To the mothers of September martyrs... Guns would never silence justice

To the mothers who survived the bitterness of a missed son/ daughter.

Dear mothers of September martyrs (1),

A year has gone since you missed you beloved sons & daughters, A year of bitterness and grieve, recalling the memories of hearing the news about your kids got shot or been missing. A year since the day you kept rushing between hospitals and police stations, to rescue them, to file a murder case or to get a death certificate.

The streets were freed but later occupied; freed by the power of the grieved and the togetherness of the peaceful Sudanese people chanting for peace and justice. Though it was few hours before it got occupied by guns, greed and soldiers who don’t reconsider pressing a pistol button against a chanting child; the blood stains the roads, darkened the sand on the sidewalk and occupied the memories of the revolutionaries as well as the criminals.

Since last year; you might not been able to sleep as before, every night at bed you recall the bargains over your kid dead body with the security officials after they denied you getting a death certificate, kidnapped the dead body and kept sending you between hospitals and morgues but allowed you to see the rotting corpse of your beloved. The killers also couldn’t sleep, not since last year but since they stopped being humans, since they became terrified of a teenager with a free soul.

You are strong, knowing your kid murderer walking around freely in the neighborhood, spending the holidays with their families; mothers and kids and not committing revenge.

Be proud, and never say “my kid was not a protestor”. Your kids were protestors with no arms but the freedom slogans, with no power but the legitimate demands of living in dignity. They were peaceful protestors and not Jihadists. Although the government propaganda tend to demonize peaceful protests and label protestors as thieves, homeless and members of armed rebel groups who tend to create a generalized status of insecurity and destroy public property and contrary they advocate for terrorism under the name of Jihad, for killing our own fellow citizens in the name of religion. They call protestors thieves, while they have been stealing the nation’s wealth for a quarter of century. They spoke about generalized status of insecurity even though they are driving two thirds of the population into an endless civil war, never mentioning tribalism and class divisions. They are spending over 70% of the state annual budget on intelligence, security police and army to kill our own kids and let us die in poverty, oppression and anger.

Let your heart guide you. Life would never be the same but it keeps going. Justice might not be achieved but it would never die. You have been threatened not to speak out. They might have came to the funeral shoot live ammunition on air threatened you and the mourners. You might not be able to proceed with your legal case, yet disappointed with seeing Sara Abdel Bagi (2) killer being set free although 11 people witnessed him shooting her. The master would never punish his guards for keeping him safe, but someday the master will be punished. Till that day, cry, scream and let the whole world knows about you and not to forget your kids.

You are not alone. Hundreds of thousand mothers have lost their children in aerial bombardments and villages burning in war zones, in peaceful protest, and inside the university campus. Many have sent their kids to get an education but they received a deadly bullet. You might not hear about the mother of Alsadig. She worked for 4 years and all the residents of Kalma IDP camp in Darfur were collecting donations to offer him a one way ticket to Khartoum and a bus ticket to Algazeera to attend the university, 4 years of hard work to save around 100 USD. Alsadig shot dead in Dec 2012 before completing his 4th semester and his body were thrown in a water stream because he protested demanding his right to be exempted from the tuition fees.

Resist. Be the change that your kids died for. Your kids didn’t want you to live in anger, to be powerless and to think they died for nothing. Follow their steps, allow your heart to guide and turn all the pain into actions. Say no to war, no to economic hardship and impoverishment, no to the oppression of freedoms and no to the impunity.

In Solidarity,

A mourner,

1. On September 2013, the government of Sudan lifted basic food items and fuel subsidies. People took the streets in mass demonstrations in Khartoum and other cities. On Wed 25th September; over 300 persons (mostly high school students and youth) were shot dead in less than 24 hrs in Khartoum only. Limited information from the other cities is available and there are many more families in Khartoum peripheries are refusing to speak out the death of their children as they have been threatened and other lost faith in attaining justice.


2. Sara Abdel Bagi was shot dead in September 2013 and her family were able to proceed with her case and take the security officer who shot her to the court. The court found him not guilty in June 2014.