This Is How Faitwori Was Killed in Khartoum

“It was heavy a lead ceiling

rusted and it collapsed over the town,

over its people,

it was all the ugliness in the world

and hunger on earth

And the oppression on the people”

It sounds as if our poet Mohamed Faitwori who passed away in 2015, was describing in these free verses of his, from his poem “the sacred soil”, some of the tragic events of today’s war in the Sudan

A few days ago reports were circulated about the killing of his son, Taj Eddin or Ihab as his friends and colleagues used to call him, in his home in Khartoum Bahari. His entourage said he was gunned down by the Rapid Support Forces, after he refused to concede his property to them.

Months before, and at the beginning of the war, another tragedy hit the house of Al -Faitwori, as his wife Asia Abdel -Majid Al –Kutayabi, was killed. She was one of the pioneers of the Sudanese theater and one of the women who gave great attention to teaching the youth. Her death sparked a great sadness in the Sudanese cultural circles after it was reported that her family was forced to bury her body, inside her house. They could not move her out to be buried in the city’s cemetery, because of the ongoing fighting.

If Al -Faitwori were alive today, he would have mourned her bitterly , he would have cried for Asia, who had a huge impact on his poetic carrier and sometimes used to refer to her in his poems as the ebony, the brown girl, and he would have mourned his son Ihab (Taj al -Din), who was had been following his father’s footsteps in the ally of poetry. Ihab had written various creative pieces and poems in the prophetic litanies.

But that was not all. This catastrophic war that produced unprecedented destruction and caused a bleeding wounds that affected each and every Sudanese, had produced yet another tragedy in the hometown of Al -Faitwori in the city of Geneina, among his extended family, Masalit tribe, which was subjected to massacres of racist genocide condemned by the world and for which it held the Rapid Support Forces responsible. People will not be able to forget the video footages that   documenting these ethnic cleansing, including a video of the burial of a group of young men from the Al-Masalit tribe, being buried alive at gunpoint.

And within the context of the complexities of the war, some people expressed concern that the killing of Ihab (Taj al -Din) in his house was linked to his being of a Masalit tribal origin, and that those who raided the house shot him after they discovered his background, or that they were aware of his ethnic background as they targeted him, and that his refusal to hand over his property was just a pretext and an excuse.

Others people judge that such attacks are justifications for popular alert and armed resistance, as the rapid support forces continue expanding.

But the reality is that, while people agree on the existence of extensive violations, they differ on the issue of armed popular resistance, amid warnings from opponents of the step that it might end up leading to a civil war. Unfortunately, what is happening right now in the Sudan could already reflect the concept of civil war, which is defined as “an armed conflict between two groups or more within the state”, and the motives and causes vary with regard to trying to have control over the state, the government, or the resources, and may or may not overlap and interfere with regional motives, or with tribal, ethnic, or sectarianism motivations. Even if we ignore the issue of definition, those who oppose the idea of popular alertness of the resistance do not tell civilians how to protect themselves under such circumstances, with the realization that the army, with its current capabilities, is no longer able to provide protection in every area.

The truth is that people, nine months after the outbreak of the war, find themselves forced to possess arms  and their first concern is to defend themselves, their property and their honour, following what they experienced in Khartoum, Darfur and finally in Gezira State, and after   they saw that those who had abandoned their homes and dwellings and displaced to other states, they only found yet another war coming after them which made many people wonder for how long, and where people should people continue to escape??

The lack of armaments did not guarantee safety for the civilians, at a time the offensive of the rapid support forces in storming cities and villages in Gezira state continues, albeit the absence of any army or military manifestations, and the militants loot private properties   and steal people’s cars, notwithstanding   pledges by the leaders of these forces to hold accountable “the unruly” elements from amongst their troops.

The irony is that even the Rapid Support Forces have joined the campaigns that reject the alert of the popular resistance on the basis that they would drag the country into a civil war, at a time that they, The Rapid Support Forces, had they willed and wanted to reassure people already, and not to push them to carry weapons, they could stop their expansion and their targeting for safe areas, giving a space for negotiations and ceasefire efforts. The army has not been attacking for months now, but the army was, rather, in the defensive mode, while the party that attacks and expands is the rapid support forces.

For sure, no sane person would like to see any weapon outside the control of the state, but we have unfortunately already bypassed the stage of the spread of weapons, and the multitudes of the armed movements. The whole country has now become at stake and under the mercy of weapons. Within this context, self -defense and defending the homeland become a full legitimate right, that precedes any other considerations.