Sudan: The Rise of an Islamic Caliphate-Podcast and Interview

 

Rebels of the Sudan Liberation Movement Army led by Abdul Wahid, North Darfur, February 2015

Source: Adriane Ohanesian, New Yorker

 

Israel News Talk Radio – Beyond the Matrix aired a program December 6, 2016 – Sudan: Rise of an Islamic Caliphate with guest, New English Review (NER) senior editor, Jerry Gordon, with Hosts Ira Michaelson in Jerusalem and Rod  Bryant in Houston, Texas. The program airs weekly each Tuesday.

LISTEN to the podcast.   Here is a comment on the broadcast from a European listener:

Wonderful explanation of the situation in Sudan, which very few people follow because they all think that it is an internal African problem. You really did your research.

 The program presented the background and findings from a December NER article, SITREP: Could Sudan be the Cornerstone of the Caliphate in Africa? co-authored by Lt. Gen. Abakar M. Abdallah, Chairman of the Sudan United Movement (SUM), Jerry Gordon and Deborah Martin.   Dr. Walid Phares, Middle East Affairs advisor to President- elect Trump speaking with Nuba émigrés in Washington just after the Presidential election identified this threat.  Eric Reeves of Amnesty International in a Sudan Tribune article, November 15, 2016 wrote:

Phares said America under the leadership of Donald Trump would not tolerate what he called abuses practiced by the Khartoum government against its own citizens. Furthermore, he added that there is no reason why the United States and its European allies should lift the economic sanctions on Bashir’s regime established in 1997 in light of the continued violations in Sudan. Moreover, Phares indicated that they will work with the international community during the first hundred days to end the crisis in Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan.

President Bashir of Sudan was hoping that Hillary Clinton might have won the election as US President, but was upended by Trump’s electoral victory.  The problem that the incoming Trump Administration faces is that President Bashir is mobilizing an enormous Jihad army poised to perpetrate the final destruction of resistance forces in both the Darfur and South Kordofan regions of the Sudan. The fighting season in the Sudan has begun. Bashir and his National Congress Party (NCP)-led government have already unleashed attacks on November 24, 2016 in the Nuba region of South Kordofan, a prelude to conquering the area.

The NER article noted the nefarious agenda of indicted war criminal, Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir:

 …to cleanse Darfur  in Western Sudan and the Nuba Mountain regions of African tribes for resettlement by the families of the Orwellian-named “Peace Force,” formerly the Janjaweed, composed of foreign mercenaries, and then to exploit precious metals resources in the Nuba Mountains and Jebel Amir gold mines in North Darfur. The Khartoum regime ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Darfurians in the Jebel Marra region was described in detail by Gen. Abdallah in our November 2016 New English Review interview with him, “Only Regime Change Can Stop Sudan’s Genocide.” The corrupt Islamist regime of indicted war criminal President Omar Bashir is seeking, with Arab countries financing and support, to create a massive Jihad army. He will soon launch a campaign to create by armed force a Caliphate across sub Sahara Africa ruled under Islamic Sharia law.

The Israel News Talk Radio – Beyond the Matrix discussion addressed the switch of allegiances from the decades long relationship between Khartoum and terrorism sponsor Tehran to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Gulf Emirates. The latter are involved in the war against the Houthi Shia rebels in Yemen, who Bashir had previously supported. That switch was funded by billions of dollars from Saudi Arabia including military grants of $5 billion dollars to support the more than 6,000 Sudan troops who are the boots on the ground in Yemen. Then there were several billions from Saudi Arabia underwriting joint projects exploiting the vast mineral deposits in the Red Sea, as well as the gold reserves in both Darfur and the Nuba Mountains.

We also raised the questionable position of the Obama Administration towards the Bashir regime. We noted the irony of the Administration seeking counterterrorism intelligence from the very regime sponsoring state terrorism training and support in the region. There were the questionable attempts by US Special Envoy Donald Booth entreating Darfurian resistance groups to engage in peace discussions with Bashir.  That was dismissed by Abdul Wahid, the exiled leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement Army.

