Marches and campaigns using social media. This is how the Sudanese stand from the war between the army and the rapid support

Khartoum – A clear discrepancy between the Sudanese shown by the war raging in the capital Khartoum and many other cities, between the support of one party to the war against the other, while voices have emerged calling for its cessation as a first step given the serious repercussions it has produced at the humanitarian and service levels and the multiplication of the suffering of citizens and poor groups.

The armed forces received sympathy from large popular and political sectors as the national army, especially after declaring the Rapid Support Forces a rebel militia that must be dealt with decisively, in exchange for voices that consider the army hostage to the Islamists who were ousted from power by the revolution in April 2019, which is the same ideas that the Rapid Support Command feeds by talking about the army being kidnapped by the leaders of the Islamic Movement and those it calls "remnants".

A third group stands against the war completely and demands to resort to dialogue and negotiation to resolve the political and military crisis, reform the army, form a single national army and integrate all militias and armed movements, but army leaders and supporters reject the principle of political negotiation with rapid support, as the army commanders are fully convinced of the need to eliminate the rebellion and remove it from Khartoum.

Most of the advocates of stopping the war are activists, social media users, media professionals and politicians, and the hashtag "No to War" has been active in recent days.

Pro-army rallies

In the 20 days of fighting since the war began, hundreds of Sudanese have come out in state cities to support the army, but those who rejected the war saw this as a reason to fuel it, and that the time was not right for the crowds of supporters.

The first campaign in support of the army, in eastern Sudan's Gedaref state, which was organized on April 20, was a march that roamed the city's roads in support of the armed forces and reached the command of the Second Infantry Division, according to the official news agency.

Afterwards, marches in support of the army continued in the villages of East Rifaa in the eastern locality of the island (center), where it was announced that a convoy of more than 100 vehicles loaded with goods had been prepared.

Major General Osama al-Awad, of the First Infantry Division, said during the receipt of the convoy that the home front stands with the armed forces in the war imposed on them, and similar crowds in Atbara and Amri came out in the north to support the army.

Peretz in the eye of the storm

In Port Sudan, the capital of the eastern Red Sea state, where a number of embassies have moved in, including the U.N. mission and its head Volker Peretz, who decided to stay in Sudan and closely follow the war, hundreds staged protests against the man mixed with pro-military chants.

Islamist currents and groups in eastern Sudan are demanding the departure of Peretz and believe that foreign interference was the reason for the worsening political crisis, and most of these fronts continued to show support for the army's steps, including the overthrow of the civilian government on October 25, 2021, and then the war on the Rapid Support Forces.

An eyewitness in Port Sudan told Al Jazeera Net that the demonstrations against Peretz in Port Sudan were led by elements known to belong to the Islamic current next to the employees of the Supreme Council of Beja and independent columns (a civil entity calculated to be loyal to the dissolved National Congress Party).

Reliable sources confirmed to Al Jazeera Net that army leaders are angry at the United Nations and many Arab and Western countries, which did not issue any condemnation of the actions of rapid support despite their documented violations with regard to fortification in neighborhoods and hospitals and attacking banks, markets, shops and the headquarters of diplomatic missions.

On Friday, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry condemned in a statement what it called "the terrorist behavior of the rebel militia after reviewing a series of violations, including obstructing the work and closing the central pharmacy in Khartoum, targeting power stations and health facilities and occupying citizens' homes."

The ministry called on the international community, the World Health Organization and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to condemn "the heinous acts carried out by the militia and hold it legally responsible for depriving citizens of the right to health, endangering their lives, and using food, medicine, food, health, water and electricity services as a means of war, which exposes them to legal accountability before national and international justice mechanisms," according to the statement.

Crowds made

Believes the leader of the forces of the Declaration of Freedom and Change Alaa al-Din criticism, in an interview with Al Jazeera Net, that those crowds do not come out to support one party or the other, but are artificial from the "remnants of the former regime" and similarity that had come out is once before the outbreak of the war and went to the headquarters of the United Nations mission in Khartoum demanding the expulsion of the envoy.

For his part, political science professor Dr. Mohamed Idris noted that the demonstrations that were taking place to demand the expulsion of Peretz from Khartoum were preceded by many attempts by supporters of the former regime to pressure Burhan to thwart the political process.

Idris added to Al Jazeera Net that "the crowds that came out to support the Sudanese army, do not carry the concerns and effects of the war on the country and turn a blind eye to the reform of the military and security sector," explaining that those crowds do not put at the top of their priorities to stop the war, but are groups often trying to move with the influential current of politicians and activists.

Unstudied adventure

Political analyst Ahmed Moussa believes that the adventure committed by the Rapid Support Forces to engage in military confrontations in the center of Sudanese cities was a loss after it took place without the availability of international, regional or even internal cover after many Western countries felt the danger of expanding the ambition of the Rapid Support Leaders to bypass control over Sudan to a wider ocean that includes Chad, Central Africa and part of Libya starting by initially controlling Sudan, which prompted a number of countries to support the army.

Moussa added that the armed confrontations prompted many citizens to abandon their homes and the ensuing security evasions and looting of money and property, which lost the rapid support of the popular support or even neutrality, but obligated a large segment of the people to stand strongly with the army as a safety valve and capable of returning them to their homes, especially with the failure of the rapid support to convince the Sudanese that their war is against the army leaders or that it is a war against the remnants and to restore democracy.

"The average citizen did not understand how democracy could be imposed with weapons in light of a peaceful revolution and how a militia that looted and had to loot could achieve safety, these and other questions caused citizens to rally around the army and leave a number of states to support it and support it publicly and financially," he said.