For What Sin Were They Killed?

The war in Sudan is no longer merely a war between an army and a militia; it has become an open war against the Sudanese people themselves. The suffering caused by this war is beyond measure, but the most heartbreaking tragedy is what is happening to unarmed civilians. Children, women, and elderly people have been killed in cold blood by terrorist militias, guilty of nothing more than refusing to submit to a project built on looting and plunder.

These gangs, which have become accustomed to killing, looting, rape, and the destruction of villages, have not been content with the atrocities they have committed on the ground. They have introduced an even more cowardly weapon: suicide drones that drop bombs on homes, hospitals, places of worship, and markets without discrimination or mercy. These drones target people in their beds, children in their schools, and patients in their hospital beds.

Just recently, these drones targeted the Imtidad Nasir neighborhood in Khartoum, killing innocent children who were playing. They also targeted Khartoum International Airport and vital infrastructure in a desperate attempt to paralyze people's lives after the militia failed to confront the army on the battlefield. All reports and evidence point to foreign support behind these drones, with the United Arab Emirates at the forefront, financing and arming the militia and sending death from the skies to kill Sudanese people in their own homes.

More painful than the crimes themselves is the world's silence. Fully fledged war crimes are being committed against civilians every day: killing, displacement, starvation, and systematic looting. Yet we have heard no meaningful condemnations, nor have we seen a clear designation of these militias as terrorist organizations, despite their committing atrocities equal to or worse than those perpetrated by terrorist groups.

Those who live under the control of these militias suffer persecution and humiliation, while those who escape them understand why people are fleeing in large numbers, individually and collectively, toward areas controlled by the Sudanese Armed Forces. In every area liberated by the army, celebrations erupt, livestock are slaughtered in thanksgiving, and ululations fill the air. People know the difference between those who protect them and those who violate their dignity; between an army that safeguards their honor and a militia that violates their dignity.