The Impact of Western Influence on Sudan’s Deadly Conflict: A Fresh Perspective on Legal Dynamics
Khartoum – In the tumultuous landscape of Sudan, a person’s skin color and place of origin can be enough for the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) to detain individuals in areas they control.
Numerous documented incidents by prominent human rights organizations indicate that civilians face summary trials, which can lead to execution.
This distressing reality reflects a resurgence of apartheid-like systems in Africa, driven by regionalism and racial discrimination.
Extremist Islamist factions allied with the military are prominent in northern and eastern Sudan, executing arbitrary arrests of citizens from Kordofan and Darfur—regions located in western Sudan—merely based on their appearance and dialect.
This disturbing trend is colloquially referred to as the “Western Faces Law.”
While it is not officially codified, the term denotes the army’s strategic targeting of individuals outside the indigenous populations of eastern and northern Sudan.
Those who have fled the conflict to these regions, originating from western Sudan, are arrested, imprisoned, and frequently sentenced to death on accusations of collaborating with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Armed Islamist militias, operating under military oversight, enforce this unwritten law, identifying and segregating civilians based on their Western Sudanese heritage.
Documented Cases
In accordance with the Western Faces Law, a court in Atbara handed down a death sentence to medical student Aya Mustafa Khairallah on 10 June 2024, for purported collaboration with the RSF.
She was moved to Port Sudan prison for execution, but an appeals court later stayed her sentence.
The women’s rights initiative “No to Women’s Oppression” initiated a campaign titled “Let’s Unite Against Wounds,” calling for a reassessment of judicial decisions against women sentenced following unfair trials.
In another instance, in November 2024, paramilitary forces detained 18-year-old student Omar Ahmed Abdelhadi as he traveled alone from his family home in Al-Khuwai, West Kordofan to prepare for his high school exams in the northern state.
His trip—a desperate attempt to salvage his education amid prolonged school closures due to war—was abruptly cut short.
A military-controlled court convicted him and sentenced him to five years in prison for supposedly supporting the RSF.
His father expressed his anguish to Sudanese media: “My son’s only crime was striving for his education despite the circumstances. Schools in our area had been closed for almost two years due to war, and he risked everything to take his exams. But instead of fulfilling his dream, he ended up behind bars.”
Forced Displacement and Systematic Persecution
Following the outbreak of war in Khartoum on 15 April 2023, millions of civilians sought refuge in relatively safer areas such as Gedaref, Kassala, the Red Sea, and the River Nile states—territories controlled by the Sudanese army.
However, those with roots in Western Sudan faced systematic oppression under the Western Faces Law.
On 31 December 2024, legal expert Rehab Al-Mubarak, a member of the Emergency Lawyers group, revealed to Sudan Tribune that 250 individuals had been condemned to death or life imprisonment in army-controlled states on accusations of supporting the RSF.
She noted that these verdicts were often based solely on ethnic or regional affiliation.
Among those convicted were 16 women, many of whom received death or life sentences in Damazin, Blue Nile State.
Numerous others remain incarcerated, awaiting trial on similar charges.
Al-Mubarak emphasized that while the army accused residents of Darfur, Nuba Mountains, and Kordofan of sympathizing with the RSF, it has prosecuted northern Sudanese civilians opposing the war under Articles 50 and 51 of Sudan’s Penal Code, which pertain to “undermining the constitutional order” and “waging war against the state.”
The Western Faces Law is primarily enforced by mobilized paramilitary forces associated with Sudan’s Islamist movement, which closely collaborates with the army.
Detainees are tried under existing harsh laws—such as the Sudanese Penal Code—by military-controlled courts that fail to meet even fundamental standards of due process.
Racial Persecution and Political Retaliation
According to Darfur Lawyers Association chairman Al-Sadiq Ali Hassan, arbitrary arrests on charges of RSF collaboration have become a pervasive tool of war, victimizing numerous innocent individuals.
In a September 2024 interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Hassan stated that military intelligence in northern Sudan indiscriminately detains displaced people fleeing the conflict in Khartoum, subjecting them to grueling interrogations and often physical abuse.
He remarked, “Many detainees are held for months without charges, only to later face prosecution under fabricated allegations of conspiring with the RSF.
“Authorities exploit provisions from the Sudanese Penal Code concerning crimes against the state, effectively criminalizing their ethnic identity.”
Meanwhile, Emergency Lawyers attorney Mohamed Salah characterized the Western Faces Law as “a fusion of racial persecution and political retribution.”
He stressed that it disproportionately targets certain ethnic groups and regions, transgressing both Sudan’s Constitution and its Constitutional Declaration, which guarantee equality among citizens in rights and responsibilities.
In an interview with Al-Jamahir newspaper in December 2024, Salah cautioned, “The real danger of this law lies in empowering ordinary citizens, driven by ethnic hatred, to arrest individuals solely based on their appearance.
“It has evolved into a mechanism for systematically persecuting natives of Darfur and Kordofan.”
He further highlighted that “this discriminatory practice was first implemented in Kassala State” before it expanded to other military-controlled territories.
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