Sudan's brutal civil war is entering a devastating second year, with no end in sight to one of the world's most devastating humanitarian disasters. The crisis is largely overshadowed by other conflicts, including Israel's war in Gaza, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and anarchy in Haiti. But conflict fatigue and compassion fatigue should not replace indifference. Sustained high-level diplomacy, led by the United States, is urgently needed or the Sudanese people will be once again exposed to needless suffering, including the ongoing genocide in Darfur.
It's not easy, and there's no quick fix. Previous diplomatic efforts to end the crisis have failed, largely because external actors supporting the opposition pursued their own narrow interests. It must end. New peace talks, led by the US and Saudi Arabia, are expected to resume soon in Jeddah. The talks should include all major participants: Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the Central African Republic, the African Union, and the East African and Horn countries. Ultimately, both countries will need to coordinate and put pressure on Sudan's two warring parties to join.
Fighting broke out on April 15 last year between two Sudanese generals embroiled in a power struggle. They are General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces, and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedi, who commands the Rapid Support militia. Force, or RSF.
Generals Burhan and Hemedi were once allies after they jointly staged a coup in 2021 that disrupted Sudan's fragile transition to democratic rule. However, the two sides were at odds over the implementation of an internationally supported framework agreement that would have incorporated the RSF into the regular army. The two men saw the deal, backed by the United States and Western powers, as weakening their power and launched devastating retaliatory shelling across the capital, Khartoum. The fighting quickly spread across the vast country and, after a series of early RSF victories, now appears to have reached a stalemate. Sudan's military reportedly benefited from Iranian drones.
More than 8 million people have been forced to flee their homes, making Sudan the world's largest internal displacement crisis. At least 15,000 people are reported dead, but international aid agencies and others say this is a gross underestimate. There were reports of bodies being left uncollected on the streets in some towns. According to a United Nations report, approximately 18 million people are in urgent need of food aid and millions more are at risk of starvation.
Fears of a repeat of genocide in the Darfur region have become a grim reality. A detailed new report by the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights describes how the RSF, a modern-day offshoot of the Arab tribal militia Janjaweed, used organized ethnic violence against black Masalits and other non-Arabs in the early 2000s. He offers a chilling explanation of how the cleansing process has been carried out. Tribes of Darfur.
The report states that between April 24 and June 17, 2023, RSF militias besieged the city of El Geneina, attacked and set fire to the Masalit refugee camp, and carried out mass executions of Masalit men and boys. It explains the circumstances surrounding the round-up of the suspects. Masarit women were subject to rape, sexual slavery, and other gender-based violence. Some Masalit women tried to save the boy by dressing him in women's clothes.
Editorial board opinions that follow this author
The report names multiple state actors complicit in the genocide. According to the report, the biggest responsibility lies with the UAE, which funds the RSF through a series of front companies and supplies it with weapons, drones and ammunition on almost daily cargo flights through Chad. “The UAE's complicity is further accentuated by its efforts to cover up RSF atrocities by implying involvement in the peace process while covertly inciting violence.” Chad, Libya, the Central African Republic and Russia, which is controlled by the Wagner Group mercenaries, have also been named as co-conspirators.
A world committed to “never again” allowing ethnically-based genocide to continue unchecked has a collective obligation under the Genocide Convention to end the violence in Sudan and hold perpetrators accountable. . State donors need a strong reminder that they, too, may be held accountable unless they show a renewed willingness to end their support and bring their clients to the peace table.
Ultimately, Sudan needs a path back to democratic civilian rule. That was the promise of the 2019 revolution that led to the ouster of 30-year dictator Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Given the ongoing destruction and misery, that seems a long way off. But without it there can be no lasting solution.