Since November 3rd, the video of the Rapid Support Forces' Ardamata Massacre of Masalit men and boys have been making its rounds across social media. Several users shocked and livid by video of Ardamata massacre have gone so far as to call the RSF a “Hamas linked, Jihadi terror group” on social media platforms Reddit, Facebook, Threads, Daily motion and X formerly Twitter. The video was reshared by commentators, Darfur rights activists and groups, CBN News, the popular religious Christian news channels once operated by Pat Robertson of the 700 club and journalists. Conservative commentators on Sudan and Palestine have been resharing the video and all have used a similiar title, BREAKING: Jihadi militias have murdered more than 800 black Africans from the Massalit tribe in Darfur. No context on how "Jihadi" connects to the video is given. Oddly enough, the mentioned groups once played a role as members of the Save Darfur Movement in the early 2000 at the height of the Darfur Conflict when the world's attention was focused on the region and it was a huge cause celebre from 2003 - 2007. Even the business magazine, Business Elites Africa, broke from its usual posts on investments, entreneurship to post the Ardamata video using the same title. The poster's pinned comment also attempts to appeal to its regular readers and some Pan African commentators and wonders why the news about Darfur isn't trending in the same manner as Palestine and Ukraine.
In his November 7th twitter post on the video, Walid Phares, author and U.S. Foreign Policy and War on Terror analyst, chastised the global Palestine Solidarity and rights movement protesting against the ongoing war in Gaza for not having the same fervor and outcry for the massacred civilians in Ardamata or calling attention to the equally brutal conflict in Sudan. While his commentary to the video raises a valid point about some conflicts being covered around the clock compared to others, it also dismisses Palestinian suffering while hoping to redirect the global attention to more deserving Darfur civilians caught up in an unforgiving and unjustified war. In another post, he alludes to pro Palestine supporters being Hamas allies to explain their silence on the recent El Geneina massacres. He has written several posts, articles and congressional reports on Sudan’s previous conflicts special focus on South Sudan and Darfur. And applauded the Save Darfur movement and global protest movement against Sudan and Khartoum in particular. In Phares’ eyes, Khartoum was not only being accused of being a terrorist state but importantly as a brutal, Islamic regime and an unofficial axis of nation although the Darfur conflict had nothing to do with religion and was based on land, climate and limited resources being fought over (still) by multiple groups. Phares has been lauded by media and government officials alike for his plethora of books and articles on terrorism, US military strategy in the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa. His career began in the aftermath of 9/11 and grew throughout the War on Terrorism. He is often called upon to share his expertise on news networks serving as MSNBC analyst in 2003. Phares' books are popular with pundits, reporters analysts and causal readers. Phares is currently the US Foreign Policy Expert on Newsmax Nation, a conservative news station that broadcast both online and TV has seen its viewership and popularity increase in the last several years due to the Trump Presidency, critcisms of mainstream media reporting and many Americans recieving their news from online as opposed to TV. He previously served as Trump's former Counterterrorism adviser in the White House. Alongside Darfur, Phares' focus has increasingly turned to Iran which he sees as America's unpredictable enemy.
