“Without Dough, Who’s the One Who’s the One”: War and the Culture of Humanitarian Aid

Abdullah Ali Ibrahim

The Rapid Support Forces RSF terminated the services of Yousuf Ezzat al-Mahri as an advisor to its leader, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. He is, if we ignore the reasons that have been suggested, such as his disagreement with Abdel Rahim Daglo, the second commander of the Rapid Support Forces RSF , a victim of the “Manichaean” worlds of Sudanese civil politics. Ezzat had published a tweet in which he said that if we are allowed to accept facades for the Islamic movement at the Cairo conference (July 6) that Egypt called for to reconcile Sudanese civil powers , then what is wrong with talking directly with the Islamic movement itself? Here, Ezzat dared to challenge those worlds that he described as “Manichaean.” Manichaeanism is a religion attributed to the Persian Man (216 ).
The phrase entered political science through the conception of that religion of the world based on an eternal struggle between good and evil until the Day of Resurrection.
Political science agrees that those who see politics as a struggle between good and evil simplify it in order to mislead it from its meaning. That is why Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor, described President Bush Jr. as suffering from a “Manichaean panorama” because he believed that he was at the forefront of the forces of good against the “axis of evil.”
Therefore, the end of the politician occurs when he issues a statement that mixes one Manichaean space with another, as Ezzat did, who saw no harm in sitting with the National Congress Party (NCP)the Islamists, and their allies. The latter, in the worlds of Manichaeism, are excluded by “except.” For example, Taqaddum says that they will sit to discuss the future of Sudan with everyone “except” the National Congress NCP , i.e. the remnants.
The Manichaean Panorama :

And the worlds of Sudanese civil politics are Manichaean. The successive meetings in Cairo and Addis Ababa to bring the Sudanese together revealed this Manichaean panorama. The Coordination of Democratic and Civilian Powers(Taqddum ) apologized for attending the African Union meeting (July 10) after confirming, according to it, its concerns about the lack of transparency regarding the design of the meeting, which is controlled by elements of the former regime, its fronts, and the forces of war.
In their view, these are the forces of the Islamists, the remnants.
The “Civilian Powers Alliance of Eastern Sudan” also apologized for attending these meetings because they included “people directly involved in the war and openly incite it.” The Sudan Liberation Army Movement (SLAM) (Abdul Wahid Mohamed Nur) refused to attend the African Union meetings because it was not provided with a list of the dialogue participants in those meetings.
The movement, according to it, “will not sit with members of the National Congress Party NCP and its fronts for any reason.” The African Union meetings come three days after the Cairo Conference of Sudanese Political and Civilian Powers(July 6), when the political and civil powers (Freedom and Change and the Democratic Bloc) rejected not only its outcomes, but even sitting with “Taqddum ” in the same hall because it did not condemn the violations of the “Rapid Support Forces RSF, Communist Objections
As for the Communist Party, it is a nation alone in the “Manichean Panorama”.
Evil is widespread for it. It does not limit it to the remnants only, but also to “Taqddum “. It apologized for attending the meetings in Cairo and Addis Ababa.
In his apology speech, he said that the invitation to the meeting confused political and civil Powers. It equated those who “resisted and struggled against the Salvation regime, achieving the revolution and protecting it from enemies, keen to reach its goal, with the powers that opposed the revolution and worked to abort it, represented by the remnants of the regime and the civil political forces that allied, supported and participated in power with the defeated Salvation regime until its fall on April 11, 2019”.
The Communist Party means by the forces that dealt with the Salvation regime until its fall the “Taqddum ” group, and calls them “the soft landing forces” because, at the behest of US, they interfered with “Salvation” to save it from falling in the wind of a revolution that was gathering against it.
The “Communist” said that he refrained from attending the Addis Ababa meeting because those who arranged it decided “not to exclude” anyone, that is, “to include the forces hostile to the revolution, which means the National Congress NCP ,Without the National Congress NCP participating with the Communist Party in the meeting, the thorns were blown.
Indirect meetings :

