Demonstrators joined youth-led organisations London for Sudan and Madaniya on 31 August against what they decried as the ongoing “proxy war” in Sudan. Protestors pressured the UK Government to take a stand against countries supporting factions in the conflict and marched in front of the embassies of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Russia.
Protestors gradually arrived at Marble Arch in the early afternoon. Led by a loudspeaker and drum, chants such as “RSF (Rapid Support Forces) shoots, UAE pays, how many kids did you kill today?” and placards holding world leaders “complicit in genocide” filled the public space.
The demonstration was galvanised by protestors’ belief that the ongoing crisis in Sudan is being exacerbated by foreign powers with vested geopolitical interests in controlling the region.
“The situation is really dire,” one supporter told Roar. “The different factions of the war are being fuelled by quite distant proxies. Countries like the UAE—but also Saudi Arabia, Russia—are all funnelling a lot of money into warring factions.”
Circling Hyde Park in an emotionally charged march, the protestors stopped before the respective embassies to outline their ‘charges’ against each country. They urged the British government to pressure those governments against said charges.
The march drew in support from other causes and political ideologies. Anti-imperial booklets were handed out at Marble Arch, and a member of the Sudanese Communist Party recited poetry in front of the UAE Embassy. Several protestors also wore keffiyehs and carried other national flags. One protestor, holding a Congolese flag, said they brought it “to show solidarity and to show that all these struggles are connected”.
The protest ended several metres away from the Russian embassy, concluding with a closing speech and prayer.
The worst humanitarian crisis today
Roar spoke with a woman who had moved to Sudan for five years. She and her daughter fled Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, shortly after fighting broke out in April 2023.
Her daughter was staying with her grandparents when the war began, leaving her parents unable to reach her for four days while heavy shelling and ammunition overcame the neighbourhood. A temporary ceasefire made it safe for her father to collect her.
Once reunited with her parents, she and her mother left behind their lives—including the father, who faced visa issues—to take a bus to Egypt. While many believed that fighting would die down after a few days, they urgently left for fear their home would soon be bombed or intruded on by militia. Indeed, the next day the militia arrived and their home was hit.
Even since returning to the UK, the experience has left deep psychological impacts on the family. The daughter, who is no more than seven years old, was for a long time afraid to stand near windows due to memories of shellings. She also suffers from anxiety hearing loud noises, hiding under her school desk when she hears a helicopter or fire alarm. People in uniform or high-vis vests scare her, a leftover impression from encounters with the militia en route to Egypt.
The mother expressed:
Obviously, because we all didn’t leave by choice, it does feel like we did this sort of “exodus.” There’s a lot of guilt involved that we had [better options], because we had European passports. Even the ones who made it to Egypt are having a hard time there […] Having gone through something so traumatic and seeing it getting worse every day, we kind of suffer in silence because no one is really doing anything about it. And it is a proxy war, it is not a civil war. Like literally, if the UAE stops funding the war today, this thing will be over. And it’s just…you just walk around suffering in silence honestly.
The war in Sudan has triggered the most severe humanitarian crisis today. More than 10 million Sudanese civilians have been displaced and at least 15,500 killed since April 2023. With over 25 million people facing acute hunger, the United Nations (UN) has officially declared a full famine in Sudan. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) is blocking food from parts of the country beyond its control, while reports of ethnic cleansing of civilians by the RSF have emerged in West Darfur.
Why do they call the conflict in Sudan a “proxy war”?
At the heart of charges of the domestic civil war being a “proxy war” is the view that the region is ripe for exploitation by foreign interests. Geographically, Sudan is rich in natural resources including oil, precious minerals, and fertile lands alongside the Nile River. Its coastline on the Red Sea also situates it in a politically strategic location.
A power struggle in Khartoum emerged in April 2023 between the SAF and RSF, pulling the country back into full-scale civil war. For more background on Sudan and South Sudan’s post-independence political context, click here.
Insights from UN consultations found credible evidence of the UAE providing military aid to the RSF through Chad, though the UAE denies these allegations. Egypt has meanwhile been a key supporter of the SAF. Owing to the region’s economic and geopolitical competition between the Saudi Arabian and Emirati heads of state, Saudi Arabia aligned with Egypt’s support for the SAF. While Moscow has also extended its support to the SAF, investigations indicate that the Russian paramilitary Wagner Group is arming the RSF.
London for Sudan and Madaniya cited these geopolitical factors as reasons to regard the current situation as a proxy, rather than a civil, conflict.
What are their Demands to the UK?
