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Joint Statement from Sudanese Trade Unions

D 19 avril 2023     H 20:30     A     C 0 messages


Our country stands today at a crossroads. After the setback of its promising revolution, its headline has become the security breakdown and arbitrary killing in several villages and cities, especially in the region of Darfur. This has been accompanied by the country’s descent into open military confrontations between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, a war that will lead the country to chaos and threaten its existence if we do not stand firm against it and contain it.

The national capital, Khartoum, woke up this morning, Saturday, April 15, to the sound of gunfire and the buzzing of planes, and reports of civilian casualties.

This imminent danger requires that those concerned call for a ceasefire from both sides and appeal to reason to stand firmly against the destructive plans that aim to abort the glorious revolution project and its ambition to transform the country into a democratic civil state of freedom, peace, and justice.

The phenomenon of deteriorating security began decades ago in the state of Darfur, South Kordofan, and the Blue Nile, and it would not have started at all if it were not for the Muslim Brotherhood coup and its insistence on tearing the country apart and humiliating its peaceful citizens. Now, this phenomenon has extended beyond that geographical scope to spread throughout the country. The recent clashes in the Marawi area in the Northern State witnessed sharp tensions, leading to military confrontations due to the competition between the army and the Rapid Support Forces. These have been fuelled by the surrounding regional influences that have become evident in the Sudanese scene, with the intervention of elements of the ousted regime through media mobilisation and work, apparent and hidden, to spread the message of hate.

This ongoing crisis is the result of the desire of many parties to maintain their dubious interests within Sudan. In Darfur alone, and during the past week, with the participation of cross-border groups, the region of Forbaranga was attacked, where 25 people were killed and thousands were displaced in addition to dozens of injuries. The region of Kundube in West Darfur witnessed the killing of six people. In North Darfur state, an armed militia attacked the area of Luwabid, 40 km from El Fasher, the capital of the state, where a bank vehicle was attacked, four employees were killed and the money (salaries) was seized, in addition to other incidents.

Sensing the national and moral responsibility, and what the national conscience dictates in this critical historical situation that the country is going through, many union bodies met in the headquarters of the Sudanese Journalists’ Union in Khartoum and agreed to confront attempts to create sedition and destabilise the country, and to stand against war, security breakdown, and impunity, hoping to take serious steps through which the voice of reason and wisdom prevails, and to defuse the crises and conflicts that have escalated.

Efforts will continue to discuss the crises, produce solutions, and call on all unions and civil bodies to undertake their role and participate in the responsibility of stopping the war and security breakdown.

Signed union bodies :

1. Sudanese Journalists’ Union

2. Steering Committee of the Sudanese Bar Association

3. Bahri Industrial Zone committees

4. Sudan Unions Solidarity

5. The Preparatory Committee of the Union of Professors at Sudan University of Science and Technology

6. The Steering Committee for the Federation of Sudanese Engineers

7. Sudanese Teachers Committee

8. Sudanese Writers’ Union

9. The Preparatory Committee of the Pharmacists Union - Khartoum State

10. Darfur Lawyers Association

11. The University of Khartoum Teaching Staff Trade Union