Sudan PM visits village following MEE coverage of fight against RSF
Sudan PM visits village following MEE coverage of fight against RSF
Sudanese Prime Minister Kamil Idris has visited a village in al-Jazira state following coverage of its plight in Middle East Eye, promising to enact widespread changes in line with the demands of its residents.
The people of al-Tekeina, in central Sudan, defended themselves against the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary through the whole of 2024.
Villagers told MEE they learnt how to use weaponry from YouTube tutorials, forming a self-taught, self-equipped militia and repelling the RSF without any help from the paramilitary’s enemy, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).
Now free from the menace of the RSF, which killed 50 residents and has been widely determined to be committing genocide, the people of al-Tekeina are now looking for proper representation in the government of al-Jazira state.
Following MEE’s coverage of the village, Idris, who assumed the office of prime minister on 31 May, visited al-Tekeina, promising to launch a wide raft of public services and projects in an area that depends totally on agriculture.
The visit to the poor, neglected village was the first by a senior Sudanese official in over 60 years, when former Prime Minister Ismail al-Azhari travelled there following Sudan’s independence from Britain in 1956.
Kamil Idris was joined in al-Tekeina by a delegation that included ministers in the army-backed government and the governor of al-Jazira, as well as the director of the state’s agricultural scheme.
'Historic visit'
Magd Omer Ibrahim, head of the al-Tekeina’s popular resistance committee, a governing body elected by the villagers, told MEE that, coming after so much sacrifice, the visit was a historic one.
“The office of the prime minister called me to arrange the visit a day before it happened, telling me that the PM would come to have breakfast with the committee of al-Tekeina and would address them after Friday prayers,” he said.
Villagers welcomed the visit, which took place on 30 August. Alshibly Alhadi, spokesperson for the popular resistance committee, told MEE that the village, which is located 70 kms south of the capital Khartoum, was “honoured by the visit”.
“I think the visit is historic - the last one was former PM Ismail al-Azhari in the 1950s, close to independence, while the current visit comes after the great incident of the RSF invasion of most of the country,” Alhadi said.
Alamin Idriss, a commander in the al-Tekeina militia that held off the RSF, said the visit was seen as important in the village partly because of decades of central government neglect.
“We have been neglected for a long time and we believe that our sacrifices have pushed the central government to make a moral restitution to us,” he said.
Ibrahim, the resistance committee leader, told MEE the prime minister’s delegation had made a series of promises in response to the village’s demands for public services and political representation.
“During his visit and address to the people, Kamil Idris made many promises including the reconstruction of the road that links the villages of northern al-Jazira state together, as well as the maintenance of both the water and electricity power stations for the area,” Ibrahim told MEE.
“The delegation has also promised to construct a new technical college in the village, drill two wells, and maintain and expand al-Tekeina hospital and some other small clinics.”
Media impact
Villagers said that media coverage of al-Tekeina was vital in drawing the Sudanese government’s attention and bringing about the visit.
“We thank MEE very much because it was the first international media site that cared about our case in al-Tekeina, cared about the sacrifices our people made and the suffering we faced at the hands of the RSF,” Ibrahim, head of the popular resistance committee, said.
“We understood the impact of the media and what it can do in the current world. So, I thank you and the other media that put our story into consideration and brought it to the world,” he said.
“We discussed the media reports in our committee and we praised the efforts MEE made to reflect our issues in the international media.”
Alshibly Alhadi said he believed media coverage was one of the main reasons the government’s attention had been drawn to al-Tekeina.
'We understood the impact of the media and what it can do in the current world'
- Magd Omer Ibrahim, al-Tekeina resistance committee
“MEE was the first media house to visit al-Tekeina after the war and other media followed them,” he said.
“We still want you to report the promises that we got from the PM and his delegation and to monitor the implementation of these promises,” Alhadi concluded.
For Idriss, the commander, “the media is one of the main cards we people have to pressure those in power, so that we can achieve our goals and demands”.
Sudan’s war began in April 2023. It has turned into the widest humanitarian catastrophe in the world, with almost 12 million people forcibly displaced from their homes and at least 150,000 killed.
Villagers in al-Tekeina bought their own weapons to defend themselves, saying they had been abandoned by the army and its government.
Now, the sacrifices these ordinary local people made may be repaid by the institutions that left them to fend for themselves.
