With April in the vicinity, the second anniversary of the start of the civil war in Sudan looms nearer. It is considered to be the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world today, yet the world’s media has largely turned its back on it as has the global community.
Nesrine Malik writing in The Guardian on 13th January pointed out that: “A war in a poor country like Sudan cannot continue with such intensity based purely on the weapons and finances of the domestic players. Wars in such countries go on and on because outsiders fund them, while others turn a blind eye.”
Allegations against the RSF
Malik also noted that the disastrous falling out between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has caused the country to unravel, with millions being displaced, sexual violence taking place on a scale which the United Nations has described as ‘staggering’, while “famine is blighting hundreds of thousands.”
The previous week, it was reported by Sky that in a statement sharing the designation, US secretary of state Antony Blinken had said that the RSF and its aligned militias had “systematically murdered men and boys – even infants – on an ethnic basis” and furthermore had “deliberately targeted women and girls from certain ethnic groups for rape and other forms of brutal sexual violence.”
It was also reported that Blinken had announced that Washington would “impose sanctions on RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo and seven RSF-owned companies located in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)” and that the UAE is “credibly accused of backing and arming the RSF – something it has strenuously denied.”
It was also reported that “when reached for comment by Reuters, the RSF rejected these measures and said: ‘America previously punished the great African freedom fighter Nelson Mandela, which was wrong.” Quite how Nelson Mandela’s actions and tactics can be in any way equated with the actions of the RSF is something which doesn’t seem to have been commented upon.
Allegations against the SAF
Meanwhile Amnesty International have been very critical of the forces on the other side, with Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, Tigere Chagutah, responding to reports that Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) killed dozens in an air strike on a crowded market in the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) controlled town of Kabkabiya in North Darfur by saying: “Bombing a market full of civilians is one of the clearest examples of a war crime that exists. The potential presence of soldiers in an area cannot in any way be used as justification. Bombing a market full of civilians is one of the clearest examples of a war crime that exists.”
“Reports received by Amnesty International, including from witnesses in Kabkabiya, indicate military aircraft bombed Kabkabiya’s weekly market on 9 December, when the area was packed with civilians, killing dozens. Fifteen of the dead were displaced civilians who had previously fled to Kabkabiya to escape attacks elsewhere, according to a representative of displaced people in Darfur. SAF and RSF and all other parties to Sudan’s conflict must immediately end all attacks on civilians. All those suspected of criminal responsibility for this attack and all others against civilians in Sudan should be brought to justice in fair trials.”
Lack of media coverage and international interest
Part of the problem is simply that there aren’t enough journalists covering what is, after all, a very dangerous situation. As Northeast-based Sudanese activist Isra Mohammad put it when I spoke to her in November last year: “There are now only one or two British journalists in Sudan. Consequently, there is a lot of missing information we don’t know the logistics of what is happening and if nothing is done there are going to be devastating results, and we need to get aid in and there needs to be a ceasefire.” Despite the lack of information there can be no doubt that there is immense suffering in Sudan at the moment.
When I asked Isra about the latest news from Sudan, including United States sanctions on the RSF, she said:
“The delayed acknowledgment by the Biden administration reflects the trend of the ignorance and neglect towards African countries usually due to the lack of geopolitical and economical interest. Sudan is one of those countries which is allowed for its crisis to remain under the radar.”
“At the moment the international community has failed to act on the ongoing crisis in Sudan, this reinforced the pattern of neglect for African conflicts. This draws into question the credibility of international law and human rights. The international community has failed to prioritise the current genocide in Sudan setting the precedent that lives of civilians in Sudan and other marginalised regions are devalued.”
“The situation in Sudan demands urgent global attention- for immediate humanitarian aid and most importantly a political resolution ensuring accountability for war crimes and international efforts to restore peace.”
The international community
Despite all the suffering, there is no sense that the international community is really interested in what is happening in what is the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world today. This forgotten crisis is unable to compete with other international issues, is not getting the media attention other crises are and is not high on the agendas of leaders around the world.
This is surely a highly regrettable situation. As Nesrine Malik writes in the Guardian:
“As the months pass and the war grinds on, the fear is that Sudan is being simply written off, the colossal crimes perpetrated against its people reduced to not even background noise, with just the occasional exculpating spasm of condemnation or scolding of fighting forces on behalf of global powers. But the price will be very high; so high, not just for the Sudanese, but for a world that cannot afford for another conflict just to carry on, drawing in more proxies, and bleeding into a growing pool of death, displacement and devastation that will be impossible to contain.”
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