Newsmax, Fox News and One America News have been cheering Israel's War on Gaza and Palestine while playing on their viewers and public's anxieties on a revival of the War on Terrorism. Resurrecting the frightening tropes that once again the world is under threat by terrorist groups even insurgent groups ie the RSF having nothing to do with Hamas. Palestinians(notice the Palestinian people are painted as being one with Hamas), Arabs and Muslims (often times the media will conflate them together) are out to attack innoncent people anywhere even attacking innoncent Masalit people and purposely targeting men and boys in Darfur. Another popular conservative blogger turned online publisher Pamela Geller of the Geller Report has also come out of the woodwork to not only condemns the Ardamata Massacre as it should be but takes it a step further. In her recent post on the massacre, she shares a video screenshot with a caption referring to Masalit who were killed were Christians, they are actually Muslims. She quotes Walid Phares' post which blames Iran and Muslim brotherhood for somehow supporting the RSF and its Arab allied mitias She is unaware that the RSF and other two goups have never crossed paths with one another. At the end of the article she ends with an ominious warning "Global Jihad is on the march." This has been a reoccuring refrain that she has used over the last two decades. Geller isn't feigning ignoranance or quoting others out of context. She has built her career on post 9/11 fears and anxieties about terrorism, misunderstandings of the Middle East and North Africa, Islamophobia and anti Arab racism and her own personal crusade against Islam and Muslims including Western Muslims. Almost every imaginable carticture demonizing Arabs, Muslims, MENA societies and portraying Islam as stuck in the 7th century and a hidden, genocidal religion can be gleaned in her writings, lectures, interviews and talks on her website, once popular blog Atlas Shrugs*, TV and media appearances. Similiar to Phares, Geller continues to appear on discussions about foreign policy, terrorism where she equates Islam with terror,Israel Palestine, Islam and Christian relations. Geller is not a stranger to Darfur or Sudan conflict either. She has been a critic of the Khartoum government and Sudan. She first became interested in South Sudanese struggle as the Sudanese Civil War was winding down in the early 2000s and supported South Sudanese activists particulary the outspokenSimon Deng in his struggle against Khartoum government. She interviewed Deng during his public protests across America to end the war and alleged slavery in then Southern Sudan in 2000s using his own personal experience as a launcing pad to garner support from conservative, nationalist, Zionists and pro Israel crowds. They both became recognized public speakers at consevative, freedom and democracy rallies and protests to fight what they both see as their own war against Sharia law and "Radical Islam" from Sudan to United States. Geller remains an outspoken advocate for African Darfuri people during the earlier Darfur conflict in 2003. She managed to couch political and social problems of Sudan into simplistic ancient hatreds clash of civiliazations between Christians and Muslims, African and Arab and now "genocidal Jihadists" out to attack civilians and change society.
Simon Deng continues to be an advocate for war victims in Darfur and human rights in South Sudan. Similiar to other South Sudanese Americans, he remains an uncritical and rabid Israel supporter and Christian Zionist. Propelled by his own life experience which still drives his activism today, Deng even led a solidarity march through Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in response to the October 7th Massacre by Hamas. His sympathy not only extends to the Israeli victims, he also worked on an Israeli kibbutz despite personal danger to himself in the war torn country. He downplays the ongoing Israeli bombardment, destruction of Gaza and Palestinian deaths to reiterate his personal and ordinary South Sudanese support for Israelis. He was recently interviewed alongside South Sudanese refugee Naka Pitia and fellow countrywoman by JNS TV's Our Middle East program on his activism and life that drove him to be an Israel first supporter.
Guilt, fear and chastiment also drives a wedge between the two groups who are fighting for the same recognition of their humanity. Phares' chastiment of Palestinian supporters both Palestinian themselves and non Palestinians is not unique to Palestine and Darfur nor is it new. Guilting anti war and human rights groups on their suppport for ending civilian suffering in one conflict over others was used throughout the War on Terrorism. The Save Darfur coalition wagged their fingers at anti war supporters condemning the bombing of Iraq, later Libya and Syria but muted on Darfur. It's also another way to deflect criticism from Israel and silence critics on this crucial issue by focusing their attention to the suffering of Masalit and other African peoples in Darfur and lambasting the critics and supporters for not caring about non Palestine issues. Again we have seen how Israeli government has done just about everything to silence Pro Palestine supporters in the streets, France and Germany have also done the same banning Palestine marches. The Israeli government banned Palestinian flag inside Israel and much to its chargrin it later had to overturn the ban due to public outcry. p>US universities for decades have tried to silence Palestinian voices, stories and even debate on Palestine and Israel conflict especially if a Palestinian perspective is given or heard. This started long before Edward Said became a professor at Columbia University in New York. It should come as no surprise to some people that Israel was long standing supporter of South Sudanese independence struggle from 1960s right up to 2011. The leader of Darfur's fractured rebel movement Sudanese Liberation movement Abdel Wahid al Nur was incredibly enthusiatic about Sudan reluctantly normalizing relations with Israel as part of the then Bashir government's search to end crippling U.S. sanctions after adapting the 2021 Abraham Accords. Al Nur claimed to speak for most Sudanese citizens on possible Sudan Israel relations even though he isn't a government official or diplomat. An actual politician, Mohammedain Mohamed Ishaq equally applauded Sudan opening up relations with Israel. Ordinary Sudanese people who have long supported the Palestinian struggle and been critical of US Foreign policy, Israeli interest and Western intervention in their country opposed and protested the Sudan's normalization with Israel. The Israeli lobby, Zionist pressure organizations, Jewish peace and rights groups (all three are not the same) played a role alongside celebrities in bringing global attention to Darfur conflict and decrying the impending genocide in Darfur. These groups still continue to sound the alarm over ethnic cleansing and see some leaders of Darfuri groups such as JEM as allies towards Israel.
