People fleeing from Sudan arrive at a bus station in Aswan, Egypt, on April 25, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

The ongoing crisis in Sudan jeopardizes peace and stability in the African country. Clashes leading to killings and injuries are causing chaos for the Sudanese people and foreign nationals who live and work in the country. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has appealed for warring parties to stop the fighting and work toward a permanent ceasefire. In particular, there are two main warring parties, namely the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces. The two groups are led by two commanders, General Abdel Fattah al Burhan and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, respectively, and are at odds over the return to civilian rule. 

Current hostilities, however, cannot be understood without being placed into a context. From a historical prism, Sudan has suffered two civil wars, with the second ending in 2005, leading to the creation of South Sudan as an independent state six years later in 2011. Other internal conflicts, most notably in the region of Darfur, elicited additional problems of similar, if not higher, severity. Under dramatic circumstances, the Rapid Support Forces were established in 2013 to fight against rebels in Darfur. Then in 2017, the Rapid Support Forces were integrated into the Sudanese army, although the degree of this integration would be highly contested in the years to come.

President Omar al-Bashir, who had started governing Sudan in 1989, witnessed reactions against his rule – principally due to economic calamity and food shortages – from December 2018 onwards. Amid tensions, he was overthrown by a military coup in April 2019. A transitional council was subsequently formed in order to pave the way for the organization of democratic elections in 2022. This transitional council was composed of both military and civilian representatives. The former would govern first and the latter second. But approximately two years later, in October 2021, this collaboration model collapsed after another military coup was staged. 

The 2021 military coup generated a new round of tense disagreements in Sudan. On the one hand, supporters of a democratic transition felt completely disappointed. On the other, military rule could hardly guarantee the organization of an election, a task that had not been fulfilled in the years prior. More importantly, cleavages between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces came to surface, with the aforementioned commanders, Burhan and Dagalo, not in accord over the particulars of power sharing. It was therefore unsurprising that violence would eventually erupt, as is currently happening.

China is carefully looking at the dangerous situation in Sudan. Beijing's most important priority is to secure the safety of Chinese nationals living in the country and to possibly facilitate their evacuation. It will not be the first time that such a policy has been implemented in the Middle East and North Africa region. In 2014, for example, several Chinese nationals had to leave Libya because of the civil war there at the time. At that time, Greece sent one of its frigates to help, a decision the Chinese government will not forget.

In tandem with the protection of safety and security, China has called on the two sides, the Sudanese Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces, to stop fighting as soon as possible and prevent further escalation in order to jointly move forward the political transition process. In 2022, China's special envoy for the Middle East, Zhai Jun, traveled to Sudan and talked about the importance of dialogue on the basis of the trilateral mechanism comprised of the United Nations Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS), the African Union, and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

China and Sudan enjoy good bilateral relations, which have spread to other areas and summits, such as the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). China is also Sudan's largest trading partner, with over 130 Chinese companies operating in the country. Obviously, political uncertainty does not help foreign enterprises. Above all, this uncertainty will push Sudanese people to pay a heavy price following decades of protracted conflict. Sudan is one of the poorest countries in the world and cannot expect improvements to their standing as long as the threat of another civil war looms.

George N. Tzogopoulos is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.h5a3.com/opinion/GeorgeNTzogopoulos.htm

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