The War Economy in Sudan: Who Profits When the Homeland Loses?

Dr. Fadil Muhie el-Din Tahir: Dictatorships do not wage wars in defense of the homeland, but in defense of their interests and their seats of power. In Sudan, war was never a destiny descended from the heavens; rather, it has been a known tool of governance utilized by the authorities whenever their calculations became tight, until it became the opiate they cannot live without. War silences inquiry. When a regime fails to provide bread, medicine, and security, it creates an enemy and tells the people: Be silent; no voice rises above the sound of bullets. Thus, asking about public funds becomes treason, demanding freedom becomes a stab in the back of the army, and accountability becomes a service to the enemies of the homeland. Thus, war turns into a curtain that hides the looting of resources, administrative failure, and the corruption of those in power. War is a profitable business for those who wage it. As long as the state is managed with the logic of plunder, peace is a loss for those who feed on chaos: militia leaders, arms dealers, gold smugglers, and regional brokers who divide the country's wealth while its sons die. They do not want the war to end, for its end means the end of their privileges. War tears the people apart to make them easier to suppress. A war in the South, then Darfur, then South Kordofan and the Blue Nile, then the absurd war in April 2023. Each time, regional and tribal differences were exploited instead of being addressed, and these differences were harnessed for the sake of peace and development, because a torn people cannot hold their rulers accountable. Most bitterly, the militias that the former regime sponsored (to protect the state) turned against it, destroying the state that created them. War assassinates the revolution. In December, the Sudanese raised the slogan (Freedom, Peace, and Justice). No sooner had the transition institutions been formed and hopes revived than weapons arrived to halt the construction of a state of law and institutions, and to prevent the harnessing of the country's wealth for the benefit of the people. For the tyrant does not tremble before a cannon, but before the ballot box, transparency, and an independent judiciary. The victim is always the homeland. An opiate provides a fleeting euphoria and leaves behind an exhausted body. Likewise, war grants the regime a short survival and leaves the country in ruins: millions of displaced people, destroyed cities, a generation without schools, a collapsed economy, a homeland looted from within and without, and shattered trust between compatriots. Weaning does not happen through truces. A ceasefire based on the mentality and understandings of power-sharing and wealth-sharing, without dismantling the structure that tempts war, is merely a break between two rounds. What is required is: 1- A single professional army subject to an elected civilian authority, with no place for a militia or a parallel army. 2- A transparent economy where resources are managed by law, not by loyalty, and where channels of smuggling and privileges are closed. 3- Mutual interests that make peace more profitable than war, through production, trade, and integration into a rules-based economic system. 4- Real accountability for everyone who ignited the war, financed it, or profited from it, for there is no peace on the ruins of justice. It is time for the Sudanese to stop asking (When will the war stop?) and start asking more honestly: Who benefits from it, and who protects it? When this question is answered with courage, the weaning begins. In conclusion, we emphasize that an opiate is not defeated by preaching, but by providing a truer alternative. The alternative to war in Sudan is known: a state of law that protects everyone, a productive economy based on transparent rules that opens the doors of livelihood for the sons of the center and the periphery alike, and institutions that make the cost of war for those who ignite it higher than its gain. These are not distant dreams; nations have emerged from crueler wars when they decided to build their peace on mutual interest, justice, and clear rules, not on the scales of weaponry. The Sudanese proved in December that they are more capable of creating hope than the war-makers are of creating despair. Let us drop the opiate from the hands of the dictatorship, and let us return the homeland to its people; for the peace that the people create is the only peace that lasts. eltahirfadil@hotmail.com