78 October-November 
Do not avert your
gaze from Sudan
150,000 people have died; 10m have fled their
homes and famine could kill 2.5m by next year
By Suzie Mélange
A
ccording to the Economist, Sudan
“is the worlds worst humanitarian
crisis”, where “millions could perish
in the world’s worst famine for at
least 40 years” and also a
geopolitical time-bomb and a chaos machine”.
Traditionally, Sudan divided between the
Islamic North, the seat of the government, and
Christians in the South. An Islamist Mahdist/
Dervish State was established in Sudan in the
1890s, threatening British-occupied Egypt,
and the precious Suez Canal. The British
government sent an expeditionary force under
Sir Herbert Kitchener, determined to avenge
the death of General Charles Gordon, killed by
the Mahdists. After the Battle of Omdurman,
featuring the last ever British cavalry charge,
where a young Winston Churchill fought,
Anglo-Egyptian rule was restored. The
Egyptian revolution of 1952 forced the
withdrawal of British forces from all of Egypt
and from Sudan which gained independence
in 1956.
Of course Sudan has been at civil war, on
and off, since then. There have been six coups
and 10 failed attempts, always against
Khartoum-based kleptocracies. Sudan hosted
Osama bin Laden in the 1990s. South Sudan
seceded in 2011, after one extended war.
Twenty years ago Sudan’s western region of
Darfur was torn by genocide. The latest war
erupted in April last year.
The main belligerents are the central
military, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF),
and an offshoot militia called the Rapid
Support Forces (RSF) whose commander is the
ferocious Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, a former
camel trader, whose forces are accused of
committing ethnic cleansing, particularly in
benighted Darfur. Both sides bombard
civilians, pressgang children and inflict
starvation.
Neither belligerent has an ethnic basis or
ideological goal. Indeed the two forces had
Both the SAF and the
RSF bombard civilians,
pressgang children and
inflict starvation
worked together in 2019 to remove the
country’s long-time president and strongman,
Omar al-Bashir, author of genocide in Darfur
whose regime killed an estimated 300,000 to
400,000 people; and who was caught with
$130m worth of cash in sacks at his house after
he was ousted. SAF and RSF are now fighting
for the rest of the spoils.
Sudan’s strategic location and vast size
make it a source of instability that affects its
neighbours and beyond. According to Tom
Perriello, the US envoy for Sudan, as many as
150,000 people may have died from the
eighteen-month-old war. It is possible that
more than 10,000 died in ethnic cleansing in
el-Geneina, a city in West Darfur, alone.
Of those displaced, 7.1 million people
remain within Sudans borders, while another
2.1 million have sought refuge in neighbouring
countries. Overall, a fifth of the population
have been forced to ee their homes. Farms
and crops have been burned. People are forced
to eat grass and leaves. A looming famine
could prove even deadlier than Ethiopias in the
1980s, with some estimates predicting that up
to 2.5 million civilians could die by the end of
the year.
The ongoing violence threatens to
destabilise neighbouring countries and could
trigger increased refugee flows to Europe.
Sudan’s 800 km of Red Sea coastline poses a
further risk, particularly to the Suez Canal, a
vital global trade route.
Essentially this is a Middle East war playing
out in Africa. Sudan is on the route from the
Middle East to the Horn of Africa.
All the Middle Eastern players are vying for
influence. Russia’s Wagner group supported
the RSF and the UN suggests there is “credible”
evidence that the UAE too has armed it, leading
to a massive impact on the balance of forces
despite claiming its motivations are purely
humanitarian. Facts are opaque in this part of
the world and the UAE denies its influence but
it does seek to suppress political Islam its
justification for intervention in Yemen and
would benefit from the rich farmlands of
Sudan, some of which UAE firms have been
buying up. Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey and
Egypt support the SAF. Qatar is rumoured to
have deposited $1bn in the Sudanese SAF-
controlled central bank to prop up the currency
and recently signed a deal to boost trade in
gold between the two countries. Interestingly,
the US is irrelevant here.
The RSF controls much of Khartoum, the
now-razed capital, where ghting began last
year, as well as large portions of Darfur, where
the RSF leadership originates.
However, in February, the military regained
control of central Omdurman, one of the three
cities that comprise the greater Khartoum area.
The army also maintains dominance in most of
northern and eastern Sudan, including Port
Sudan on the Red Sea.
Essentially the West fears a collapsed
Sudan, like Libya, would re up jihad; and does
not want an inux of Sudanese refugees. Mary
Robinson recently berated the world for
ignoring the unfolding catastrophe there. She
says Ireland, which has given €12m to Sudan
this year, should elevate the issue at the UN.
The possibility of 2.5m famine deaths by the
end of the year is the immediate crisis.
INTERNATIONAL
VillageOctNov24.indb 78 03/10/2024 14:27

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