The Popular Resistance… When the People Decided to Become an Army

Mustafa Bashir Issa
The popular resistance was not a fleeting episode in the course of this war, nor merely a spontaneous response to a call for mobilisation. Rather, it was the clearest expression of a decisive historical moment in which the Sudanese people resolved to transform themselves from passive victims of aggression into active partners in repelling it and shaping victory.
The militia believed it could subdue cities through terror and break the will of the people by committing horrific violations that touched every aspect of life: honour was violated, civilians were terrorised, families were torn apart, women were widowed, innocents were killed, homes were occupied, infrastructure was destroyed. It left no wound unopened in the body of the nation. Yet it failed to realise that, in doing so, it was awakening a latent force within the people — and that pain, when it reaches its limits, can become an indomitable will to resist.
From the heart of that suffering emerged the popular resistance. Young men came out from neighbourhoods, villages, markets and universities; some returned from abroad. They carried one conviction: there is no place for an armed militia in the conscience of these people. Thus, an unprecedented national alignment took shape — one forged not by political parties or official statements, but by the tears of mothers, the endurance of the displaced, and the dignity of a nation meant to break but that refused to break except to prevail.
The moral impact of the popular resistance far exceeded any numerical reinforcement on the battlefield. It sent a clear message to the army: the people stand behind you, and this is not merely the battle of a military institution, but of an entire nation. This harmony between the army and the popular will marked a major turning point, as public determination met military capability, turning the desire for liberation into tangible gains on the ground.
Meanwhile, the militia began to lose its balance. Military weakness became evident, leadership confusion apparent, and exhaustion visible in its ranks. It was no longer the force relying on shock and fear, but a collection of fragmented groups searching for an exit. Increasing surrenders, particularly along the Kordofan axis, are but signs of a widening fragility and a growing conviction even within their own ranks that the battle is lost.
The army paid little heed to the conjectures of the militia’s supporters, nor to calls from certain states to halt the war or impose a ceasefire that does not reflect domestic realities. People who have endured displacement, hunger and fear for so long are in no mood to accept half-measures or the recycling of crisis. The choice has been made: a decisive victory that uproots rebellion at its source, not a settlement that leaves the seeds of disorder intact.
The realities on the ground are clear to any fair observer: the army advances steadily; the militia retreats in disarray; the popular resistance strengthens morale and fills gaps; and national alignment grows more resolute. It is a moment in which the unity of will between the people and their army appears in a form rarely witnessed in the history of nations.
This battle will not drag on as some predict, because the decisive element is no longer purely military; it has become moral and ethical. When an adversary loses legitimacy in the conscience of the people and falls from their reckoning, its true defeat begins. Today, there is no place for this militia in the Sudanese conscience, nor any opportunity for it to re-embed itself in a nation that has rejected it.
It is a battle of dignity before it is a battle of arms, a battle of will before it is a battle of positions.
Victory is no longer a distant promise; it is visible in the steadfastness of the people, in the advance of the army, and in the collapse of a militia left with nothing but the noise of its supporters.
And a people who decide to become an army… cannot be defeated.

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