Sudan has been in a state of civil war for two and a half years. On both sides, the protagonists are Arabic-speaking Sunni Muslims of roughly the same phenotype. Yet the Sudanese are divided into tribes. It is a power struggle without ideology.
Since 2023, at least hundreds of thousands of people have been killed. It is the bloodiest war in the world, and yet it is largely unreported. Why? To the Western media, do the lives of Muslims and brown people matter less? Or is it because Sudan has no great economic or strategic importance?
Since independence from the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium in 1957, Sudan has been under military dictatorship. There have been 20 coups. These are usually just musical chairs: one dictator is pushed out and replaced by another member of the junta, and little else changes. On paper, the country is a Shariat state.
Osama bin Laden lived in Sudan in the 1990s. There were US missile strikes on pharmaceutical factories which President Clinton claimed were making weapons for Osama bin Laden. Eventually, under threat from the United States, the Sudanese Government insisted that Bin Laden emigrate.
The southern province had a Christian majority. It seceded in 2011 after a 30-year civil war. It is the only country in Africa where this has been permitted. After decolonisation, there was a consensus that, however inconvenient and illogical colonial-era borders were, they must be adhered to. To start repartitioning land would raise Cain.
The two sides are the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. The SAF is the legal government of the country, as it is recognised by the international community. The other side is the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), under the command of General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. Dagalo is known by the nom de guerre Hemedti. The RSF is part of a wider coalition known as the Janjaweed.
It is more complicated in that other factions are in the Janjaweed. Moreover, the SAF has achieved backing from other groups such as the Sudan Liberation Movement.
The RSF controls Darfur in the west of the country, along the border with Chad. The Zaghawa people span this border. The President of Chad and his late father (the previous president) were both Zaghawa. The Zaghawa are squarely on the side of the RSF. Therefore, the Chadians endorse the RSF.
The fact that the Zaghawa homeland was bifurcated between Sudan and Chad is reflective of the way the British and French drew the borders of African countries. In 1885, at the Congress of Berlin, representatives of several European nations and the United States met and determined the future of Africa without consulting a single African.
There was a coup d’état in 2021. The RSF was due to be integrated into the armed forces, but they rebelled. First of all, there was fighting in the capital city, Khartoum.
Khartoum means ‘elephant’s trunk’ in Arabic. It is the confluence of the White Nile and the Blue Nile. The Blue Nile rises in Ethiopia, whereas the source of the White Nile is Lake Victoria in Uganda. After the two Niles meet, it is known as ‘the longest kiss in history,’ and the River Nile flows through Sudan into Egypt and out into the Mediterranean Sea.
There was heavy fighting in Khartoum at the outbreak of the civil war. The RSF initially seized the capital but were soon driven back. The SAF secured the capital. The RSF fell back on their stronghold of Darfur.
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) states that around 770,000 girls and boys below the age of five will experience grave hunger in 2025. Some will die. Even those who survive will suffer lifelong consequences. The UN estimates that at least 522,000 children have died of malnutrition in the civil war so far.
In just Khartoum State, over 61,000 people have died due to the civil war. About 26,000 were directly killed. The rest died indirectly from malnutrition and lack of access to medical care caused by the war.
The war has caused a severe paucity of food, medication, and access to potable water. The healthcare system has largely broken down. Many people are now homeless. They have no shade from the punishing harsh sunlight nor shelter from the rain.
The UN states that 50% of the population urgently need aid. It is difficult to get aid into the country, where the bureaucracy is sclerotic and every official demands a bribe. Many have not been paid in months. Roads and railways are in parlous condition.
In 2023, the Saudi Arabians mediated. They attempted to stop the fighting. The Jeddah Declaration was signed by both sides. However, the truce rapidly broke down.
There have been several large-scale massacres of civilians in Darfur. This is widely regarded as genocide.
In 2006–08, there was similar genocide in Darfur. Since then, the USA and European countries have sanctioned most Sudanese generals and officials. China and Russia strongly spoke up for the Sudanese regime. They said that genocide is counter-terrorism. They denounced the Western attempt to save Sudanese people as neo-colonial meddling.
