Bulletins and News Discussion from February 26th to March 3rd, 2024 - Breaking The Siege Of Omdurman - COTW: Sudan
Bulletins and News Discussion from February 26th to March 3rd, 2024 - Breaking The Siege Of Omdurman - COTW: Sudan
The war in Sudan has so far been marked by a lot of incompetency and mismanagement by government forces (the SAF). After months of bitter fighting, in late 2023, the opposing Rapid Support Forces suddenly expanded their control towards the southeast of Khartoum after not a lot of resistance, most notably taking the city of Wad Madani. This led the SAF supporters and officials to panic and point fingers at each other about what the hell the army is even doing, while RSF soldiers looted the city.
These victories led to a short period in late December and early January where diplomacy and peace talks were considered, but such attempts fell apart. The leader of the RSF visited various African countries, including meeting Paul Kagame in Rwanda, to boost his legitimacy. Then, the RSF attacked into South Kordofan and consolidated their hold on other areas.
The Sudanese capital of Khartoum sits on a river which divides it from the city to its west, Omdurman (see the post image). The SAF and RSF have been fighting over this grand urban area for the whole war, with the RSF holding most of Khartoum (with an entirely cut-off SAF force holding on in the center), with a similarly cut-off SAF force also in eastern Omdurman, up against the river. For 10 months, this force has been under siege - but no longer. In perhaps the first actual W of the war for the SAF, they finally managed to break the siege a week ago, pouring supplies in. This leaves a section of the RSF now cut off, though Omdurman is still not under full SAF control (and, who knows, the whole situation could once again go badly for the SAF).
Meanwhile, the Sudanese socioeconomic situation has completely collapsed, with potentially a 20% fall in GDP and 8 million people displaced, with 2 million from Khartoum alone. 18 million Sudanese, or about a third of the population, is in acute hunger, and 20 million children are out in school. The refugees streaming out of the country are causing knock-on effects in neighorboring countries like Chad. Nobody is even really counting the dead anymore.
Red is the government forces, the SAF. Blue is the RSF opposition. Other colours are various factions.
The Country of the Week is Sudan! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
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Last week's thread is here.
Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA daily-ish reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
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Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei
"The situation in Gaza is too much even for that young person who was brought up in that culture. Even his conscience was hurting.
Of course, instead of one person, a thousand people should have set themselves on fire. But being immersed in corruption doesn't allow for this.
Now one person's conscience has been awakened by chance and he set himself on fire.
Western Culture has truly exposed itself and revealed how corrupted, perverted, and cruel it is.
We hope that Almighty God will provide a complete victory to Islam, Muslims, Palestine, and especially Gaza."
Okay so just in the interest of a somewhat even hand, it's not as if Iran hasn't had self-immolation as well. A woman protesting restrictions on entrance to parts of society committed the act as recently as 2019. I doubt Khameini has such thoughtful commentary there.
حمداً الينكي المستنير الذي جاء ليقدم آراءه حول النساء المسلمات ولكننا نتحدث عن الإبادة الجماعية في فلسطين
We are talking about the genocide in Falastin.
I'm not trying to detract from the heroic martyrdom of Aaron Bushnell or those fighting genocide - but we shouldn't fawn over opportunistic reactionaries either. The West doesn't hold a monopoly on double standards and twisting of events to suit their narrative. Theocracies and Ethnostates are bad, and we shouldn't lionize their leaders uncritically.
This is false equivalence. One country is the head of global bloodthirsty imperialism and currently engaged in a brutal genocide of Palestinians which is the topic. Another is on the opposite side and promoting the sovereignty and self-determination of Palestinians despite being under 45 years of siege and sanctions by the previous country. It is incomprehensibly arrogant to view the leadership of the resistance the way you are doing.
You should read something about Iran outside of CIA approved propaganda as you are obviously confused about the Islamic Republic of Iran. It's not your fault you are only exposed to zionist propaganda. Now is your chance.
Start with this book by Ramin Mazaheri: Socialism's Ignored Success: Iranian Islamic Socialism.
As a comrade and in good faith I will consider your suggestion, but I invite you to reconsider the space you're discussing this and be more charitable to your fellow hexbears. I'm not some lost liberal and don't need the incredible condensation. I take offense at the idea of reactionaries using the sacrifice of leftists to advance their own agenda, and while it's certainly possible that I'm not giving Khamenei the credit he is due as a moral authority, I think there's room for reasonable doubt from those of us less partial to Religion and view it as a reactionary structure capable of great opression and violence itself.
I also deny that I'm making a false equivalence. I didn't say Iran is just as bad as America, I simply implied that opportunistic reactionaries can be found in many places. I thought it went without saying that this is a space where critical support is both encouraged and possible, but here you are in need of a reminder.