The World And Its Colossal Sinful Silence On Sudan

Sudan is currently once again a hellish place due to civil strife.

WFY BUREAU AFRICA: However, the Sudanese people have received little attention or assistance, even after relief organisations ranked the nation’s humanitarian catastrophe among the worst in the world. Finally, on March 8, the UN Security Council demanded an immediate end to hostilities. Although this is a start in the right direction, it is by no means sufficient, and it does not alter the fact that the media and international community have remained largely silent. 

Silence and inaction on the part of the world must end, and soon.

First and foremost, we need to provide the most vulnerable people in Sudan with an immediate boost in humanitarian aid. Famine is imminent for the 18 million Sudanese who suffer from severe starvation. The largest internal displacement catastrophe in the history of the globe has resulted in the forcible relocation of about eight million people. Other avoidable illnesses, like cholera and measles, have proliferated.

Humanitarian workers have been on the ground since the beginning of this conflict, frequently risking their lives to help others, but fighters on both sides have purposefully hampered their efforts. Members of the opposing Rapid Support Forces are looting humanitarian stores, while the Sudanese Armed Forces have blocked the main humanitarian supply crossing from Chad into Darfur.

Leaders in the region and around the world must vehemently and openly demand that the combatants uphold international humanitarian law and permit humanitarian access. If the parties refuse to listen, the Security Council must act swiftly to ensure the provision and distribution of life-saving help. As the UN has done with cross-border aid flows into Syria, the Council should take into consideration all of the options at its disposal, including approving aid to go from Chad and South Sudan into Sudan. Nations such as the United States ought to be ready to take the lead on this project.

A senior humanitarian officer stationed outside of Sudan should be appointed by the UN to promote humanitarian access, intensify aid operations, and rally support from foreign donors. The World Food Programme has issued a warning, threatening to cease food assistance to hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees in Chad as early as next month unless it receives additional funding. The United Nations has only partially fulfilled its humanitarian request for Sudan. This can’t happen. The largest single donor to both initiatives is the United States. Other nations must now take the initiative.

Along with demanding the protection of civilians, the international community must likewise work to bring war crime victims to justice.

The Biden administration issued a warning about ongoing accusations of widespread human rights violations in Sudan in the 2023 Elie Wiesel Act Report. Furthermore, in December, Secretary of State Antony Blinken concluded that combatants from both sides had committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing and that members of the Rapid Support Forces and affiliated militias had committed war crimes as well.

The United States of America imposed penalties on militia leaders last year for their involvement in crimes against civilians, including racialized killings and sexual assaults connected to conflicts. They have since released numerous further rounds of focused sanctions.

We have to end the impunity loop. A recently published U.N. report graphically details the atrocities taking place in front of our eyes, demanding accountability.

Investigators found, among other atrocities, that militiamen of the Rapid Support Forces had brutally raped women and girls, some as young as 14, and that the group’s snipers had targeted civilians without discrimination. The report asserts that the end of last year saw the massacre of over a thousand Masalit and other non-Arab minorities in Ardamata, a community in Western Darfur.

There is a greater burden on our conscience when we live at peace in our homes with our stomachs full and our forces guarding our borders. Think about it. Drops make oceans; let’s try and do our bit.