Western governments castigated the Sudanese regime for the massacres in the 2000s. Sudan was placed under an arms embargo. The Sudanese regime was able to purchase arms from China and Russia, which had no qualms about abetting genocide.
The United Nations states that around 25 million people are facing extreme hunger. People are dying from starvation. In January 2025, the United States Government formally accused Sudan of genocide against its own ethnic minorities.
Very few foreign journalists are allowed into Sudan. The country has poor transport infrastructure, and few people speak English. The government is the sworn enemy of the free press. Therefore, it is a very difficult country for foreign journalists to operate in.
Russia is keen to develop closer relations with Sudan. Russia signed a deal to give the Russian Navy access to a Red Sea port in 2021.
Putin recently rolled out the red carpet for the Sudanese president. Moscow is one of the few foreign capitals where he is welcome.
The African Union (AU) has been very quiet about Sudan. Sudan is a disgrace to Africa. What is happening in Sudan now makes the British epoch look paradisical by comparison. The AU has sent peacekeeping forces into various African countries in the 21st century. For some reason, few seem to propose this for Sudan, despite the case for it being indisputable.
Zionists often cite Sudan as a tu quoque about the Gaza genocide. “Why,” they ask, “does the world media not report the barbarities visited upon people in Sudan with such prominence? Where are the protest marches about that?” Predictably, Zionists also argue that the focus on Israel’s misdeeds is part of anti-Semitism.
The reason that there are few protests in Western countries about what is taking place in Sudan is partly because it is little reported, owing to the practical difficulties of receiving reports and images therefrom. The other key reason for the dearth of demonstrations is that Western countries are not abettors of the genocide.
Contrariwise, the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and suchlike have had sanctions on Khartoum for over a decade. On the other hand, when it comes to Gaza, Western governments are in some cases expeditors of the genocide. They furnish the weapons with which Palestinians are murdered.
They trade with Israel. They disseminate Zionist propaganda. Some of them provide intelligence to Mossad (Israel’s foreign intelligence service). The United States wields its UN Security Council veto to shield Israel from the consequences of its crimes against humanity.
The comparison between Sudan and Gaza is bogus. In the case of Sudan, it is six of one and half a dozen of the other. Both sides are equally wicked, and millions of decent people are caught in the middle. In Sudan, no nation is illegally occupying another. In Gaza, it is totally different. Hamas killed civilians, yet Hamas-caused casualties are negligible compared to those of Israel. The moral balance is clearly in favour of Hamas.
At least 3% of the population of Gaza was murdered in two years. Even the highest estimate of the deaths in Sudan has under 1% of the population being killed. Sudan suffered severe poverty long before the war.
The Sudanese Government could not do much to aid war victims even if it tried. Sudan is the second-largest land area in Africa, making aid distribution very difficult. Gaza is a tiny area: an open-air prison. Israel could very easily allow humanitarian aid through but did so much to thwart it, and it starved people to death intentionally and withheld lifesaving medicine even from babies and the elderly.
Regarding Sudan, many people can rightly claim ignorance. Very few people in Sudan have cameras or mobile phones. The Israelis gleefully broadcast their crimes. Israeli soldiers were even filmed gang-raping a Palestinian man. This was shown on Israeli TV, and the rapists were hailed as national heroes.
Israel gratingly asserts it is a democracy with an unblemished human rights record. Such effrontery and barefaced lying is known as chutzpah. Sudan makes no such false boasts. Israel constantly brags about its state-of-the-art military technology and the pinpoint accuracy of its munitions.
Therefore, when it murders civilians, it is no mistake: they were targeted on purpose. Sudan has cheap military technology that is at least two generations behind that of Israel. Its rudimentary weapons systems often miss and slay civilians by accident.
There is also the logical fallacy of citing one genocide as though that is somehow justificatory of another. There is almost nothing Westerners can do about Sudan. They do virtually no trade with Sudan. Sudan does not compete in international sports at a high level. Sanctions, sporting boycotts, artistic boycotts, and disinvestment can hit Israel and effectuate change.