Sudan's Emergency Response Rooms in the midst of war

As this podcast episode, and its companion article on Upstream Journal were being prepared, the Peace Research Institute in Oslo announced the nomination of Sudan's Emergency Response Rooms for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize. In this episode of Human Rights Magazine, Sarah Elobaid takes a close look into the work of the Emergency Response Rooms and their impacts, with guests who have direct experience with these youth-led networks.

Human Rights Magazine is produced by The Upstream Journal magazine. The host, Derek MacCuish, is editor of both. If you agree that informed reporting on human rights and social justice issues is important, your support would be welcome. Please rate the podcast wherever you listen to it, and tell your friends about episodes that you find interesting. Why not consider making a financial contribution to help us cover costs?  You are always welcome to email with your comments.

Transcript

Intro by podcast editor Derek MacCuish:

As this podcast episode, and its companion article on Upstream Journal were being prepared, the Peace Research Institute in Oslo announced the nomination of Sudan's Emergency Response Rooms for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize. In this episode of Human Rights Magazine, Sarah Elobaid Ahmed takes a close look into the work of the Emergency Response Rooms and their impacts, with guests who have direct experience with these youth-led networks.

Host Sarah Elobaid Ahmed:

The ongoing war in Sudan has claimed an estimated 150,000 lives, displaced nearly 9 million people, and has left approximately 15 million civilians facing famine. This devastation stems from a power struggle between two military generals, with civilians bearing the brunt of the conflict.

Since violence erupted in Khartoum, neighborhood volunteers have formed Emergency Response Rooms, or ERRs, where emergency responders provide aid and crucial services amidst one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. However, as the situation worsens, ERRs are struggling to maintain their operations and fill the void left behind by humanitarian aid agencies.

To understand the current situation, we need to revisit Sudan’s recent history. The 2018-2019 revolution overthrew the 30-year dictatorship of Omar al-Bashir, leading to a transitional plan for a civilian-led government. However, key revolutionary forces were excluded from thedecision-making process and military figures of the former regime maintained their political influence in the transitional government. 

In October 2021, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, leader of the Sudanese Armed Forces, staged a coup with the help of General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, from the Rapid Support Forces. Al-Burhan then dissolved the transitional government. Facing international pressure, the two generals signed a framework agreement in December 2022 forcing them to allow for a civilian-led government. Consequently, tensions grew between al-Burhan and Hemedti as they sought to maintain their political influence and were feeling threatened by the agreement. Their power-struggle quickly escalated into war on April 15, 2023.

Despite the ongoing challenges, the will of Sudanese civil society persists. Today’s Emergency Response Rooms have evolved from the resistance committees that played a crucial role in Sudan’s revolution.

As a Sudanese person in the diaspora, I sought to understand the ERRs' revolutionary roots amidst an anti-revolutionary war. Through conversations with Sudanese activists, I explored the grim reality of those risking their lives for mutual aid and the limited response from the international community. 
Join me as we uncover the challenges of those on the front lines of this crisis, and the incredible resilience they demonstrate.

I spoke with Alwazeer Mudather, a co-founder of the Bahri ERR, which formed in the epicenter of the violence when the war first broke out. Mudather described the city’s atmosphere on April 15th as sheer chaos. 

I asked him to detail his experience and the work they are doing. I communicated with him via Whatsapp voice memos in Arabic, so I will be sharing a translation of what he shared with me. 


Mudather: My friend, this is a unique experience, happening during difficult times, very difficult times. During a war against humanity. Under a war during which all aspects of life disappear. When the war came, the main function of the government, which is the provision of services, also disappeared in conflict areas.
I am one of the founders of the Emergency Response Rooms in Khartoum city, encompassing all of Khartoum state, and Bahri as well. I worked with and managed to bring together all the localities of the Khartoum state. 
We provide all the essential services that the citizens need to survive. Including the most important, which is food and water. We provide them with general health services.
We also provide safe passage from dangerous zones to safe ones. Sometimes we get in touch with the warring parties to secure the release of some civilians. In general, we provide a lot of security and work on most livelihood needs.
At the beginning, we were subjected to repeated detentions and arrests, and there are still violations taking place against some of our members who are working in the field. However, through coordination and communication with warring parties, we are able to secure the release of those detained. And sometimes we are not able to secure their release at all. As the core group and the “main operators” of the emergency rooms, we live abroad and in safety so we are not subjected to the same. Occasionally, we are subjected to nasty messages.

Mudather then provided some context on the ERR’s formation and organizational structure. 


