The World Once Tried to Stop a Genocide in Sudan. Now It Looks Away

Two decades ago, the world came together in an effort to “Save Darfur,” a mass mobilization of collective outrage that forced governments and multilateral institutions to act. Rallies, postcard- and letter-writing campaigns, moments of silence on college campuses, “Global Days for Darfur,” widespread support from Hollywood celebrities—all of it made Darfur and the Janjaweed, the notorious “devils on horseback,” into household names.

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“In many ways it is unfair but it is nevertheless true that this genocide will be on your watch,” George Clooney told the U.N. Security Council in 2006. “How you deal with it will be your legacy.”

The carnage today, not only in Darfur but across Sudan, is in many ways worse than it was then.

The bitter war launched 17 months ago between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)—the Janjaweed rebranded—has, according to the U.N., killed 18,800 people. But that estimate is a vast undercount. No one knows the true number of dead.

Sudan’s catastrophe can now only be described in superlatives: it is the world’s largest humanitarian catastrophe, is home to the world’s largest displacement crisis, and the world’s largest hunger crisis. More than 10 million people, representing 20% of the population, have been displaced by the fighting. More than half of the population, some 26 million people, are now facing crisis levels of hunger. Famine, the F-word long avoided by the international community, has now been declared in North Darfur. A harrowing report in May from the Clingendael Institute warns that up to 2.5 million people could die from hunger by September this year.

Twenty years ago, the SAF and RSF led a genocidal campaign against landed African ethnic groups in Darfur. Today, they are fighting each other while perpetuating serious rights violations. The RSF, in particular, has revived its genocidal campaigns against those same populations and extended it to the rest of the country. Alongside its allied Arab militias, the RSF have been accused of deliberate attacks on civilians amounting to crimes against humanity and war crimes. The International Criminal Court has opened new investigations into allegations of grave crimes committed by both the SAF and RSF in Darfur.

El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, is currently surrounded and under siege by the RSF, the last population center in Darfur that hasn’t fallen to the RSF. “It is unquestionable that risk factors and indicators for genocide and related crimes are present [in El Fasher], and the risks are increasing,” said Alice Wairimu Nderitu, a U.N. Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide.

From the outset, Sudan’s war against civilians has caused devastating consequences for women and girls. As I told the U.N. Security Council on Aug. 7, widespread and systematic conflict-related sexual violence is taking place throughout the country. It is clear that the RSF and the SAF have subjected women and girls from ages nine to 60 to sexual violence, which is a war crime, and neither party has taken meaningful steps to prevent its forces from committing rape, attacking health care workers, nor investigating such crimes. The deliberate use of conflict-related sexual violence, chiefly by the RSF, aims to terrorize the population into submission.

The time for the international community to act is now. We need to renew the call to action that gripped the world two decades ago.

Much of the international community’s diplomatic efforts—including recent U.S.-mediated efforts to secure talks between SAF and the RSF—are focused on securing an elusive ceasefire. Neither SAF nor the RSF have shown serious commitment to one. Both calculate that leveraging external support will lead to significant military gains, particularly the RSF, who have taken over much of the country due in large part to UAE support. More energy should be placed on protection efforts that focus on vulnerable populations. The need of the hour is to prevent genocide and save lives, and three steps are crucial.

First, the world must come together around a call for a civilian protection force, particularly in Darfur. Civil society and rights groups have called for the African Union and the U.N. to work together to establish one that could, per Human Rights Watch, “protect civilians, monitor human rights and international humanitarian law violations, including obstruction of humanitarian aid, and facilitate the safe return of displaced people.” Such a mission could help women and girls in particular and include mobile policing units to focus on locations where people are most at risk.

Second, the international community must demand that foreign players cease arming Sudan’s warring parties. A U.N. Panel of Experts report corroborates media reports that the UAE is sending weapons and supplies to the RSF. (The UAE has denied the allegations.) A July report from Amnesty International found that weapons and ammunition from China, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, Yemen, and the UAE are being imported in large quantities into Sudan. These arms are even flowing into Darfur—as aid is being stymied—despite a U.N. Security Council arms embargo imposed back in 2004. The decades-old initiative should be enforced and expanded to cover the whole of Sudan.

Third, there must be a unified and coordinated peace process involving all relevant stakeholders—with the full, equal, meaningful participation of women. Sudan’s war has been cursed with an array of peace processes over the past 16 months but the situation continues to deteriorate. Putting women at the center of peace negotiations can help chart a new way forward that prioritizes civilian, rather than military, interests. 

Unfortunately, none of this will happen until the world begins to pay more attention to Sudan’s plight. More prominent figures should follow the lead of the American rapper Macklemore, who announced he is refusing to perform in Dubai over the UAE’s role “in the ongoing genocide and humanitarian crisis” in Sudan. Africa’s third largest country cannot be allowed to disintegrate while the world averts its gaze, with so many other crises boiling over. We must “Save Darfur,” and Save Sudan, before it is too late.