The late King Faisal of Saudi Arabia addressed the Yemen crisis during a reception in Mecca on March 17, 1967, attended by representatives from Muslim countries who had come for the Hajj. He stated, "With my Lord and you as witnesses, I declare that we are not pleased with what is happening in Yemen. We have no interest in the continuation of this problem. Blood of brothers, relatives, and friends is being shed in Yemen. The Yemenis being killed are ours, and so are the Egyptians. We feel only love and sincerity towards our Egyptian brothers. I pray to my Lord for a resolution to this problem. Let us and our Egyptian brothers withdraw from Yemen. Let our Yemeni brothers handle their own affairs. I swear that we will not interfere in Yemen's internal matters. I did not want to bring this up here, but I wanted to make our stance clear to all of you."
King Faisal was referring to the violent civil war that erupted after Egypt staged a military coup to overthrow Yemen's legitimate government in 1962. When the Egyptian army landed in Yemen, Saudi Arabia felt compelled to intervene, effectively dividing the country into north and south. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who sent tens of thousands of troops to Yemen, hoped to expand his influence in the Middle East by pressuring Saudi Arabia from the south. However, a surprising and unfortunate development just three months after King Faisal's speech would bring an end to the war in Yemen: the Six-Day War, which took place from June 5-11, 1967. During this conflict, Israel occupied the most strategic regions of neighboring Arab countries. Israel seized the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria, and the Shebaa Farms from Lebanon, expanding its borders by 3.5 times in just six days. Following this devastating defeat by Israel, Egypt was forced to withdraw from Yemen, thereby ending the proxy war fought by two Muslim countries on the territory of a third Muslim country, leaving 200,000 dead in its wake.
Today, while Israel's genocide in Gaza continues for nine months, another massacre is taking place in a remote corner of the Islamic world: the civil war in Sudan. Similar to the Yemeni civil war from 1962 to 1970, this is a terrible tragedy where the warring parties, the victims, and the killers are all Muslims, with external Muslim forces supporting the conflicting sides.
Unfortunately, the course of events is all too familiar:
The military government that came to power after the overthrow of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on April 11, 2019, eventually turned on itself. The tension between forces loyal to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who holds the presidency, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) controlled by former camel trader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemeti), has escalated into a full-scale civil war since last April. The central government, backed by Egypt, claims that the RSF receives financial and military aid from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
According to international organizations, at least 2 million people have fled to neighboring countries due to intense fighting in Sudan, with around 8 million internally displaced. These people, living in primitive conditions under makeshift tents, lack basic necessities such as food and clean water. It is predicted that deaths from starvation will begin by September. Frequent bloody raids on refugee camps by the RSF have resulted in hundreds of deaths, while forces loyal to the central government are reportedly losing ground. There is hardly a day without death-related news from Sudan.
We often interpret the recent history and current landscape of the Islamic world through the lens of foreign invasions. However, civil wars are among the factors that deplete our strength the most. And these civil wars, unfortunately, ensure the continuation of foreign invasions.