Mudather: The Emergency Response Rooms started with the war. The war started on the 15th, by the 16th the ERRs started their work. Why, because all the services that were provided by the government stopped in addition to all institutions and corporations being looted. 
One of the reasons why government services stopped is because those working for the government immediately fled Khartoum. The services and process for decision making were concentrated in Khartoum.
One of the reasons for the success of the ERRs is that we already have the organizational structures of the resistance committees in place. The resistance committees that existed during the revolution. The resistance committees were very well organized and in many areas there were good organizational structures. For example, I am from Bahri and the resistance committees in Bahri were made up from two representatives of each locality. And in turn, each neighborhood has its own group, made up of the youth of that neighborhood. 
Furthermore, that organization allowed for the ease of movement both in the field and for the purpose of management and administration of these groups. Now, most of the management and the administration of the groups is done from outside while those inside continue field work, and that is another reason for our success during the conflict

Mudather explained to me that a large part of their funding comes from social media appeals for donations, so I spoke with a Sudan Solidarity Collective member to learn about diaspora fundraising efforts for the ERRs.
The Collective has been supporting several ERRs through their Sudan Solidarity Fund, including the Bahri ERR that Mudather is a part of. The Collective started out of the University of Toronto, but has now grown to encompass activists from all over Canada and elsewhere. Beyond supporting aid efforts, the Collective has engaged in numerous advocacy campaigns and community initiatives to illuminate the severity of the crisis taking place.
As the Collective is one of the most active groups of its kind, I wanted to understand their relationships with these ERRs and the challenges they have been facing. I asked a member of the SSC to detail how their relationship with the ERRs came to be.


SSC: It became very crystal clear to us that those who are, I mean, we knew this before, but it became very kind of clear to us that those who are assisting on the ground are the Emergency Response Rooms. They essentially were and continue to be the backbone of the relief efforts in Sudan, in the wake of, you know, chronic institutional neglect, the chronic institutional neglect that Sudan is facing from both, you know, internally within Sudan, and then externally from the international community, and as we continued our involvement with the Emergency Response Rooms and seeing what It is that they do and the the need we became, over time, solely focused on supporting Emergency Response Rooms. (1:46-2:48, 1:02 in total)


Could you talk about, like, what hurdles there are to raising funds for ERRs or what hurdles they face on the ground in terms of safety or maintaining their continual operations. 

SSC: You know, for the masses who don't know part of that is either because they're not really involved in, you know, kind of these movements, the politics around Sudan, and so, you know, unless they're going to search for it deeply, you know, or have connections With Sudanese folks, many of these people don't know. Many people around the world don't know. And then you know, the other part of that being that most news outlets aren't really and haven't been talking about Sudan and what's happening in Sudan, and where they do kind of speak about what's taking on taking place in Sudan. They don't really give voice to the local voices on the ground, the local individuals who know what's going on. And so mostly they end up framing what's happening in Sudan in a way that this doesn't reflect the reality on the ground. And so one of the early challenges that we face is trying to actually explain to people what's happening in Sudan, educate the masses about what's happening in Sudan, one that there is an ongoing war that's displaced so many people that you know, the healthcare system in Sudan collapse almost entirely within a week or so, you know, and how dire the situation is. And then a very critical point in all of that was to explain that this is not a civil war, which is really how the news outlets and media outlets have been, and until today, continue, in many ways, to frame it that way. And we spoke, and we continue to speak about the dangers of talking about it as though it is a civil war. This is not a civil war. We've been, you know, making it saying this over and over again. This is a power sort of a power play between two different army generals who are going out, going into full out war, no matter the consequences, no matter the amount of suffering, the senseless suffering, just to claim, you know, the throne, if you will. So you know, that was one of the major barriers as time went on. Thankfully, we were able to secure quite a bit of, you know, following and funding, and you know, we've fund raised 10s of 1000s of dollars going into the hundreds of 1000s, and so we're in a much better place. But when you contrast that against the reality of what's. Happening in Sudan and the needs there, there's no way we are even creating a dent in the support that's actually needed, and so one of the major barriers for us has been not having enough funding to actually support the critical needs on the ground. (6:53-13:00, 6:07 in total) 

This member of the SSC continued to talk about the financial barriers that the Collective has faced. She spoke about the difficulty of sending money as their transfers are often blocked by intermediary banks. Furthermore, she emphasized the difficulty for those on the ground to withdraw funds and access the money that IS sent. The internet blackout taking place in Sudan has only exacerbated this issue. I asked her to elaborate further on the struggles ERRs have communicated to the SSC.