At the end of last week, indirect meetings were held between representatives of the Sudanese army SAF and the “Rapid Support” forces RSF focusing on the humanitarian aspect and efforts to cease fire for this purpose under the auspices of the United Nations UN in Geneva.
Thus, the two warring parties met to agree on one of the most important issues of the civil powers and their precedence in a war that has shaken the Sudanese to the point that “Atr” magazine described them as “a ball of fire rolling in all directions.” One wonders that humanitarian aid is not a concern for these civil forces, who are oblivious to it in their Manichaean caves. If the concern arose, it was a word without blessing, or a subject for protest. This aid is not mentioned by the Islamists at all.
They are busy showing off their youth’s heroism on the battlefield, or threatening the symbols of “Taqddum ” with revenge for removing them from power. The communists mention humanitarian aid to suffice with protesting the scarcity of relief and aid from the United Nations UN institutions and “the lack of commitment from donor countries to fulfill their announced contributions.” Perhaps “Taqddum ” was the most celebratory about humanitarian aid, but it has not yet succeeded in creating bodies around it that care about humanitarian aid in what is necessary in war.
This is surprising from a group that decided early in August 2023 on the necessity of “building a national network to deliver humanitarian aid and urging the international community to support and back Sudanese civil society working in the humanitarian field to help it respond effectively to the devastating humanitarian disaster.” It assigned a leader in it by name as coordinator of a mechanism it called the “Humanitarian Action Mechanism.”
This mechanism did not present a report on any achievement on this front to the founding conference of “Taqddum ” in Addis Ababa last May. People were optimistic about the emergence of a group called “Taqddum Doctors” following the conference to help Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia. It is not clear whether this group was a body that settled in “Taqddum ” or was just advertising it to the people.
It is surprising that these political groups are absent from the field of human solidarity, a field in which the Sudanese not only have an exceptional talent, but it is also a national title that they boast about.
This tradition goes back, perhaps, exclusively to Sudanese Sufism, the oldest and most widespread Islamic expression in Sudan.
You will not find a Sufi establishment in it that does not have a tekiya (plural tekayas), which is a daily kitchen that provides food to those who pass by and those who pass by under the supervision of “Umm al-Fuqara”, the sheikh’s wife. Most of its funding comes from wealthy people who love the sheikh.
In the midst of this war, the tekiya of Sheikh al-Amin Omar al-Amin al-Qadri became famous in Bait al-Mal neighborhood in the old city of Omdurman.
He continued to feed the people around him while the neighborhood was occupied by the “Rapid Support Forces RSF ,until it was liberated from their grip by the army, and it still is. The sheikh went further by providing medical services to the sick and wounded of war. It is certain that it is only one of the tekiyas of the righteous throughout the country.
Modern institutions have also emerged for humanitarian service. Among these is the “Sadaqat Charity” organization, which opened its charity kitchen on July 4 to distribute meals to the displaced and those affected by the war in 14 shelters in the city of El Obeid in North Kordofan state.
These kitchens were also opened in El Fasher in North Darfur state in cooperation with “Nabd Al-Hawadeth” Charity Association. Sadaqat’s activities extended to education, health, water supply and environmental sanitation. On July 5, it opened e-learning centers in the Northern state.
It undertook to operate a rest house for children and adults with kidney disease in the city of Atbara in River Nile state.
In the field of environmental sanitation, on July 2, with the help of “UNICEF”, it provided water supplies by tankers to 11 health centers for the displaced in Kassala state. It distributed sacrificial meat in 12 states with the support of its branches in Canada, America, England and philanthropists. The Sudanese Doctors Association (SAPA) in the United States US also went out to provide health services to those affected by the war.
In early July, it provided the necessary aid to those arriving from Sennar to areas in the White Nile, including medical examinations, laboratory tests and free medicines.
Despite the war, it maintained the operation of Al-Bukuk Specialized Hospital in Omdurman in cooperation with UNICEF, which included treatment of malnutrition for children.
The absence of political movement in the field of this voluntary humanitarian service is a bad comment on the civil forces and their parties.
It is another manifestation of the severing of ties between them and the general public, while they lick their historical vendettas in their Manichaean caves.
The Nigerian novelist Shinu Achebe said about our elite that they must restore the vital spiritual ties that have been severed between them and their people. It seemed that the true call to the civil forces from the outside world was to reconcile in order to begin humanitarian service before their repeated call, in vain, to reconcile in thinking together about rescuing Sudan from its abyss.
The entry of political groups with their bases into the service of humanitarian aid saved them from the isolation that they voluntarily imposed on themselves until “partisanship” became a curse.
Perhaps these parties benefited during this service from a famous phrase from a Sufi from the people of the lodges. It is said that he said, “Without dough, who is the one withto me,” meaning that my acceptance by people is due to my giving to them.