[TRANSLATED] SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Al-Rakoba – Kassala’s Burning!, by Osman Mirghani
28/8/2020: Al-Rakoba – Kassala’s Burning!, by Osman Mirghani
Osman Mirghani, editor of al-Tayyar Newspaper, calls for a “national project that injects hope and desire for a decent life for all Sudanese,” and public and governmental discourse that develops a “sense of interest and a prosperous future for the average citizen.”
Mirghani attributes eastern Sudan’s conflicts to “gunpowder tribalism” that fills a vacuum left by the absence of a public sense of direct interest that leaves a “citizen’s view of their relationship with the government confined to the narrowest scope between rights and duties.”
Mirghani suggests that tribalism is a “wall of protection of Sudanese identity” that can be “invested” in making a unique Sudanese cultural mix, adding that ethnic rivalries can be avoided by “upholding the values of citizen interests within the state’s national affiliation,” concluding that war is fuelled by the “absence of hope and the darkness of poverty and the weakness of the state’s civilised structure.”