I can't speak to the ERRs on the ground and their experience, but some of the things that have come up that they have mentioned, you know, is the targeting of ERR members. I think only two days ago, six or seven members of ERRs in Darfur were killed by RSF, by the RSF. And you know, it's just ongoing sort of targeting. They're being targeted by both the SAF, the Sudan armed forces and RSF, the rapid support forces. And so they have to, you know, operate with a lot of care, a lot of anonymity, and at a risk to their lives, and it's a constant, ongoing thing, so it's very difficult to, you know, do what they're trying to do in the midst of such a catastrophic Time. You know, there's shortages in in water, in food. They've been explaining to us that people have started to die because of malnutrition, because of lack of access to water, clean water, lack of access to food. You know, they don't there's a very, very, very critical lack of access to medicine, essentially. So when people do come in to the, you know, to the medical units of the errs, most of the time, they can't treat them because they don't. Have the appropriate medication. (13:09-15:01, 1:51 in total)

I also asked about how the ERRs’ work aligns with the core mission of the SSC. 


Of course, they do quite a bit of advocacy on the international level, trying to gain more legitimacy and and really reflect the ongoing crisis in Sudan, and invite more listening ears so that there's international intervention in a particular way. You know that they want for the international community to be involved in this current crisis, but not at the cost of local voices, local you know, sovereignty and and, you know, the national will around. You know what should be next for the people of Sudan. And so, as we know, advocacy takes quite a bit of energy and time and requires a lot of labor, and so I know that they do quite A bit of that. 


I think it's quite critical when we talk about the SSC to say that… We don't support partisan politics. We are entirely supportive of anti war. Sorry, we are anti war and entirely supportive of peace in Sudan. You know, we continue to support the people's will for and desire for democracy, and we believe that the emergency response rooms are doing a lot of important work that can move us towards that reality in the future. Of course, you know, no network of people who are doing anything is perfect, but nevertheless, they have a lot of sort of foundational pieces that are very democratic in nature. And there's a lot that we can learn from local voices.


After speaking with this member of the SSC, I continued to think about the points she made regarding the ERRs inclusion of participatory democracy in their organization. Mudather also explained the close relationship between the ERRs and resistance committees, so I sought the insight of a development practitioner who could tell me more about the socio-political significance of these ERRs as a form of mutual aid. 

I interviewed Hamid Khalafallah, a researcher, policy analyst, and current PhD candidate at the Global Development Institute of the University of Manchester. His research concerning inclusive governance and grassroots initiatives in political processes has examined democratization efforts in Sudan. 


Khalafallah: So I haven't been directly kind of facing the, you know, research wise, facing the emergence of the Emergency Response Rooms, and how do they come out of the resistance committees, but I've been looking at, you know, the similar ways in which they conduct their, you know, quote, unquote business, and how that is similar to the model that the resistance committees have been doing, and I was also looking at it from more of a resistance committee's impact lens, and to see how that, you know, democracy from the below, bottom up, democratization kind of had, you know, a long term impact beyond the democratic transition that you know that failed basically, and how that has laid the infrastructure for either the new groups that are emerging, either out of the resistance committees or independently and adopting similar tactics, similar strategies and similar infrastructures. So, yes, I've been looking at this from from that angle, and in that sense, you know, been looking at how the Emergency Response Rooms are using mutual aid, as you know, an act of resistance in itself, as an act of political participation in itself, beyond the direct humanitarian impacts of it. 


Could you expand more on how Emergency Response Rooms, as a form of mutual aid, is an act of resistance. And kind of explain, like, the political importance both internationally and domestically of the Emergency Response Rooms and how this kind of shapes the war, the perception of the war, the impact of the war. 

Khalafallah: absolutely so the way it is an act of resistance, as I see it mutual aid, is basically the way they have been creating alternative contexts within the war, the broader war situation, where in the neighborhoods, they are operating, for instance, there is a sense of, I don't want to say normalcy, but a sense of, you know, you get to get a bit of a break from from the war, where there are people who are feeling The role of the state, who are looking after you, who are giving you a sense of, you know, a sense of possibility of a better future or a different future to what you are living right now, the way they have been organizing entertainment, you know, evenings and events, for for for for kids, for families and so on. Just to, you know, have a break, enjoy, have some fun, and so on. And I think that they're giving through, through the services that they're giving, they're giving people hope and, you know, an ability to imagine a different future, and in that sense, to resist giving into the situation, giving into the war, giving into, you know, accepting this context that is all war and fighting and killing and so on as the As the norm and so on. And giving into that, they're giving people something different, something bigger, an alternative, and that itself, kind of, you know, would keep people fighting against the war in a way, not fighting in the physical meaning, but fighting against the idea of the divisions and of the polarization that the war is, you know, inciting in so many ways. So, yeah, I think this different future, or the possibility of a different or an alternative context to what people are living now is helping them resist whatever is ongoing, and in terms of how it is also an act of political participation, and how it's very politically important is that it's also giving people agency in the way they want to receive aid, and what kind of aid do they want to receive, and how do they want to receive it, and all of that, but also the way they make the decision. So a lot of these Emergency Response Rooms form open meetings where people in the neighborhood could, you know, have an opinion, say how things should work, how things shouldn't work, and have a say. And that is basically political participation. If you keep people politically engaged in a very difficult situation like this, they would continue to be engaged in policy making in politics in the future as well as in peacemaking and envisioning a new sudan.


