The despicable acts of violence in Sudan being carried out by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are undoubtedly ethnically motivated massacres, with their victims belonging to non-Arab communities and the Massalit people. The vile crimes against civilians are unleashed by both the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). These horrors have been documented in a United Nations report called A War of Atrocities, which provides an exhaustive list of international law violations being committed within the besieged Sudan.
The two major groups causing this large-scale catastrophe are actively backed by foreign countries benefiting from controlling the natural resources in the land, at the cost of human life. The deluge of weapons at the disposal of both groups causes suffering for none other than innocent civilians caught in the crossfire of foreign strategic interests arming domestic war criminals.
The crisis in Sudan, which took root as a civil war back in April 2023, showed a ghastly neglect for the poor people of a poor country. However, ironically, their misfortune came from the very fact that the land they inhabit is rich in vast mineral deposits that are the primary target of foreign powers responsible for sending arms to these violent groups in the region.
The RSF, 18 months before their El-Fasher takeover, started constructing a large earthen wall called a “berm”, about 57 kilometres long, to trap civilians inside the boundary. They aimed to take control of humanitarian aid and food supplies entering the city, therefore depriving the citizens of livable conditions and instituting unimaginable barbarity on them. The Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) published a research paper declaring berms as kill boxes for the civilians of North Darfur.
The RSF seized the city of el-Fasher two weeks ago in late October. Since then, the residents have seen unending torture and death at the hands of these ruthless militias. The Sudan Doctors Network provided information on several rapes of women by the RSF within the first week of their takeover. The increase in sexual violence and other crimes against humanity in El-Fasher was documented by Doctors Without Borders as well. The HRL also reported scenes of immense fright visible from space in the besieged el-Fasher since the RSF moved in: land covered in red by dead bodies of mutilated citizens.
The suffering of Gazans, Congolese, Sudanese, and other victims of current wars all falls under the same umbrella of conflicts that are being observed globally, followed by empty words of flak, and ultimately a return to routine as usual
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the ongoing food shortage has been exacerbated, with 25 million people currently living in acute food insecurity in Sudan, because starvation is being used as a weapon of war. Out of these, 8.5 million people are at emergency levels. The civil war has also resulted in mass displacement of nearly 13 million people.
Even though Sudan has suffered from climate disasters, the current atrocities are solely due to violent militias operating within the country. Similarly, according to UNICEF, Sudan has also seen the world’s largest child displacement crisis, while showing the highest rates of malnutrition in children, as well as horrendous crimes being committed against children as young as one year old.
Multiple human rights organisations have declared the events taking place in Sudan as the world’s largest humanitarian crisis with no end in sight. Estimates of the number of people brutally killed by the perpetrators of war crimes exceed 150,000. This abominable state of normalcy over the past two years has been widely condemned. Yet, there is no resolution or potent international backlash against the United Arab Emirates — the major power funding the militias’ weapons and ammunition — to enforce an absolute arms embargo on the RSF. In 2024, Amnesty International rightfully called out the international community’s response to this preventable conflict as “woefully inadequate” — a status quo that has since stubbornly persisted.
The desensitisation of the global community has been appalling, to put it lightly. With multiple countries carrying out or aiding genocides and massacres, hiding behind their influence in the world, the new global order appears more bleak by the day. We see little to no sanctions on any of the active participants in these war crimes and crimes against humanity. Interest-based foreign policy is openly preferred over a values-based one, with no regard for the sanctity of human life.
The suffering of Gazans, Congolese, Sudanese, and other victims of current wars all falls under the same umbrella of conflicts that are being observed globally, followed by empty words of flak, and ultimately a return to routine as usual.
Frederick Douglass, exemplary orator and abolitionist, said in his 1857 speech, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will.” This timely statement applies just as strongly today. All of us in the audience may deem ourselves helpless spectators of these atrocities. The important distinction here, however, is that we merely perceive it as such.
If we, the people, create a demand for justice, voice support for our fellow brethren, and push governments towards sanctioning and discouraging the tormentors, much can be achieved. Change can be registered. Justice can be served, and human rights can be made the standard of good geopolitics again. It all ends with creating the demand to abolish wars.