They could've been brothers
Keep in mind that despite being countrymen, Darfur's African and Arab peoples (made of Riziegat, Beni Halba, Salamat, Hawazama, etc) are completely different ethnic groups which is why the RSF and its Arab allies have shown little remorse or sympathy for Masalit and other non Arab people being attacked, kidnapped, being forced into alleged sexual slavery and forced to flee their homes and towns. Not to mention the thousands of people that have gone missing fleeing El Geneina and other neigborhing towns. The destruction of El Geneina's is eerily similiar to Misrata militia's destruction of the Libyan town of Tarwegha in 2011 during the Libyan conflict. The Misratuan militia blamed the Tarweghans for attacking and later destroying the large town of Misrata. The rebel and Western media ran with the false story of "African mecanaries" being used by Gaddhafi to halt the Libyan uprising and playing up on racist tropes of "African mercenary" that placed African migrants, dark skinned Libyans and Tauregs in grave danger at the hands of undisciplaned Libyan militias out for revenge against migrants and dark skinned Libyans who were often accused of being Gaddhafi supporters even when they were innoncent. The Misrata militia used similiar tactics as the RSF ranging from insulting fleeing Tarwegans by calling them slaves to writing racist grafitti on buildings saying that Tarwegha had been purged of black skin. For a decade Tarwegha became a ghost town. It was only in 2022, that the local Tarweghans were finally able to return.
During the 2003 conflict in Darfur, activists, Western analysts, pundits and early social media users used to wrongly assumed that the Darfuri Arabs were the same as some of the African Darfuri tribes. Their logic being that since Darfur's population is majority African than the Arabs resemble everyone else and some Arabs had intermarried with Africans than everyone must be the same, right? The activists and journalists ignored is that most Darfuri Arabs have different physical looks, lighter skin, don't often speak Masalit, Fur or Zaghawa languages, they are bedouins, very few are farmers and are the poorer, equally marginalized group in Darfur. The Masalit, Zaghawa and Fur tend to be wealther being farmers, businessmen and traders. The current violence goes well beyond revenge. Journalists, analysts and activists viewed solving the Darfur conflict through the prism of Kumbaya we are one people peace process. They narrow in on the ethnic dimension as a large issue instead of it being one of the many issues alongside scarce resources for water and fertile land, sharing land between farmers and nomads and environmental pollution caused by the war leading to the recent conflict. As a side note Sudan and Darfur have been dealing with environmental problems specifically ongoing desertification and soil erosion for decades. It is apparant the RSF members and its allies do not see themselves as one people with their former Masalit, Fur, Zaghawa and Tama neighbors in El Geneina and other parts of Darfur. Sudanese refugees in Chad have witnssed this firsthand and expressed disbelief at the uptick in ethnic hatred shown by RSF towards them in their stories and interviews with the MSF and humanitarian aid groups. Among other things, most displaced Darfuris do not trust the Sudanese government and are highly suspicious of government's intentions once the war end and peace returns to Sudan as a whole. The mistrust of the Khartoum government have been building for years in response to the war and violence in Darfur. A writer for the Guardian News UK, Kate Ferguson, described the July Massacre in El Geneina as a continuation of Janjaweed's earlier crimes Most people see the RSF as no different from the Janjaweed of twenty years ago. The difference now being that there are no UN peacekeepers or local rebel movements to slow down or halt the RSF. The remaining but highly fractured Darfuri rebel groups have kept neutral to avoid further bloodshed in the region. Since most reporters can't enter Darfur due to the RSF's control and occassional shuting off of telecommunications in the region, it is challenging to know the full scale of the ongoing violence and what life is like under RSF rule. There have been some community and civilian led intiatives and in Nyala and other towns that managed to stop clashes between the Sudanese Army and RSF during the war's early stages that were successful for a few months.
