I wasn’t sure if this should be here or in some other forum. Feel free to move it.
I read a horrifying NYT op-ed by Nicholas Kristof about the horror show going on in Sudan. An estimated 60,000 people (mostly males over age 10) have been slaughtered, and mass rapes and genital mutilation of women and children are the norm. Both Biden and Trump acknowledged the genocide, but have basically otherwise ignored it, with Trump going so far as to take funding away. I don’t know if the African Union has gotten involved, but this is a tragedy that needs immediate intervention.
I don’t know about the African Union as a whole, but Uganda (and probably other countries) has been welcoming a ton of refugees. Last I heard (a few years ago), the number of refugees in Uganda is up near 20% of the native population, and they’re building homes and infrastructure for all of them, to the same standards as the native population.
Remember that, when Americans say that there’s no way our country can possibly accept refugees.
Unfortunately, it’s really just the Hierarchy of Death situation. In general, black/African deaths rank the lowest in priority, in the eyes of Western media, and so nothing will be done. That being said, one reason there is probably much less gusto for fixing this problem is the lack of a clear aggressor and clear victim side, unlike Russia-Ukraine (unless I’m mistaken? Is there a clear good side in Sudan?)
Very interesting. We lived in Uganda for a year back in the 90s and it didn’t strike me as being particularly welcoming to outsiders. So this is a major change, despite the dictatorial trending of Museveni, who has been in power since '86. He started out being pretty liberal, but has turned into a dictator who won’t allow any other political parties in the country.
I don’t have a suggested solution, as I don’t know what the options might be. Kristof didn’t mention any, either. I know that there used to be an African military corps that was similar in makeup to the NATO forces. I don’t know if that still exists.
I’m sure that this has been going on for some time and there seem to be few voices other than Kristof’s who are bringing attention to it. But then I’m not exactly up to date on that part of the world any longer.
It’s possible, of course, that they don’t regard other Africans as “outsiders” in the same way that they do you. A lot of the refugees already had tribemates or even family in Uganda.
Oh, absolutely. I have to admit to ignorance about the population demographics when we were there. The country was nervous about their proximity to Congo and it’s militancy, and the northern religious uprisings. The diplomatic corps is a pretty closed environment in those countries (as opposed to Europe), with the exception of USAID (RIP), Peace Corps, and certain liaisons within the embassy.
We’ve tried armed intervention in several countries in recent years, and the general consensus seems to be that we shouldn’t have gone anywhere near them.
There was a news headline blurt on NPR re: Sudan where a gold mine collapsed in Sudan and killed 82 people this week. I assume that headline is on the discount in Sudan; I know it’s minimized in the US.
This is part of the conflict, too. The collapse happened in a city controlled by the RSF, and they’ve had control of the mines which they’ve been using to finance their operations. Undoubtedly, the safety of the local miners isn’t exactly a primary concern for the RSF…
So RSF is the genocide one. SAF more crimes against humanity, war crimes, and ethnic persecution.
America gives indirect support to both sides? The SAF by way of Egypt and the RSF by way of UAE. But nothing directly.
It is a horrible tragic situation. Should there be an arms embargo across the board? More clear support of the lesser evil? No idea? It doesn’t make for a simple story so it gets little press. On an attention to horror ratio it gets little compared to its massive awfulness. Most of know little and most not at all.
Just to save others ignorant like I am the effort to look that up, like I just did: Gender Based Violence.
Africa is huge enough that Sudan is far from your backyard, but still same continent and something like 14 million displaced? And if you had to rank the attention the genocide, other deaths, and displaced millions in Sudan get, compared to say Gaza, which gets more airtime and activist attention? Or even Ukraine?
It is relatively ignored. Maybe it doesn’t fit simple narratives, I dunno. But I stand by the comment: relatively few know much about it at all if anything. And from an American perspective it is the biggest humanitarian perspective that so few are even aware of.
Gaza gets the lion’s share, but that’s for two main reasons:
A vocal Muslim minority here that has had ties to Palestine (and Iran) since the anti-apartheid struggle days; and
A more general history of opposition to Israel from the anti-apartheid days for… reasons.
But there is a Sudanese diaspora here, as well, and of course Sudanese are largely Muslim, so like I said they are mentioned even at the more Gaza-focused events.
Ukraine is not really on the radar. Partly because our actual government is in bed with the Russians, and partly from a lack of any real links to the place culturally or historically.
And attention paid to it, even on the African continent, is overshadowed by stories that fit established narratives and loudest local voices, with the attention it does get, by your telling at least, more due to local Sudanese diaspora than the vast magnitude of the crisis, of its horror.
The genocide I note is not the focus as much as gender based violence is?
Earlier in this thread @Bear_Nenno implied that SAF was “the good side” as they are not the one committing genocide, albeit war crimes etc. they got. RSF, yes genocide, therefore “the bad guys” … of course not likely so simple and there is reason to not love anyone in this conflict as millions suffer in their crossfire. But when it is brought up, at rallies for Palestine/anti-Israel, or otherwise, is there a side thought of as the one to be for or against?
And do thoughts split among South African ethnic identification lines at all?
My understanding, admittedly limited, is that the Sudan conflict is not exactly Black vs ethically and culturally Arab, but it is not exactly not either? Which can get tricky. And to be frank ethnic identity in much of Africa is something that I know does not track on to American ethnic identities but is pretty varied and complicated. But with political ramifications.
Bear in mind that SA and Sudan are hardly neighbors. The countries are about 3000 miles apart, which is roughly the distance between London and New York, or London and Dubai.
And while I do know that both South Africa and Sudan have at various points been parts of pan African organizations and movements, that’s about as deep as my understanding goes. Still it speaks to the concept that while the distances are vast the connections across the continent are real, as are the tensions between African/Black pan Africanism and continental pan Africanism.
I don’t know how much to trust ChatGTP on this but per it even in Nigeria Gaza gets more media attention than Sudan does. (Both dwarfed by the country’s own problems though) -
>Nigeria
Gaza receives considerably more sustained media attention than Sudan. Nigerian outlets have continuing Gaza/Israel coverage, including developments involving sanctions, Israel, Hamas, Netanyahu and international diplomacy. Premium Times, for example, has a dedicated Gaza stream with multiple recent stories, while Sudan coverage is much less continuously visible.
But there is an important qualification: Gaza is not necessarily a dominant Nigerian domestic-news subject. Nigerian media is heavily consumed with its own security crisis, politics, kidnapping, terrorism and economic issues.<
And the US gets more attention than Sudan there too.
So much closer to backyard and still not too much attention to the ongoing genocide and massive humanitarian crisis just Chad away.
I mean I get American myopia and attention span limited to the most recent news cycle, most Americans are pretty ignorant of most things even domestic … but this crisis, this massive horror, isn’t even of tremendous interest in Nigeria.
Really. Why is not evoking anything bigger worldwide?