Sudanese Defterdar’s retaliatory campaigns led by the Air Force

Salah Jalal writes: Sudanese Defterdar’s retaliatory campaigns led by the Air Force

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Mohammed Ali Pasha, the Turkish ruler of Egypt, sent his army to control Sudan, headed by his sons; Ismail and Ibrahim Pasha. The declared goal of the campaign was money and men. The forces arrived in the land of Shaiqiya, and its king (Mac) Jaweesh, confronted them but was defeated. The forces then headed to Al-Matama and Shendi, and defeated Mac Nimr as well. Ismail Pasha took the defeated Ja’alin Mac with him to Sennar and subjugated the region. He began planning an incursion south to Kadugli and west towards Kordofan, where most of the region was under the control of the Fur Sultan.

Sultan Mohammed Al-Fadl sent an eloquent and courageous letter of warning, the text of which was reported by historian Na’oūm Shuqayr, stating: “Do not be deceived by your victory over the Ja’aliyin and Shaiqiya. For we are the kings and they are the subjects. Don’t you know that Kordofan and Darfur are protected by swords and patient men when it comes to fighting day and night.”

The campaign ended with seizing control of “Bara,” and Ismail and his brother Ibrahim Pasha began collecting men and money and sending them to “Aswan” in unjust campaigns that exhausted the Sudanese people and fueled their anger and rage against the Turkish colonialism.
Meanwhile, the Diriyah rebellion took place in “Hijaz,” led by the “House of Saud” against the Ottoman Caliphate. Mohammed Ali Pasha sent his son Ibrahim to the eastern bank of the Red Sea, which was under the Ottoman control, up to the city of Massawa, to defeat that rebellion and sabotage the first Saudi State, as well as lead the Diriyah revolutionaries tied behind horses to Istanbul, where they were killed and their heads hung at the gates of the palaces in the Ottoman Caliphate capital. For this reason, the “House of Saud” was and remained sympathetic to the revolutionaries of the “Mahdist State,” which humiliated the Turks, expelled them from Sudan, and avenged the heinous deaths. The Chinese people also admired the Sudanese for killing of “Gordon,” who tortured them during the colonial period.

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Two years following the Turks control of the Funj Sultanate, Ismail Pasha decided to return to Egypt to witness his father’s honoring of him for successfully subjugating Sudan. On his way back, he met Mac Nimr and demanded a large amount of money, camels, cows, and men from him. Mac Nimr protested the demands in front of Ismail Pasha, making him angry enough to threw his pipe (galleon) at Mac Nimr, who held a grudge over the action and asked Ismail Pasha to come back the next day to collect the imposed tax. And in a large popular celebration in one of his palaces in Shendi, Mac Nimr organized the famous holocaust of the Pasha in an act of revenge for his dignity and in response to the arrogance of Ismail Pasha and his contempt for the Ja’alin tribe.

The British historian McMichael recorded those events and that significant revenge in his book “The History of the Arabs in Sudan.” As a result of this humiliating holocaust, Mohammed Ali Pasha appointed his daughter’s (Nazli Hanem) husband, Defterdar Mohammed, who carried out widespread massacres that claimed the lives of tens of thousands of innocent citizens, burned down cities and villages, as well as looted property in a vengeful, uncontrolled behavior that did not distinguish between the criminal and the victim, which ignited the anger of most Sudanese people against the Turkish rule of Sudan. The country, therefore was prepared to witness the Mahdist revolution.
*Will the anger stemming from the unjust aerial bombardment with explosive barrels create another revolution??*

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Since the outbreak of the war on the 15th of April 2023, the only superior weapon in the Armed Forces’ possession to be used against the Rapid Support Forces was the Air Force.
However, the leadership of the Armed Forces misused it with the provision of inaccurate coordinates, resulting in the bombardment and subsequent death of thousands of civilians, destroying their properties as well as the infrastructure of Sudan.

That reduced the Air Force from a weapon of military superiority to a weapon for breeding injustice and oppression against civilians without distinguishing between the perpetrator and the victim, especially in the areas under the control of the Rapid Support Forces, be it in the capital, Al-Jazeera, Kordofan, Nuba Mountains, Babanusa, Al-Mujlad, Sennar, Nyala, Al-Daein, Al-Fasher or Al-Zurruq.

Thus, the aerial bombardment has transformed into revenge campaigns that targeted innocent civilians, the most recent of which was the bombing using explosive barrels on the city of “Mellit,” in which no humans or animals were spared.
Civilians’ anger is mounting in the face of such blatantly indiscriminate killing by aircrafts with absolutely no regard for the elderly, women and children. The prevailing belief became that the Armed Forces has begun using aircrafts to target those they believe to constitute nurturing environment for the Rapid Support Forces, which in turn challenges the rights of equal citizenship and the principles of justice and humanitarian law.

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The indiscriminate aerial bombing of civilians is a full-fledged war crime that is being carried out repeatedly spanning the period of over a year in full view of the Sudanese people, their political parties, civil organizations, in addition to the monitoring and surveillance of international organizations, United Nations, African Union, Arab League, European Union, as well as the Commission for Human Rights.
All of these parties are still in stages of condemning, denouncing,and noting with great concern as innocent civilians are paying the hefty price of explosive barrels raining down on their families, children, and their property.

Indiscriminate bombing of innocent civilians is a war crime condemned by the International Humanitarian Law and the charters of regional and international organizations. It’s a crime that clearly expresses the double standards and abhorrent racism based on gender and regionalism, in addition to sowing a deep sense of lack of national unity, that the leadership of the Armed Forces will sooner or later pay for.

The army leadership must stop this Indiscriminate bombing Immediately before they find themselves facing the holocaust of Ismail Pasha in revenge for the wounded dignity and pride of citizens whose blood and property were violated by both parties to the unjust war. In response to others protesting, why do you condemn air strikes and ignore the violation of civilian rights committed by the Rapid Support Forces? I’d like to state, Firstly, all violations against civilians by the Rapid Support Forces doesn’t grant the Armed Forces the right to use counter-violate. Secondly, this accursed war must be stopped today before tomorrow, it’s the quickest way to put a stop to the horrific violations committed against civilians.

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In Conclusion

Repeating along with the poet of the people Mahjoub Sharif, may God have mercy on his soul, saying..

* Those who harbor contempt towards you, oh our people, O woe to them, from your anger at them and you leaving, O woe to them for their imminent end, on the day the iron shackle breaks, the dungeon and prison are close, oh our people, a struggle for equal citizenship in rights and duties.