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Kholood Khair runs a think tank, Confluence Advisory, which was founded in Khartoum, that works on policies relating to peace, security, economy and governance. She spoke to Channel 4 News following a major escalation in the vicious civil war in Sudan that has gripped the country for over two years – the fall of the Sudanese Army’s main base in the western city of El-Fasher, to the rival RSF military force. “It’s very difficult to get a sense on the ground,” she told Krishnan Guru-Murthy, “due to a telecommunications blackout in the city across vast parts of Sudan for over a year now.” But she was very aware of “ghastly videos showing heinous and horrific scenes of ethnic cleansing and mass killing by the RSF”. She had little faith that hopes of America brokering some kind of ceasefire would come to anything, and feared there would now be an increase in “violent acts on the ground in Darfur… as people are being targeted for leaving. “We’re going to see government officials from the North Darfur government, as well as journalists and other activists and others, being targeted over the next few days and weeks by the RSF with no sign of any movement on the international side other than empty words.” She said that the RSF has had a delegation staying in Washington DC, “as these murders, as these killings were taking place. “The RSF has often used international mediation, international talks, as political cover to really mete out the worst violence that we have seen. And unfortunately has proven reasonably successful. “They get a pat on the back for being at these talks, and they get sort of the worst acts, not forgiven, but certainly explained away, through bureaucratic, dull bureaucratic talk.” “They (RSF) get a pat on the back for being at these talks, and they get sort of the worst acts, not forgiven, but certainly explained away, through bureaucratic, dull bureaucratic talk.” – Kholood Khair The UN has called for an immediate ceasefire throughout Sudan, and has said humanitarian access must be allowed to reach all civilians in need. Ms Khair said a humanitarian pause “would be useful” with 260,000 people, half of them children, still in El-Fasher, according to the UN, but “neither the Sudanese Armed Forces nor the RSF have shown any indication of will to have a humanitarian force to commit to a humanitarian pause anytime soon. “Neither the Sudanese Armed Forces nor the RSF have shown any indication of will to have a humanitarian force to commit to a humanitarian pause anytime soon.” – Kholood Khair “There’s no sense that actually the army and the RSF can command their allied militias to stop the fighting.. This is a multi-systemic conflict that is only really being dealt with at the international level on one level.” She called the call “poorly timed diplomacy that brings not enough leverage on the table to really get these two sides to commit to a ceasefire”. Ms Khair told Krishnan Guru-Murthy: “The Sudanese Armed Forces have been fighting wars mostly against the people of Sudan for decades. And starvation, siege, et cetera, these are the hallmarks of the warfare that they’ve been fighting. “And the RSF is, as a former partner to the Sudanese Armed Forces, carrying out exactly the kind of violence that they carried out together 20 years ago during the Darfur genocide. “We’re seeing this all effectively culminate in a war against civilians where it’s civilians that are really being harmed by the conflict, rather than the two armed sides.” Watch more here