The discussion also drew attention to the history of Islamic Caliphates in Sudan with the rise in the 1880’s of the charismatic Mahdi uniting over 128 Sufi sects and the joint Egyptian British campaign, chronicled by young Sir Winston Churchill in The River War: An Account of the Reconquest of Sudan. It culminated in the defeat of the Mahdi’s forces at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898. We noted the parallels between the Mahdi and Bashir, both calling for war against the kuffar, infidels, and the Abiid, black skinned African considered slaves. 

General Abdel Azziz Adam el Hillu, commander of the forces of the SPLA- North in the Nuba Mountains

“President Obama: This is like the Rwanda Genocide”

Interview with Deborah Martin on the Nuba Genocide Campaign

In preparation for the broadcast, Gordon interviewed co-author Deborah Martin about her more than 35-year background in Sudan.  She speaks about the previous genocidal campaign in 2012 and current situation in the Nuba Mountains with the launch of a land war campaign by President Bashir’s 25,000 men Peace Force.

Gordon:  How did you get involved in Sudan and meet the leaders of the resistance?
Martin:    I am a linguist having worked on Sudanese languages since 1981. I met leaders of the resistance during that work.  Some of those include: H.E. Salva Kiir Mayardit,  the current president of South Sudan, the late  Dr. John Garang, former President of  South Sudan and First Vice- President of the Republic of the Sudan, as well as Malik Agar, Chairman and Commander in Chief and General Abdel Azziz Adam el Hillu, Vice Chairman and Commander both of the forces of the SPLA- North in the Nuba Mountains.
Gordon: Where are the Nuba Mountains located in the Sudan and who are its people?
Martin: The Nuba Mountains are located in the South Central section of Sudan. There are 99 tribes in Nuba, all with different languages.
Gordon:  Why is Sudan continually seeking to be the Caliphate in Africa?
Martin:  In 1881 a man who called himself the Mahdi united 128 Sufi sects of Islam and declared Sharia Law in the whole country of Sudan.  He had a prophecy that he had been given the authority by Allah to unite the world under Islam. He declared this world-wide Caliphate would come out of Sudan. This push continues today.
Gordon: When did Sudan’s President Omar al- Bashir seize power and why was he indicted as a war criminal by the International Criminal Court?
Martin:  Bashir seized power by military coup on June 30, 1989. He instituted Sharia Law calling for cleansing of the land of all Kuffar– non believers – and all Abiid (black – skinned people or slaves). The Criminal Court indicted him due to the genocide he ordered against the Abiid in Darfur. He has still not been brought to justice. Bashir spoke in al Fasher in the spring of 2016 declaring he will finish the cleansing of the Abiid or institute laws like Mauritania making any left to be slaves.  More than 2 million African tribal people have been killed in the decades long genocide in Sudan.
Gordon:  How big is the renamed Peace Force he has mobilized to push the final genocide of Nubans?
Martin: That force of 25,000 troops is made up of international mujahedeen mostly from Syria. Many of these are ISIS fighters who were in the 16 training camps around Khartoum. before being deployed to Syria. Now they have returned to fight with Bashir. 
Gordon: Why did Bashir fail to complete genocide in 2012 against Nubans?
Martin: Because he only used aerial bombardment. The Nuba people fled into the rocks for safety and lived.  Now the Peace Force is coming on foot and in trucks to finish the job in the rocks. They began on November 24, 2016.  The SPLA-N has so far stood their ground against them. The question remains will the Sudan Peace Force overwhelm them?
Gordon:  Who are the Nuban resistance?
Martin:   The main thing to remember is that the SPLA-N are regular people. They are the dairy farmers and peanut farmers, professors and engineers who have taken up arms to fight for their country and their land. Which has now been invaded by a force of foreign mujahedeen paid by a Fulani President elected by a Muslim/Arab only parliament.
Gordon: Why is the UN not protecting Nubans?
Martin:  The UN recognizes Bashir as the sovereign head of the country and Bashir has declared these people to be rebels or insurgents. This push into the Nuba Mountains has been reported to be only the beginning of a push into Darfur, then Chad with the force of 150,000 recruits coming together now in Darfur. Bashir must be stopped at all points. However, no media is reporting this push. The plan includes having the genocide finished before President Trump’s first hundred days in office.  As Trump’s adviser Dr. Phares has pointed out, do we want an ISIS style Caliphate in Africa?