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Sudan’s 200+ Day Forgotten Genocide: What You Need to Know

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Mother and child in a Sudanese refugee camp seeking medical help. (United Nations)


“Allah yerhamo,” my mom constantly repeated over the phone as she cried. This Arabic phrase translating to “May Allah have mercy on them” was one that has been engraved into my brain since I could remember. Every second she wept, my mother was mourning the loss of a family member due to the war in Sudan. Her grief encompassed not only the deaths of our family but also the conditions that our family has had to live through. Famine, war, and governmental oppression spread across my homeland.

For the past 8 months, the North African country of Sudan has been experiencing a human rights crisis, one which the United Nations has recently declared as the “world’s largest displacement crisis, with over 7.1 million people displaced.” Unfortunately, this conflict is not new, but an escalation of the historically brutal military action against civilians in Sudan. Referred to as a “laboratory of coups” by the Institute for Security Studies, Sudan has a long history of violence, civil wars, and displacement. One such example includes the 12-year-long dispute between the Northern Republic of Sudan and the Southern Republic of Sudan, which resulted in the independence of South Sudan as its own nation. Sudan’s challenges persisted even after this separation.

Recently, in April of 2023, another civil war broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the parliamentary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), killing thousands and displacing millions. Today, my aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and nephews in Sudan face consistent food and water shortages. They live without access to electricity, methods of communication, and medicine, and they lack the ability to obtain critical health services. My mother’s occasional silent cries turned into constant mourning and heartache for a loved one. Not only does she cry for loved ones who have passed away, but also for the family members who have been displaced and whose whereabouts remain unknown.

In the past couple of years, there have been large transitions of power in leadership in Sudan that have led to the most recent civil war. Since 1993, Sudan has been led by the oppressive dictator Omar Al-Bashir. Bashir became president after leading a successful coup in 1989 that appointed him chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation, ruling the country. Even after the disbandment of the Revolutionary Council in 1993, Bashir remained in power and was confirmed as president. During his presidency, Bashir committed corruption, human rights violations, and many other crimes under international law. One of these included the removal of a rebel civilian African group in Darfur that opposed his rule by Bashir’s Arabic militia known as the “Janjaweed.” Eventually, Bashir was indicted and incarcerated by the International Criminal Court (ICC), but the Sudanese people still aren't receiving justice for the ongoing crimes committed by current military leaders.

Since then, Sudan has been led by two military generals, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the head of armed forces, and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also referred to as Hemedti. Tension and disagreements between the two generals—rooted in their political views and ideas about how power should be exercised—fuels the fighting between General Burhan’s Rapid Support Forces, an extension of Bashir’s Janjaweed, and the Sudanese Armed Forces. 

Since then, over 16 ceasefire attempts have subsided. No ceasefire attempts or concrete plans to stop the raging violence have been successfully followed through with. As of the beginning of December, 40 hospitals have been bombed, 19 million children have been put out of school, 17.3 million Sudanese civilians lack access to clean water, the country’s infrastructure has been severely damaged, and rape and sexual violence are perpetuated against civilians. And these numbers are increasing day by day. 

Heartbreakingly, the humanitarian crisis in Sudan is being talked about by virtually no one. Countless times throughout history, we’ve witnessed the systemic and institutional desensitization to violence occurring in African countries. Western media and the American education system have upheld the harmful narrative that African countries are to blame for their own political and economic “instability.” This racist and white supremacist agenda further normalizes the violence occurring in African nations, marking Black bodies as disposable and shifting away blame for the larger cause of African challenges, which are deeply rooted in the institution of slavery and the constant extracting of resources. The desensitization to violence perpetrated against Black bodies is seen in other African countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia, which are also facing ongoing humanitarian crises today. 

This crisis is no longer to be ignored. To help alleviate the circumstances of those living through the war in Sudan, I urge you to donate to Sudanese businesses and charities that provide direct funds and resources to Sudan. Secondly, it is critical that you educate yourself on the history of Sudan and its civil war and prioritize reputable sources as well as Sudanese accounts and outlets that are reporting on the crisis. 


Sudanese businesses and vetted Sudanese-led fundraisers to support:

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