By AbduRafiu
[FILE] In this image grab taken from handout video footage released by the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on April 23, 2023, fighters wave assault rifles as they cross a street in the East Nile district of greater Khartoum. – A US-brokered ceasefire between Sudan’s warring generals entered its second day on April 26, 2023, but remained fragile after witnesses reported fresh air strikes and paramilitaries claimed to have seized a major oil refinery and power plant. (Photo by – / Rapid Support Forces (RSF) / AFP) / ===
The storm in Sudan has been raging for almost two months and it has shown no sign of abating. More than 1, 800 persons have been killed and no less than 1.6 million have been displaced. Aljazeera has reported that Saudi Arabia and United States brokered peace talks have been suspended. It is blame game on which party breached the ceasefire agreement yesterday and who punctured the delicate calm understanding today. The combatants are by now well known. They are the mainstream armed forces loyal to Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the Head of Government on the one hand and the Rapid Support Forces on the other headed by General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo. These consist of paramilitaries loyal to former warlord Hamdan Dagalo, aka Hemedti. Muscle flexing between the two senior officers was deliberately triggered by the fallen President Omar al- Bashir now standing trial at The Hague. The speculation was that he set one party against the other so he could hold on to power through impossibility of marriage of minds against his brutal and despicable rulership. He was eventually kicked out in 2019, but the seed of power struggle had long been sowed even before then according to reports. As is usually the case when rivalry is driven by envy and hate, complicated by conceit the situation drifted to the point the two parties had to choose between peace and war. Unfortunately, as they were armed and could be said to be equally matched, they elected the latter—war!
Over the ages when confronted with that choice, man has always fallen for war and destruction. Do we need to cast our minds back to history? Has the war between Ukraine and Russia not proven the point and, indeed, gotten complicated before our very eyes with attendant and unbelievably mindless destruction of lives and property? Let’s reflect upon it. Consider it: homelessness, long and hopeless columns of displaced people fleeing to safety. On the last count, 1.6 million. It is easier to destroy than to build. Because building requires efforts, man will rather permit indolence to prevail than allow exertion take the front burner in the struggle with himself. Consequently, the recourse to war and the attendant ruination, hiding under the cover of national integrity, prestige and justice. Only on Tuesday a dam in Ukraine was blown with bombs, blamed on Russia enemy action. Over 80 communities were reportedly being evacuated. On Wednesday, six missiles described as “unstoppable” were shot down by Ukraine.
The inalienable property every human being is endued is the gift of free will, the freedom to choose. To be or not to be. And every choice has consequences, some grave and ruinous while others uplift and build up. They could engender peace and harmony if the choice springs from the thought of peace, from the high, noble and that which is pure.
Justice is desirable and attainable. It must be a goal. But there is lack of understanding of what the terms mean, that is national integrity, prestige and justice. Take for example, Justice. Justice is severe. And usually we go out in search of justice from others and not from ourselves. But justice must start from self. When a man is first severe with himself, he will be just to others. Man resorts to war for his own self-glory, power, influence, acknowledgement and admiration. We human beings seek to attract attention to ourselves and cultivate fame rather than the nobility of the spirit. We work deliberately to be known in history. The battle is with oneself and not with his neighbour. According to higher knowledge spreading on earth today, each has enough on his hands to battle—with himself until the end of his life in this world.
The Rapid Support Forces was set up by President Bashir to crush the rebellion which had festered for more than 20 years in Southern Darfur that had complained of political and economic exclusion by the central government. At the end of the military action in Darfur, the two parties cooperated to oust President Bashir in 2019. There was collaborative working in power sharing between the military and the civilians that led the protests which triggered the fall of President Bashir. This arrangement broke down following continuing protests over economic difficulties in the country. The coup brought the military back into the governance, but this again did not reduce the protests because the civilians wanted an oversight over the military in power and demanded the fusion of the two separate arms of Armed Forces, the mainstream and the Rapid Support Forces. Hamdan Dagolo (Hemedti) threw his weight behind the transition to democratic order. This raised fresh tension because this did not go down well with the military ruler, Burhan. Justice was also demanded for the killings of pro-democracy activists which occurred in 2019 and for those killed by the security forces since the 2021 coup. They were said to be no fewer than 125 activists and protesters.
It is unfortunate that when the drive to hostilities came to a head on the cliff, it could not be arrested and there was a headlong plunge into the valley, turning Sudan to a land of war. This is proof that mankind has not advanced a jot from the point they were thousands of years back when savagery and merry making were man’s ultimate and when he found fulfillment in war. It is only the instruments of war and merry making and raiment which have changed, not man himself. In place of swords, machetes and arrows by warriors on horses, there are now Abrams tanks, Challenger 2 and Leopards 2 tanks; B-52 bombers and jaguar bombers, missiles, marines and chemical weapons and nuclear bombs.
Progress lies in everyone changing, from the leaders to the led, in everyone genuinely seeking true knowledge, and having firm volition for what is good and in giving purity to our thoughts. The knowledge that must be sought must be the one that explains the origin of man, his tasks and goals.