Complementing the demonstration, London for Sudan encouraged protestors to send an urgent letter to Foreign Secretary David Lammy appealing for diplomatic intervention. London for Sudan’s recommendations to the UK government are as follows:
- Surge funding to local aid groups, ensure long-term humanitarian access through the Adre crossing open, remove bureaucratic obstacles, and protect aid workers.
- Intensify diplomatic efforts for an immediate ceasefire and appoint a dedicated Special Envoy to Sudan.
- Urge the warring parties to engage in talks in Geneva and support the deployment of a New Protection Mission.
- Impose coordinated, targeted, multilateral sanctions, divest from and exclude the UAE and its services. Impose sanctions on the RSF leaders and classify the Rapid Support Forces as a terrorist organisation.
- Hold Russia accountable by pressuring it to end dual support for both SAF and RSF. Compel Russia to stop providing military aid. Impose sanctions on Russian entities and individuals involved in the conflict.
- Demand that Saudi Arabia and Egypt end their financial and military support for the SAF and halt investments fuelling the conflict. Call for enhanced border security and control in Egypt to protect Sudanese refugees and their rights.
- Open safe access routes and asylum pathways for Sudanese fleeing war or seeking family reunification in the UK.
Q&A with Demonstration Organiser
Roar spoke with Tasneem, a demonstration organiser from London for Sudan:
R: Compared to previous demonstrations hosted by London for Sudan, was there anything organisers found striking/unique about the Hands Off Sudan demonstration?
I: It was unique because of the direct focus on highlighting the complicity of the aforementioned nations. We stopped at each embassy and featured speakers with clear statements about each one’s involvement. We showed how interconnected this conflict is, and the specific pain points each one is causing. Previous demonstrations have focused on calling for attention as a whole rather than pinning down clear complicity.
R: How has the demographic turnout to demonstrations for Sudan changed since April?
I: There has been a maintained momentum by Sudanese diaspora attending our protests. What’s changed, particularly with the last demonstration, is the emergence of new faces joining the mix. There are more and more allies, ranging in age but mostly young people, joining us and lending us their voice and support. Our marches have always been safe spaces, open for all, as we see many young people and older marching together.
R: What does London for Sudan wish that students and young people knew about the conflict?
I: We want to lay to bed the idea that students and young people are powerless. We use them to fight against the apathetic nature that our current society has forced many into. There has been conflict in Sudan for over 500 days, and yet we are still being met with many people claiming that they had no idea what was happening. Some of this can be attributed to the wide-scale invisibilisation by western media, but there comes a point where everybody has a responsibility to educate themselves about what is happening beyond their immediate surroundings. There is power in the many, and many young people are not utilising their voices to call out horrors happening in the world. We want this to change. We want young people to fight with us, because this issue is one about students. 19 million children have been pushed out of education since the inception of the war, and that is not even counting those who had their further education halted.
R: Other international conflicts have occupied the minds of many students and youth activists in recent months and years. What is London for Sudan’s strategy for reaching out, or even connecting protests for peace in Sudan, to young people who may be focusing their attention on other ongoing crises?
I: We are in community with many different organising groups, for issues from all over the globe. A message that has been toted for many months now is that “All of our struggles are connected”, and this is something we intimately understand as Sudanese people going through a proxy war. We have taken part in several solidarity campaigns created not just for the Sudani struggle, but the Congolese and Palestinian cause too.
I: There’s much to be said about how anti-blackness affects levels of support, and this is something we’ve witnessed ourselves. Many of our members also help with organising for other groups, and Sudan and Congo receive considerably less support from the general public. The barbarity of conflict is normalised when committed against Africans, and as such, many don’t see a need to protest against what they view as the norm. This must change. We must recognise when our internalised biases affect the lives of not just those around us, but all of us around the world.
R: What gives members of London for Sudan hope currently?
I: Right now, it is seeing how wonderful to organically grow as an organising group. We have such a diversity of thought and skill, and we are excited by the passion with which we tackle every challenge. We give each other hope, we help pick each other up when we’re feeling dejected, and there is an air of warmth and strong community in the group, and it is just what we need. Additionally, we’re starting to better understand how the hopelessness we previously may have held is truly a farce put on us by capitalist, patriarchal and imperialist hegemonic powers who desperately don’t want us to realise the power we hold as individuals.
I: We’re seeing how we can utilise our privilege in this country to bring about positive change to our loved ones in Sudan. We are cheered on by the resilience of Sudanese people in Sudan, but resilience alone won’t stop this decimation of life and culture and history and joy. And so we are spurred on by using every tool at our disposal to help them, and bring about a Sudan that is built back stronger, and closer, and free for all people.
For a Roar staff writer’s perspective on the conflict in Sudan, click here.
BA European Politics Student
