Saudi Arabia’s use of the narrative that Ansar Allah is targeting Mecca is not new. It was used repeatedly throughout the years of the Saudi-led war on Yemen. But perhaps one of the clearest indications of how this narrative was used emerged when Ansar Allah captured Sudanese soldiers fighting on the Saudi side. In this Al Masirah report, a Sudanese sergeant captured in 2018 on the Jizan front, along the Saudi-Yemeni border, describes how Sudanese soldiers were prepared for the war. According to his testimony, Sudanese military morale officers told them that Ansar Allah wanted to target Mecca and Medina, insulted Islamic symbols, and sought to destroy the holy sites. They were given a religious justification for the war to make them believe they were fighting to protect Islam and the holy places, alongside the financial incentives offered to them. These Sudanese troops were then deployed to some of the most dangerous fronts in Yemen. Thousands of Sudanese fighters took part in the Saudi- and UAE-led coalition’s war, including on the western coast around Mokha, Khokha, Tuhayta, Durayhimi and southern Hodeidah, as well as in Midi, Haradh and along the Saudi-Yemeni border. On the border, Sudanese troops were reportedly placed on the front lines while Saudi forces remained behind them. Accounts published during the war described Sudanese fighters being used in exposed frontline positions and, in some cases, as a buffer protecting Saudi forces. There are also numerous videos and testimonies from captured Sudanese soldiers describing how they were pushed into battles, how they were prevented from withdrawing, and how those who attempted to leave were threatened. But what is perhaps most striking in these testimonies is what happened after some of them were captured. Some Sudanese prisoners described being shocked by the reality they encountered after surrendering to Ansar Allah. The people they had been told they were going to fight as enemies, they said, treated them with food, water, dignity and basic human decency. For some of these prisoners, the experience reportedly contrasted sharply with what they had experienced from the Saudi side and from the Yemeni forces allied with the coalition alongside whom they had been sent to fight. That contrast matters. Because if soldiers are told they are going to war to defend Islam, Mecca and Medina from people who supposedly hate Muslims, only to encounter a completely different reality when they are captured, it raises a serious question about the narratives they were fed before being sent to the battlefield. The tragedy of the Sudanese soldiers who were killed, wounded or captured in Yemen is therefore much larger than a military statistic. Thousands were sent into a war far from their homeland, many of them recruited under conditions of poverty, financial pressure and religious messaging. Responsibility for that tragedy does not fall on the soldiers alone. It lies with the governments and powers that recruited, deployed and sustained them..including the Sudanese government, the Saudi-UAE coalition, and the foreign powers that supported the war. That is why the return of the “protecting Mecca” narrative today should not simply be dismissed as another political slogan. It was used before. And given how it was reportedly used to mobilize Sudanese soldiers, its reappearance raises the question of whether the same narrative is once again being prepared to attract Muslim fighters to another war. I will post more videos and testimonies from Sudanese soldiers in the comments, so people can hear their experiences in their own words.