A Nation Collapsing… and a World in Silence: Sudanese Flags Rise in Washington
By Abdel Aziz Yaqoub
In the heart of the U.S. capital, where the Lincoln Memorial stands as a stone memory of freedom and resistance to slavery, members of the Sudanese diaspora gathered in a protest that carried the anguish of their homeland and the voices of those silenced by repression.
There, on the very steps where Martin Luther King Jr. once declared his dream six decades ago, Sudanese flags were raised beside Palestinian ones — a scene uniting two bleeding nations, two wounds that resemble each other more than they differ.
The protest condemned reports from international and human rights organizations of alleged Emirati financial and logistical support for the Rapid Support Forces militia — support said to include the recruitment of mercenaries from African and Latin American countries.
As devastation deepens in Sudan, standing before Lincoln’s statue seemed an unambiguous message:
When injustice prevails, silence becomes a crime.
A Diverse Sudanese Presence, One Unified Voice
The crowd was as diverse as Sudan itself — men and women, young and old, from distant towns and states — as though the nation had carried its soil and sorrows to Washington.
The prominent participation of young men and women reflected a generation that has known little peace, yet refuses to inherit war as an eternal destiny.
Palestine Beside Sudan: One Pain, One Spirit
Arab, African, and Palestinian participants joined the demonstration, holding the flags of Palestine and Sudan side by side — an image that proclaimed humanity cannot be divided by borders, and that the wounds of nations converge when justice is denied.
A Marked Political Presence
Among the attendees was Mohamed Saif Eldin, an American of Sudanese descent and a congressional candidate in Virginia, who addressed the crowd briefly. His presence carried a clear message: the Sudanese cause has moved from the margins, its voice now resonating from the streets to the corridors of U.S. policymaking.
Also present was Janet, a former U.S. administration official from California and a longtime advocate for Sudan, signaling that the Sudanese tragedy still stirs the conscience of certain political and human rights circles in the United States.
Voices from the Crowd
Testimonies shared during the protest told of women fleeing the flames of war, children lost in the darkness, villages erased from maps, and bodies left in the streets — of young men buried alive, and prisoners executed in cold blood as messages of terror to the people.
If eyes could speak, they would have said far more than speeches ever could.
Messages to Washington and the World
Participants carried placards demanding an end to the flow of weapons and funds to militias, and called for sanctions against anyone proven to be fueling the war.
They urged the United Nations to protect civilians, to dispatch independent investigative missions, and to end the era in which perpetrators escape accountability.
An Anthem Begins… An Anthem Ends… A Nation That Will Not Die
The gathering opened with the Sudanese national anthem — voices trembling as if the words themselves were rebuilding a nation shattered by war. When the event concluded with the same anthem, it felt as though the circle had closed:
We came from exile to say that, despite the wounds, Sudan lives.
From among the white marble columns, Sudan’s voice rose to the world, declaring:
We do not ask for the impossible — we ask for justice.
We do not ask for pity — we ask for an end to the bleeding.
And if politics moves slowly, history does not forgive those who saw the blood and walked away smiling.
