Genocide in Sudan

Dr. James E. Sulton, Jr.

JA International Correspondent

Sudan became the first country in Africa to gain independence from foreign rule during the era of decolonization and self-determination. On January 1, 1956, the country won freedom from outside governance as mandated by the preexisting Anglo-Egyptian Condominium Agreement. Egypt and Britain had jointly ruled Sudan during the colonial period. 

At the time it became independent, Sudan was the largest country on the African continent covering more than one million square miles of territory. It lost that distinction later when South Sudan became a separately independent country in 2011. Today Sudan is Africa’s third largest country.

The most unfortunate feature about Sudan is that it has always been driven by internal wars. The first war within the country erupted eight months before Sudan achieved independence – between the North and the South in August 1955. There were many more military actions before and after that. 

The latest instance began in 2023 and may be the worst occurrence ever. This war is spearheaded by two competing generals who have widespread external support, threaten to engulf the entire Horn of Africa in their conflagration, and are destroying much of the Sudanese population and most of its economy.

Millions of people have been displaced internally or forced to flee to neighboring countries. Entire cities – Khartoum especially – have been hollowed out. Food insecurity and famine conditions are spreading, and basic healthcare has nearly vanished in large parts of the country.

Almost everyone knows who “MBS” is. Just mention those initials and many people will automatically tell you they stand for Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, the de facto ruler of and next in line to the throne in Saudi Arabia. Fewer people are as familiar with “MBZ” or whose name that abbreviation represents. That man is Muhammed Ben Zayed, President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Both monarchs are very powerful autocrats who control their own royal kingdoms and lord it over their subjects. These men enjoy lives only impossibly wealthy people can afford. They throw their weight around the world, awarding favors and rendering vengeance. 

In the case of Sudan, the royal monarchs have split their support between the main warring armies. Saudi Arabia (along with Egypt) backs the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), while the United Arab Emirates (in league with Turkey among others) favors the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). These two militarized groups have been fighting each other since April 2023 when they fell out over who should be the rightful ruler of Sudan. 

One tragic irony is that the SAF and RSF were allies in 2019 when they jointly overthrew the military government of Omer Hassan El Beshir by coup d’etat. Beshir had ruled Sudan alone for 30 years.

By 2023, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had turned against each other, waging a devastating war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced more than 10 million, and pushed Sudan into the world’s largest hunger crisis. What is transpiring in Sudan now is not only a civil war, but also a war that entails genocide.

The leader of the RSF is Muhammed Hamdan Dagalo, popularly known as Hemedti. He is a billionaire who accumulates much of his wealth by mining and selling gold. 

On the opposing side, the SAF is headed by General Abdel Fattah El Burhan. General El Burhan took control of the national government in 2019 after the coup against Beshir. He headed a governing body known as the Transitional Military Council until it disbanded.

Today, the worst humanitarian crisis in the world continues to unfold without much notice. While newspaper headlines are saturated with coverage of Ukraine, Gaza, or unrest elsewhere, negligible attention is paid to the catastrophe in Sudan. There, an actual genocide has left hundreds of thousands of people killed or forcibly displaced. Sudan scarcely breaks into the global news cycle or garners much discussion. Sudan has descended into what Human Rights Watch, other non-governmental organizations and the United Nations describe as the largest and most devastating displacement and protection crisis in the world. 

Fighting erupted on April 18, 2023, between the Government of Sudan military forces and the paramilitary militia known as the RSF. Since then, their battles have devastated civilian life throughout the country. According to the United Nations, more than 30 million people – over 2/3 of the Sudanese population – now require humanitarian assistance. That is a scale of need unprecedented among modern humanitarian challenges. At least 14 million people have been forcibly displaced, including more than 9.5 million internally displaced persons, making Sudan the largest forced relocation crisis on earth. 

The violence has been particularly catastrophic in Darfur and Kordofan provinces, where international observers in the United Nations have warned that atrocities committed by paramilitary forces amount to genocide. As a matter of fact, the U.S. State Department has also termed it genocide. Reports document mass killings, ethnic targeting, and sexual violence being used as weapons of war in the systematic destruction of civilian communities. This echoes crimes that previously led the United States to label the Darfur atrocities genocide during the early 2000’s. 

The current war has triggered the most severe hunger crisis in the world. Nearly 25 million Sudanese face acute food insecurity, with hundreds of thousands already living under famine conditions and millions more on the brink. Health systems have collapsed across large swathes of the country, with 70% of medical facilities in war zones destroyed or shuttered, leaving millions without access to primary care. 

Children have borne an especially devastating share of this crisis. Approximately 17 million children are out of school, and millions have been displaced multiple times, exposed to violence, hunger, and exploitation. Humanitarian agencies warn that an entire generation risks being permanently scarred by conflict if access to funding and political pressure remain absent.