As people around the world are rallying in outrage against the genocide engulfing Palestine, there is another genocide unfolding two thousand miles south, which is receiving significantly less global attention. There is a genocide looming over Sudan.
The Geopolitical History of Sudan
Sudan is the third largest country in Africa. Whilst its neighbour Egypt is typically associated with ancient Pyramids, Sudan is home to more than double the number of Pyramids thanks to the ancient Nubian civilization, and in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, the two main tributaries of the river Nile, the Blue Nile and the White Nile, merge.
In 1898, Sudan was captured by the British Empire and was ruled by a partnership between Britain and Egypt – albeit an unequal partnership favouring Britain. Under Britain's brutal colonial rule, the infamous “divide-and-rule” tactics were deployed to separate the north and the south of the region, particularly across religious and ethnic lines. British “investment” was heavily funnelled into the north of Sudan, an area with a majority Arab population; the western and southern regions were neglected, with Britain claiming the areas were not ready for the “modernization” purportedly introduced by colonialisation.
Ignited partially by the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, Sudan broke free of British colonial rule and became an independent nation in 1956. However, the separation between the north and south, imposed by Britain, loomed over Sudan and conflict between the regions erupted.
Since independence, North Sudan has remained the country's most powerful region. Darfur, in the west of Sudan, is a three-state area. South Sudan is the most oil-rich area in the country. As institutionalised by its colonisers, Sudan is ruled by a minority Arab population, with the majority population being African. The divisions today remain based on self-identification, language, and culture as most Arabs and Africans in North Sudan share the Muslim faith.
After decades of conflict between the north and south of Sudan, a referendum for partition of the two regions was called in 2011 and the southern part of the country declared independence, becoming recognised as a new nation, the Republic of South Sudan. This marked the “end” to the colonially fabricated and enforced ethnic and social divisions across Sudan, although the Republic of South Sudan has experienced extreme intercommunity conflict since its independence. The partition of Sudan also sounded an economic downturn for Sudan, as South Sudan took with it about 75% of the oil revenues, leaving Darfur holding Sudan’s largest oil reserve.
Because oil is a political weapon that brings foreign direct investment, producing money to buy weapons for example, control over oil-rich areas is essential to garner international power. Twenty years ago, the Sudanese Government, with support from potential foreign investors, incited a genocide against non-Arab residents in Darfur. The Arab-backed “janjaweed” or “devils on horseback” militia killed at least 300,000 people, and displaced millions of people living in Sudan’s Darfur region with the intention of eradicating the Masalit people, and other non-Arab communities from the area. Whilst sometimes simplified as a regional ethnic conflict between Arab nomadic herders and African settled farmers, this genocide was politically motivated by the vast oil reserves in the region.
The Sudanese Government bombed Darfur villages, allied Arab militias, and incited by racial hatred, entered Darfur regions to kill, rape, and torture African residents. With international intervention, a ceasefire was called in 2010, but by this point, an estimated 2.5 million people were displaced, and 300,000 people killed as a result of this conflict. What is more, the conflict never truly ceased in the area.
Sudan Civil War and Geopolitical Situation Today
Today, Sudan is in the midst of a Civil War caused by a power struggle between Sudan’s national military, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The conflict began in Khartoum in April 2023 and to date, at least 15,000 people have been killed and over 9 million people have been displaced. This is the worst displacement crisis in history.
In 2013, the RSF was created as an evolution of the Janjaweed militia to fight rebel groups in Darfur who were uprising against the oppression and discrimination against the non-Arab population in Sudan. During the 2019 Sudanese political crisis, the RSF violently attacked pro-democracy demonstrators in what has become known as the Khartoum massacre. At least 120 people were killed, with hundreds of other people being raped, detained, and going missing.
Fighting between the SAF and RSF has developed into Proxy War between Sudan’s neighbours; Egypt, Saudi Arabia as well as Iran are backing the SAF, and the United Arab Emirates are militarily supporting the RSF. Hostility towards Sudanese refugees seeking asylum in neighbouring countries has grown. In Egypt, the Government has imposed visa requirements on all Sudanese nationals, rendering all entry routes for Sudanese refugees into Egypt irregular.
As a result of the conflict, the Sudanese population are suffering from the World’s worst famine, as described by the UN. Whilst the RSF have been accused of looting humanitarian stocks, the US as well as aid groups have accused the SAF of blocking food aid from entering the country. The international aid charity Doctors Without Borders laments that in one refugee camp in North Darfur, one child was dying from malnutrition every two hours.
“Finally, a genocide akin to the 1994 Rwanda genocide” - a harrowing comparison made by the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Ms Nderitu - “is being carried out by the RSF.” The former targets of the “devils on horseback” are now targets of the Rapid Support Forces, in a vicious attempt to wipe out the non-Arab population in Western Darfur. Violence against Masalit people and other non-Arab groups by RSF has surged since April last year. It is speculated that the war between the SAF and RSF has provided cover for RSF and allied forces to commit genocide in Darfur.
The Genocide in Sudan
In its 1948 convention, the United Nations described genocide as ‘an odious scourge’ that must be eradicated. It defined genocide as ‘acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group’.
In June last year, Khamis Abakar, a senior governor in Darfur, accused the RSF of committing genocide. His statement followed a mass torture, raping, and looting of towns in West Darfur by RSF, where thousands of people were killed within days. Video footage from the same day showed a group of armed men, some wearing RSF uniforms, detaining the Governor and, some hours later that day, he was killed. The RSF’s targeting of civilians in Darfur is motivated by racial and ethnic hatred of the non-Arab population. The RSF are committing genocide in Sudan.
Since the conflict between the RSF and SAF began, rights groups have documented and reported consistent attacks by the RSF and allied militia against non-Arab Masalit people in Darfur. A recently released report by Human Rights Watchhas called the attacks by the RSF on the Masalit tribe and other non-Arab groups between April and November 2023 as amounting to “ethnic cleansing”. It also states how RSF fighters have used racial slurs against Masalit and other non-Arab peoples in Darfur and telling them the land was “the land of the Arabs”.
Since April last year, over half a million people have fled from West Darfur to Chad. Three-quarters of these refugees were from the West Darfur city of el-Geneina, where, according to UN figures, at least 15,000 people are feared to have been killed last year.
Image: Ahmed Rabea
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