The EIS has been consistent in championing humanitarian causes, including both Palestine (with Gaza at the forefront) and Sudan. Watching the horror unfolding on our screens in Gaza and Lebanon in the knowledge that the British government arms the perpetrators, it is all too easy to forget Sudan.

Without letting up for a moment on solidarity with Palestine we should not ignore events in Sudan.

In December 2018 millions of people rose up to overthrow General Omar al-Bashir’s 30-year dictatorship and his party, the Muslim Brotherhood. The revolution was sparked by student protests and supported by workers’ general strikes and civil disobedience. However, the aspirations of the peaceful Sudanese revolution faced vicious attacks.

90% of Sudan’s schools are out of action leaving 19 million children without education

Sudan’s major militias, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), opposed demands for freedom, peace, and justice.

Leaders of the two militias, Abdul Fatah al-Burhan of SAF (who created the RSF under Omar al-Bashir’s command to protect his regime and with the EU’s support to “save Europe from illegal migration” and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemedti), with the help of British, EU, US, and regional powers like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Egypt, pressured the civilian forces to share power with the military.

In October 2021 al-Burhan and Hemedti removed the civilian representatives and then started fighting each other. Since April 2023 their war has killed tens of thousands, displacing over 10 million people.

More than 10,400, or 90% of Sudan’s schools are out of action leaving 19 million children without education. Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen met al-Burhan during an official visit to Sudan two months before the war and discussed “deepening cooperation in security and military matters as well as agriculture, energy, health, water, and education”.

Trade unionists, and activists became primary targets, resulting in thousands being killed, abducted, tortured, and raped. Adding to the suffering, workers and pensioners have remained unpaid since the war began.

The SAF is fighting to protect its control over 87% of Sudan’s wealth, while the RSF is fighting for its gold mining and other business interests. Britain, the EU, the US, Russia, the UAE, Egypt, Israel, and Iran are all fuelling the war by directly arming both sides or through proxy regional powers.

In October a conference organised by Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Solidarity, to which the EIS is affiliated, called on people here to demand the British government welcome Sudanese refugees to this country as they did for refugees from Ukraine. There are other steps that can be taken.

For more information please visit:

The Mena Solidarity Network and the Sudan Teachers’ Committee campaign.