Eyes on Sudan:
‘This is just the beginning.’
‘This is just the beginning.’ These words were shouted as we stood in the shadow of Manchester City’s football stadium in January, launching our new campaign.
We invited members of the Sudanese diaspora to join us in peaceful protest, as well as press and media contacts so we could spread the message as widely as possible: Keep eyes on Sudan. Stop the war. Democracy, peace, and justice.
Footballs were held aloft in the winter air, covered with large red handprints symbolising the suffering of a nation that has endured nearly three years of war. Just a few weeks before, these footballs had been in a refugee camp in Uganda. There our advocates met with Sudanese refugees – a handful of the 13 million people who have been displaced – and asked if they would write their messages on them.
If you’re wondering what football has to do with the conflict in Sudan, here are three points you need to know:
1) There is credible evidence that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is fuelling the war through its support of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
‘Shortly after the conflict broke out, the UAE set up a base at Am Djarass airport in Chad,’ explained Mohaned Elnour, CSW’s Sudan Specialist. ‘They claim to be running a humanitarian effort there, but in reality it has served as a front to supply RSF fighters with sophisticated weaponry – including anti-tank missiles, armoured personnel carriers and guided bombs and howitzers – all either manufactured in or re-exported by the UAE.’
The devastation inflicted on civilians during this conflict is unconscionable. Over 150,000 people have been killed and an estimated 30 million are in urgent need of assistance. Yet the UAE is willing to supply weaponry that will be used on innocent people. Something has to change.
2) The deputy prime minister of the UAE is Sheikh Mansour.
As vice-president, deputy prime minister, and the president’s brother, Sheikh Mansour is well-placed to intervene in the UAE’s role in this conflict. Concerningly, he has well-documented ties with the leader of the RSF, Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemedti’ Dagalo. He has even been described as Hemedti’s closest ally in the Emirates.
3) Sheikh Mansour is the owner of Manchester City Football Club. Why hasn’t he been held to account?
In March 2023, the Premier League unanimously approved new rules that should disqualify individuals involved in ‘human rights abuses’ from club ownership. And yet Sheikh Mansour has not been held accountable. We want to highlight to the Premier League that this isn’t right.
Our goal: justice
Standing outside the stadium that day, it felt like a domino starting to fall. Adding your name to our petition will help push the next one – getting the attention of the Premier League and calling for these issues to be raised with Sheikh Mansour as a matter of urgency. It’s ambitious, but we believe this could be a step towards the goal of seeing freedom, peace and justice in Sudan. This is just the beginning.
FAQs:
Eyes on Sudan is an ambitious campaign with a creative approach. It has caught the attention – and questions – of many people who are new to our work or even to the crisis itself. CSW’s Press & Public Affairs Officer Ellis Heasley talks us through three frequently asked questions.
Why now?
This is a valid question. CSW has been working on Sudan for several decades. We were working on the country in 2019, when Sudanese people from all walks of life came together calling for justice, peace and freedom, and ousted the al Bashir dictatorship.
We were working in 2021, when the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) seized power in a coup, derailing Sudan’s democratic transition. We joined countless others to condemn their actions.
And during this current conflict, we have raised the urgent need for a comprehensive ceasefire with various governments, the European Union, and at the United Nations. Many policy makers echoed these calls, but this had little effect on the ground. Sadly, external actors are now fuelling the conflict by supporting either the RSF or the SAF militarily and financially.
Our latest campaign is essentially a more innovative approach to our advocacy which we hope will raise greater awareness about the war and the UAE’s connection to it, and ultimately assist in moving the country closer to a just peace.
When we launched it in January, this war had passed the 1,000 days mark. It’s a war that most, especially in Sudan, thought would end in a matter of weeks. Action is long overdue and there is no time to waste.
Why don’t you speak up for [INSERT COUNTRY HERE] instead?
This one comes up a lot. Often people mention some of the world’s most well-known crises, like Gaza or Ukraine. As a small organisation with limited staff and resources, we can’t work on every country, and we don’t work directly on either of these.
That doesn’t mean we don’t see them as important. We are grateful for the work of many other human rights organisations in drawing attention to situations that we are unable to focus on ourselves, and support joint action whenever practicable.
These questions are particularly frustrating when we actually do work on the country they mention! For some reason, it’s often Nigeria, where we have worked for more than two decades and have a dedicated team. To us, this suggests an element of bad faith, an effort to undermine our work without any familiarity with it, possibly coming from a place of defensiveness.
What about other countries involved in the conflict?
It’s true, the UAE is not the only external actor involved in the war in Sudan. Both warring parties are backed by various international actors, however the evidence linking the UAE to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is definitely the strongest.
Again, due to capacity, we try to focus our advocacy on what we think will be most effective. Given the strength of the evidence and the fact that Sheikh Mansour is the owner of one of the most valuable and decorated clubs, competing in the most watched sports league in the world, we thought we would make the most noise by starting here.
But this is just the beginning. We won’t stop until we see a comprehensive ceasefire in Sudan, followed by a return to a democratic transition, and ultimately justice for crimes committed both before and during this conflict.
If that means we need to draw attention to others with connections to the conflict, we will.
Act now: Join the campaign: csw.org.uk/EyesOnSudan
Your stories
‘I regularly go to the library to go online. When I looked at CSW’s website in January, I saw the Sudan campaign. I thought, I must give this a go. Once I entered my email address and clicked ‘send’, I quickly realise that I’d done it! I would encourage others to take part in the campaign – it’s a way of making ourselves heard and showing authorities that we are aware of what’s going on and that we want something done about it.’
Chris Waters, CSW supporter