One X user going by the name ColllRose and using the #KeepEyesOnSudan, condemned both the Israeli bombing of innoncent civilians in Gaza and the RSF attacks and killings on civilians in El Geneina and other parts of Darfur. Showing solidarity with both Palestinians and African Darfuris, the Colllrose weaves the occupation of Palestine and the genocidal war on Gaza parallels it to the same actions and grief taking place in Darfur and laments that ordinary Arab citizens and Arab League should equally care about civilian deaths in Darfur just as much as in Gaza. Originally the #KeepEyesOnSudan was meant to report and monitor civilians caught in the middle of the urban conflict in Khartoum, their cooping mechanisms, war crimes and violations by the RSF and Army. However, the post specifically highlights Darfur and the violence against the African Darfuris as an urgent call to outraged readers.
European Union envoy, Josep Borrell expressing shock and lamenting the thousands massacred in El Geneina, warned in his twitter post that the RSF are carrying out ethnic cleansing campaign. Borrell also condemned Israel's onging bombing of Gaza as consuming horror. The UN Humantarian Coordinator in Sudan Clementine Nkweta Salami referred to the massacre as "verging on pure evil." The Darfur Bar Association, a lawyer human rights group, pointed to the RSF as the culprit of multiple violations against civilians in the region.
To the social media users and online commentators who have written off and cursed the RSF as a “Hamas linked, Jihadi terror group,” out to kill innoncent civilians, emotions aside, the RSF is not a Jihadi or Takfi group nor does it have any links to Hamas or ISIS. These are all unrelated groups whose motives and actions would clash with one another. The RSF isn't even a religious group. Its creation is political and more tied to social problems and tensions within Darfur than the events in Palestine. As some users pointed out civilians in both conflicts in Palestine and Darfur are facing similiar, horrorific war crimes, collective punishment for the actions of one group, excessive military force and violence. The left over fears and anxieties from the War on Terrorism have been revived due to the conflict in Gaza and Israel, its allies, right wing and conservative pundits, reporters and social media content creators have been using the fears alongside rising anti Palestinian, anti Arab and Anti Islam sentiments among the public to wrongly link Hamas and ISIS together as one side of the same group when they are not. By extension, the users are doing the same by linking the Rapid Support Forces to Hamas to draw anti war and human rights protesters’ focus from Israel Palestine for anyone seeing the gruesome Ardamata massacre video to the plight of the people in El Geneina and refugees in Chad.
Author's Note: Pamela Geller's blog Atlas Shrugs is a homage to Cold War era, anti communist writer and author Ayn Rand known for her thoughts onabsolute freedom both personal and political, Democracy as the only form of government for a free society and being a rabid anti communist. Having lived in a communist nation, she took her experience and excerterbated until her thoughts fed on the public's genuine fears of an impending world domination by the Soviet Union and the end of Democracy being destroyed by international communism. Rand didn't shy away from viewing communism as an existenital threat. Rand's most famous book is Atlas Shrugged. For decades, many moderate, conservative and far right politicians, authors, self proclaimed philosphers and orators have championed Rand's thoughts and philosphy. Geller has not only taken up Rand's writings on communism and absolute freedom at any cost to heart, she has portrayed Islam as the new terrifying threat to the free world since the Soviet Union and communism challenged the United States in the Cold War era. As Rand had done before, Geller has leaned into the public's fear of Islam and lack of interest in understanding the recent events and complexities in Sudan and Palestine, to keep the War on terrorism fears and anxieties continuing and perhaps anticipating a real, not a metorphorical Clash of Civilization for the next decades. She is not the only author taking advantage of this.
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