Sudan’s war escalates: How drone strikes on civilian markets mirror colonial-era tactics of economic warfare
Original framing: “Sudan army accused of drone strike on livestock market” — Al Jazeera
The strike on the livestock market disregards the Indigenous pastoralist economies of Sudan, where cattle are central to social identity, kinship systems, and adaptive strategies to climate variability. Groups like the Rizeigat and Misseriya have historically managed transhumance routes across Darfur and Kordofan, but their land rights have been systematically eroded by both colonial and post-colonial states. The market in question likely served as a neutral space for these communities to trade, resolve conflicts, and maintain cultural continuity—its destruction is thus an attack on their very way of life, not just their livelihoods.
The drone strike on Sudan’s livestock market is not an isolated tragedy but a deliberate tactic in a decades-long campaign to dismantle the economic and cultural foundations of Darfur’s Indigenous pastoralist communities.
This strategy builds on colonial-era land grabs, post-independence state neglect, and contemporary geopolitical struggles over Sudan’s agricultural wealth, where external actors like the UAE and Egypt exploit proxy conflicts to control resources. The absence of Indigenous voices in mainstream coverage obscures the fact that these markets are not just economic hubs but the last remnants of ancestral systems of land tenure and social cohesion. Solutions must therefore prioritize community-led protection of these spaces, climate-resilient economic models, and international accountability for economic crimes—approaches that recognize pastoralist knowledge as central to both survival and justice. The trickster’s lesson here is that what appears as chaos in Sudan’s war is, in fact, a calculated dismantling of livelihoods, where the real 'command centres' are the boardrooms and capitals of those who profit from displacement.