The First Day after the April War in Sudan

Khaled Massa
Although there are still no signs or indicators on the ground that would allow us to estimate this day, it will inevitably come one day, laden with the burdens of both the land and the war, and reaching it will be costly. This stricken country will not be able to stop at the point of arrival to catch its breath and begin the journey of repairing what the war has destroyed.

Apparently, the naked eye can now begin to monitor and count the destruction left behind by the war on the country and its infrastructure, which, since its independence from the colonial powers, had been able to rise up in an uprising one day and then, for years, tumble into the tunnel of defeats of all its national projects, whether through coups or wars. These defeats were a preparation for the final destruction of a comprehensive war, as long as the countrys poverty and the incurable political disease within it. On the first day after the war, whether it ends peacefully or not, the country will open its eyes to what has never been seen with the naked eye amidst the din of bullets, smoke from cannons, and the airstrikes, manned and unmanned, dropping on the countrys resources and the heads of its citizens. The day after the longest war Sudan has witnessed (21 years), in early 2005, a generation now in its twenties was born. While its true that they didnt experience the war at the time, everything that happened afterward continued to shape their consciousness and build their personalities based on a new social map determined by the agreement that resulted from the war. A consciousness that doesnt recognize the saying, "May he who separates us not live." Indeed, reality imposed a new demarcation not only of the geography of one million square miles, but also of a new social geography, the cost of which is still being borne by southerners born in the northern states and northerners born in the southern states. At that time, the issue was not limited to citizenship and identity cards, but rather a shared consciousness of art, shared culture, customs and traditions, intermarriage, and intermarriage.

The changes in Sudans social map are illustrated by the figures appearing in the UNHCRs mid-year trends report on internal displacement. These figures indicate that 1.6 million Sudanese were forcibly displaced, fleeing war and seeking survival alone, from January to June 2024. This brings the total number of displaced Sudanese to 10.5 million, the highest share in the world, according to the report. Meanwhile, the war continues to affect citizens with the most severe food insecurity. This is happening in a country whose economy is already fragile, making it ill-equipped to absorb such major social transformations. This highlights the problems of conflict over scarce resources in the areas to which displacement has taken place, in addition to the problems resulting from the failure to take the necessary measures to provide essential services such as electricity, water, and utensils for housing, medical care, and education. This is compounded by the psychological vulnerability of displaced children and women due to the conditions and horrors of war they have experienced, and the lack of rapid social and therapeutic interventions.

The social map is affected by the unbalanced population distribution resulting from the large waves of displacement resulting from changes related to the existing economic structure. War first destroys and damages the economic structure, halting the wheel of production, causing the loss of jobs and sources of income. Education is also disrupted, and dropout rates rise. The informal economy thrives in the displacement landscape, where even the most minimal levels of legal protection are lacking for workers and where the exploitation of women and children, victims of dire need for the most basic standards of decent living, is on the rise.

The social map in Sudan will certainly be affected by the millions of Sudanese choosing to seek refuge in neighboring countries and the distant world. This represents the highest level of Sudanese brain drain and expertise in all fields that Sudan will need when the first day after the war arrives. These are the people who have chosen a new life in alternative homelands, and with them will emerge a new generation that will represent the greatest loss in Sudans human resources.

This social map, created by the conditions of war, is injected with the poison of extremist hate speech and racist rhetoric based on the classification of societies into friendly and hostile incubators, based on ethnic or regional affiliation, and the rise of tribal identity over nationalism. Sudanese society will not realize the danger of the sonic warfare phenomena that have dominated the audio and written media during the war, redrawing a new map of Sudanese society with the mood and whims of war, until the sounds of bullets subside and the dust of battle settles, leaving them facing something harsher than cannons and bullets. The rise of this discourse, its transcendence of institutional media, its abandonment of the most basic professional and ethical standards, and the withdrawal of even official state media institutions, even their acquiescence to the influence of this current, will pose significant obstacles to post-war arrangements and impose new conditions for the rules of social construction based on the circulars of the wars victors. The rights and duties that should be based on the concept of "citizenship" are being eroded by extremist racist discourse, undermining the foundations of a unified national structure. It attracts the scourges of war, addresses the calamities that unite the afflicted, and transforms them into its army, with which it fights for social justice and a state of equality, awareness, and law.

Preparing for the first day after the war must not be done by waiting for it to stop, which may be a long wait, but rather by truly understanding the effects of the war and the social boundaries it has drawn. The greatest burden in this preparation falls on national civil society organizations and their ability to mobilize all available resources to mitigate the damage and effects of this war. This also applies to active political forces, whose minds must not be completely preoccupied by political discourse and distracted from the surprises of the first day after the war.

Despite the bleak aspects of the Sudanese war, the social map is not devoid of effective resistance tools against anything that might break the cohesion forged over the years. Sudanese society has demonstrated its natural immunity against all the ills of war, including hatred and racism. This reliance is greatly relied upon to exploit the wars ravages as a new beginning for a new social structure based on freedom, social peace, and justice. In preparation for the first day after the war, media and societal attention must be given to the tools for building national unity, which was destroyed by war rhetoric. Local communities must be mobilized to rebuild the social fabric, and the diversity of Sudans social landscape must be harnessed as a powerful force to overcome the crisis of war.