With the attainment of such knowledge it can then be seen whether wars are part of the tasks and whether they advance a human being towards his goal in the world. Terrible and terrifying consequences of war have been visited on Ukraine as well as Sudan since hostilities came to a head in the two countries; first to the human person and then to their land, environment and property. The consequences to those flying the bombers themselves or those firing long range tanks, Leopard 2, no matter how heroic they may feel after every raid on their targets. For every injury and death brought by the wars, there are horrifying consequences, indeed, encompassing indescribable torments, beyond the earthly. The citizens will live in anxiety for their lives until the hostilities cease completely.
How then does war start? It brews from wrong living by human beings even if they are far flung at the other end of the world. The consequences return in reciprocity to their authors. All around us is living, vacuous as it may appear. There is ceaseless surging and weaving around each person. New carpet of fate is woven without stop which a person will be compelled to experience at a later date. The hour of return will depend on the nature of the seed sown. We learn in higher knowledge spreading across the globe today that at each moment a person stands in the reactions of his past activities. He is connected with the threads he has spun, threads from the radiations of his volition. He who spins threads of goodness in all his activities, for example, is enveloped in kindness to him, in peace and upliftment. In a similar outworking, there is no one who is evil that gets away with it, nor is there anyone who does good and gives understanding consideration to his fellowman who is himself not ennobled. As it is for goodness and compassion, so is it with peace. He who wants peace must long and work for it, otherwise the weaving will be such that he will fall into the hands of those with his nature, who don’t want peace. He will be entrapped in the company or acquaintanceship of those with tendencies for evil. A man cannot do evil and be unfair to others and expect peace—even if he fasts and prays until Kingdom come, for the Lord, the Creator, cannot be mocked. Prayers must be said in deeds.
Every seed sown through activities of each person goes through nurturing and nourishment, through every maturation process until it bears fruits which the sower is compelled to harvest. The fruits come multiplied. A seed of an orange planted comes at harvest with multiple orange fruits and from year to year until the tree is either cut or uprooted. It is the same with a seed of mango. Every activity that proceeds from a person attracts similar activities from other people. The activities form fields of power and activity where they are nourished until fruits appear and ripen. Once these fruits have taken on form ethereally, it is a question of time before they manifest physically. Those who contribute to the cultivation of the fields are not just from one part of the world, but are found wherever there are human beings. At the time of harvest, every contributor will have his share corresponding to the measure of his contribution. It follows that an action for which another person who may be a complete stranger living at another end of the world is being condemned and pilloried has been strengthened by the critic, unknown to him. That there is unabated crisis engulfing many parts of the world is because the field of wrong activity and evil is ever widening. This will continue to be until the nourishment itself ceases. In the two wars the world is witnessing, the Ukraine-Russian war and the war in Sudan, the so-called super powers are competing for superiority and in the display of weaponry technological advancement!
What is palpable today is the rate at which the fruits ripen, the acceleration and intensification at which eruption occurs whether in economic or political spheres. And sudden deaths! All this is a consequence of increased motion brought about by intensified Light pressure under which our world is held in these times. What used to take long is no longer so. Threats that used to take years before a resolution was found, either at a round-table conference or in war now take a few weeks, or a few months before they translate into a war or open hostilities of a lesser degree.
The activities referred to cover thoughts, speeches and actions. Those who get caught in hostilities are those who are homogeneous to providing anchorage for the returning fruits at a particular time. They get caught either by engaging in direct war, its conception or planning, or by getting wounded or killed in demonstrations in different parts of the world which may be removed from the theatre of war itself. At this height of the Russian-Ukraine War those who have not contributed to its ensuing either through wrong concepts, comments, opinions or actions are bound to know peace in their hearts and environment.
In other words, it can be seen from the foregoing that the escalating wars pre-date the dispute between Ukraine and Russia and the subsequent invasion of the latter; or the internal antagonism in Sudan. The excuses and rationalisation are only tools which are in the hands of actors who found themselves thrown up for the manifestation of earlier events pressing for materialisation. It is the tools the entire world debates not the cause.
The materialisation must find itself in cocky, stubborn fellows. If it were not so, how do we explain the rigid positions of the combatants? Everyone who participates in the crisis in whatever form, from the design of the arms, to the manufacture and sale will be held to account and this will mean his having to go, himself, through intensified upheavals greater than the on-going wars in the two zones. Through the beaming In the Light of Truth mankind are helped to see the immutability of the Laws of Nature which are living and self-acting as the eyes and self-enforcers of the Will of God, the Almighty Creator. They ensure that every deviation from what is right is brought to the attention of the protagonist so that, in love and justice, he can free himself from the guilt by going through it.
The outbreak of war is manifestly a sign of the decline of humanity despite all the helps through enlightenment over millennia. Man has devoted a greater part of his energy and time to fashioning weapons of destruction than to what will remake the world. The tool for remaking the world is as spelt out In the Light of Truth which answers all questions of life and existence. Man has reached his wits-end. He has to grow up to avoid the calamity that the two wars signal. It is not too late for the parties involved to stop these wars. It is a question of decision to long for peace.
NEXT WEEK: THE RISING PRICES.