Flooding in Sudan in 2014. Credit: Flickr/UN photo (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
A Call from the Sudanese Communist Party’s Central Committee Secretariat
Mitigate the Effects of Famine and Flood Disasters
The ongoing, devastating war has displaced millions of our people, both within and beyond our borders, leaving thousands injured or missing. It has wreaked havoc on infrastructure, destroying factories, farms, markets, and banks, and has disrupted schools, universities, hospitals, and essential services. The conflict has also caused widespread outages of electricity, water, communications, and the internet. These factors have led to a severe deterioration in living conditions, marked by relentless price increases and a continuous decline in the value of the currency, alongside worsening health conditions due to the spread of diseases like cholera and malaria. The situation has been further aggravated by the disaster of floods, particularly in Kassala, Abu Hamed, and other regions, where homes and the tents of the displaced have been swept away, deepening the humanitarian and health crisis.
Famine now threatens over 25 million Sudanese due to food shortages and the collapse of the agricultural season, a direct consequence of the war’s impact on key agricultural regions in Gezira, Sennar, Kordofan, and Darfur. Compounding this crisis are heinous war crimes, acts of genocide, sexual violence, and gross violations of human rights and humanitarian law, including the arrest and torture of political opponents, resistance committee members, and activists within the service committees, all occurring in the prisons of both warring factions. Despite these atrocities, the de facto government remains adamant in continuing the war, denying the reality of the famine.
We call for the broadest grassroots popular movement to confront the ongoing famine and flood disaster – not merely by waiting for aid, but through proactive agricultural efforts, as highlighted in the recent statement by the Gezira Farmers’ Alliance. This includes pressuring the de facto government to support farmers by providing essential inputs such as seeds, fuel, and other resources, refraining from imposing levies, and preventing the theft of agricultural crops. Additionally, we call for the establishment of neighborhood and displaced persons’ committees to organize the distribution of food and medicine to citizens and to sustain initiatives like “Takaful kitchens,” among other essential efforts.
We also call for a concerted effort to address the flood disaster by opening channels to drain water, providing tents, medical care, and food, and spraying stagnant water to prevent the spread of malaria and further environmental health deterioration.
Moreover, we call for the formation of the broadest grassroots front to end the war and restore the revolution. The war was launched to suppress the revolution and plunder the nation’s resources by regional and international actors who arm both sides, threatening the country’s unity and stability. This effort includes establishing safe corridors for aid delivery, facilitating the return of displaced people to their homes, rebuilding what has been destroyed, prosecuting war criminals, establishing democratic civilian governance, and achieving the remaining objectives of the revolution and the tasks of the transitional period.
Secretariat of the Central Committee, Sudanese Communist Party
August 10, 2024
