Since April 15, 2023, Sudan has been in the midst of a violent civil war between two rival groups, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) within the nation’s military government. This has resulted in a famine, creating extremely dangerous circumstances for the people of Sudan. With an estimated death toll higher than 400,000 (according to the former U.S. Envoy for Sudan) and about 12 million Sudanese displaced, the UN has declared the situation to be the world’s current worst humanitarian crisis. However, international involvement has become sporadic, with much less public involvement and coverage in the media. With trouble in our own communities, it is easy to lose sight of crises in other parts of the world. Still, the Sudanese civil war deserves much more recognition. The rest of the world needs to continue to spread awareness about these events even when they’re not trending in order to become more informed on the current state of the world and spread important messages on behalf of the world’s silenced voices.
The current civil war in Sudan began in the aftermath of the recent ousting of President Omar al-Bashir in 2019, who came to power during a coup in 1989. Al-Bashir was an incredibly incendiary and divisive leader in Sudan, due to serious human rights violations and alleged war crimes. He has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for actions committed during the war in Darfur (2003-2020).
This conflict has created an insurmountable level of danger for Sudanese people. Both the SAF and RSF have also been accused of human rights violations, including ethnic cleansing, widespread sexual violence, and the use of child soldiers. Sudanese people are being forced to live in constant fear of their safety. Additionally, the country’s famine and lack of resources during this time has left many citizens in a state of extreme malnutrition and sickness. Even though this long civil war has reached a record level of fatalities and loss for Sudan, the rest of the world is not putting in enough effort to understand the war and speak out about it.
As a society, the recent influx of fast moving trends has promoted a culture of indifference. While many people care deeply about political issues outside of the mainstream, it is much easier to spread awareness about an issue when everyone else is, too. Once a conflict has stopped trending, it tends to leave the zeitgeist and is replaced with something new. As time goes on, ignorance around seemingly distant issues increases, even if those issues are still affecting many people. Sudan had been a popular issue to speak out about in the past, with various celebrities such as Don Cheadle spreading awareness about the dire situation in 2007. But as the conflict has dragged on, the world has seemingly become less interested. There hasn’t been as much recent education on the country’s political climate. For many people, Sudan’s civil war isn’t something they’ve heard about in the media or in their daily lives, and so the conflict falls by the wayside.
While the Sudanese civil war is a catastrophic event that deserves attention from the rest of the world, the rise of trends that come and go in days has lessened the amount of dedicated focus people give to important global issues. Many people take their freedom of speech and choice for granted, and it’s easy to underestimate the power that an individual voice can hold. In order to break the cycle of forgetting events after they leave the immediate attention of the media, people must continue to focus on and speak out against injustice regardless of its digital popularity. We must use our privilege in America to lift up the Sudanese people and raise awareness of the country’s state in order to provide as much support as possible. We have an ethical obligation to stay informed on the Sudanese crisis. Continuing to spread awareness will bring the crisis back into the public eye, jumpstart more activism for the cause, and initiate the process in beginning a new generation of globally-minded young people.