The role that ERRs play in the democratization efforts, how is that related to, I guess, them being a target of the war. And what do the warring parties stand to gain from continuously attacking ERRs. 


I think there are few dimensions to why, how this problematic and or to this difficult relationship, if you like, between either warring parties andthe resistance committees as the Emergency Response Rooms, because you would, you know, and usually imagine, that they would actually cooperate with them and try to co op them to get legitimacy as as as de facto governance, whether it's RSF or SAF, depending on the area and who is, who is in control of which area. However, I think A, the fact that they give people this hope and possibility to imagine something different and so on, like I said, is making people resist giving into the status quo and to give in to this context, which makes them, you know, not submit to the to the warring factions. And I think part of because the war in factions are basically there are so many narratives and so many reasons for why they're fighting. But I think essentially at the core of this, it's a power struggle, and they want to govern. And for that, they need people to submit and for people to give in, and for people to be, you know, to allow this to happen. And the existence of emergency response to these alternative state institutions, if you like, is threatens that product of making people submit. So I think that's why, one of the reasons why, either warring factions, do not want this emergency response rooms to continue operating and to continue supporting people so that they makes it easier for them to control the people and so on. The other thing is the paranoia that they both have. You know about how the other warring faction is, you know, either sending spies to get information, to monitor and to facilitate future attacks and so on. And this paranoia is, you know, gets projected, and attacks on the resistance between by assuming that people who are, you know, moving around and trying to support people and have this ability and the courage to move in such difficult areas, definitely, either pushed by one of the warring factions, or they are getting help and support to enable them to do what they're doing, and it's probably difficult for them to, you know, fathom that these are people who are actually risking their lives only to save their own people, not because they are being paid by anyone else, or that they've been pushed by by by either of the warring factions. 


Khalafallah really emphasized the contrast between the mutual aid of the ERRs and the work of international humanitarian aid agencies.


I think the way they operate, like I said, the way they are very it's a very participatory process and process by the community, from the community to the community where they're consulted, they're part of it, and so on. And this element of humanizing aid recipients, giving them agency as aid recipients and so on, is something that none of the humanitarian agencies do, and that is one of the ways that they challenge these, you know, systems and so on. The other thing is also the way they deal with accountability. Basically, international aid agencies want you to write a report and send it to them and be accountable to them. Meanwhile, the Emergency Response Rooms have been resisting that and suggesting that they are accountable to their communities first and foremost. So this is what they cared about. They care that the community knows how much money came in, how much money was spent on ABC, and for them also to be happy. About spending money on ABC and so on. And then maybe donors can get notified of what happened and so on. The priority is not to update, you know, or keep them or satisfy their monitoring and evaluation and accountability kind of requirements, and which is, I think so much more humanitarian, if you think about it, that the accountability should be to the communities rather than to those providing the funding and so on. I think also this shift in terms of accountability that is more geared towards communities, rather than peer to, you know, donors something that they challenged the current aid mechanisms and so on. Also, I think, in terms of impact and influence, it has proven how people with very little resources, with close to no training in terms of humanitarian relief in conflict settings and so on, and no prior experience have been much more both effective and efficient than aid agencies with multi million budgets and big logistics teams and big security teams and big administration teams and so on, how very little resources have been so much more effective and impactful. And I think that also question the entire aid system and how it consumes so much money that may have a very little impact, in comparison with the resistance committees 

The international community, international aid agencies and so on, keep on kind of romanticizing this idea of mutual aid, and how the Sudanese have stood up, you know, and have been at the forefront of the humanitarian aid and so on, and how they are doing this amazing work and so on. And we should do. What we should do is, you know, we should reform the aid system and reform the humanitarian response by providing more funding to them and lifting, you know, a lot of the conditions and so on. And they say it as an aspirational thing, something that they they hope to do, they aspire to do, and so on, not like it is them who are able to do it. It's you can do it. It's not it's not an aspirational thing that it's not like I want to walk on the moon, on the moon or anything. It's something that is doable, so that that you know that narrative and that language needs to change 


As we wrap up this episode, it's clear that there's a lot to learn from the Emergency Response Rooms. Their unconventional mutual aid efforts challenge the traditional international aid paradigm, and their continued resistance provides a beacon of hope for a stable Sudan.

Listeners, I highly urge you to look into the work of the Sudan Solidarity Collective and consider contributing to their fundraising efforts. As the humanitarian crisis worsens, many ERRs are ceasing their services. Supporting the SSC is one means of ensuring the ongoing operations of the ERRs that remain.

And finally, a heartfelt thank you to everyone I interviewed for making this episode possible. And thank you, listeners, for tuning in.