The Deadly Disappointments of the 'Yes to War' Battalion

Wagdi Kamil, on April 21, 2023, Al-Demokrati newspaper published a report titled: 'Journalist Rasha Awad Threatened with Death.' The report stated that Rasha Awad had been threatened with liquidation, in the context of a campaign targeting activists and defenders of civil democratic transition. The report also mentioned an assassination attempt on journalist Al-Jamil Al-Fadil, whose car was fired upon in Khartoum. In late April 2023, Rasha Awad herself confirmed the news in an article titled: 'This is my response to those who incite to kill or arrest me!', in which she accused certain pages belonging to supporters of the former regime on social media of inciting her murder or placing her on liquidation lists. Subsequent sources confirm that the targeting of Rasha Awad did not stop at the threats of April 2023. In 2024 and 2025, she, along with other journalists and civilians, were subjected to politically motivated prosecutions and accusations, eventually having her name included among those accused in cases carrying penalties up to death. Today, an article by writer Ezzat Khairy documented a call issued by a Facebook account holder named Amira Karrar to assassinate Rasha Awad. The question that immediately comes to mind is: why is the journalist targeted for murder, and why Rasha in particular? The answer is simply because the journalist threatens the authority's existence by making others think, and think critically about it. They turn facts into questions and carry them into the public sphere. From here begin the omens of symbolic assassination through accusations of treason, espionage, and character assassination. All of this is done as a bridge to justify the use of violence against them rather than peaceful civil dialogue. Thus, the journalists of the de facto authority are active in pushing the mechanisms of violence to get rid of the lives of their colleagues of the opposing opinion, without much regard for their lives or the positive historical values that prevailed in Sudanese journalism. When it is written about a journalist that they are a traitor, a spy, or a fifth column, the essential purpose is not just the desire to silence them, but to delegitimize the narrative of the war from their perspective, so they become an obstacle and a dilemma for journalists who want to monopolize the truth or become its sole source. Here, the industry of accusations against them, the attacks on them, and the calls for their killing should be understood and grasped as calls to kill the truth itself—the truth that becomes uniquely targeted in times of war. Journalism does not become a threat to authority when it disagrees with it, but when it makes the question that was turning in an individual's head a general question that the authority cannot ignore. The phenomenon of killing, assassinating, or executing journalists is one known in many countries, including Saudi Arabia (Jamal Khashoggi), Russia (Anna Politkovskaya), Iran, Mexico, the Philippines, and, of course, Sudan during this war. Sudan enters the picture in a different way because of the current war. In 2025 alone, the CPJ documented the killing of nine journalists and media workers, compared to six in 2024 and one in 2023. Therefore, as a filmmaker, former media professor, and independent journalist, I condemn this despicable and shameful behavior that a handful of merchants of the pen and opinion want to expand in the environment of this war, for the sake of money and power that will be of no use, but will only deepen the sorrows of the Sudanese people who are searching, along with Rasha Awad, for an effective and urgent way to stop this vile war. Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone wagdik@yahoo.com The post The Deadly Disappointments of the 'Yes to War' Battalion appeared first on Sudanaile.