflaming sedition and turning it into a civil war that continues to spread.
Absam noted that international laws criminalize hate speech and racism while protecting freedoms of expression, belief, movement, and other rights. She referenced the Constitutional Document—which was overthrown in the October 2021 coup and later amended—which defined the state as one of citizenship without discrimination based on race, religion, culture, gender, color, class, social or economic status, political opinion, disability, or regional affiliation. It affirmed the state’s duty to respect human dignity, promote diversity, and be founded on justice, equality, and the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including equality before the law, freedom of expression, and the right to political participation.
This report is published by the Sudanese Media Forum to mark World Press Freedom Day and as part of journalists’ efforts to combat hate speech that fuels and sustains war.
