The World’s Shameful Neglect of Sudan

The warnings from Sudan grow ever more dire. Already the damage done is hard to comprehend; over nine million people displaced, an unknown number—clearly at least tens of thousands—killed. The capital city of Khartoum and its sister city Omdurman are in ruins. Famine has already arrived in parts of the country and is expected to worsen, risking millions of lives. The destruction of medical infrastructure increases the chances that acute malnutrition will be a death sentence. Mass atrocities, including torture, sexual violence, and ethnic cleansing have been documented and reported on, with the potential for even worse violence hovering over El-Fasher, the only safe haven that remained in the Darfur region. 

And yet, the world seems unable—or unwilling—to stop the horror unfolding. Sudan’s suffering is simply more proof that the international mechanisms designed to address threats to peace and security are dysfunctional, that basic norms around humanitarian access and civilian protection have eroded to near oblivion, and that the shame and notoriety that should accompany support for senseless destruction elude far too many decision-makers. It makes plain that none of the world’s major powers have an appetite for stopping state collapse or genocide—and some, like Russia with its pursuit of a Red Sea port, seek to gain from it. 

Of course, the consequences of the war in Sudan will not be contained within its borders. The conflict will only make bad situations in South Sudan and Chad all the more precarious. It has already re-empowered extremists who were on the back foot after the democratic uprising. Thus far, the world’s anemic response has signaled to transactional actors like the United Arab Emirates, who are willing to pay for influence and bankroll the destruction, that they simply need to stay the course to achieve their aims. It will be a lesson those same actors are sure to apply elsewhere, regardless of the costs to others. 

Sudan is not hopeless; no one who paid attention to the determination, bravery, and integrity of the country’s pro-democracy movement, ascendant not so long ago, could come to such a conclusion. Many of the Sudanese civilians who were part of that effort continue to be of service to their countrymen and women in unimaginable conditions. But the destruction of so many lives, of the economy and the country’s infrastructure, will require a long and costly recovery. It is difficult to read, or write, warning after warning about how bad the situation is to such little effect. The alarm bells are becoming something more like a funeral dirge.