Sudan: the war the world forgot

THERE IS NO shortage of global headlines that make grim reading. But while the world’s eyes are focused on Russia’s looming assault in Ukraine, the war in Gaza and China’s naval provocations in the South China Sea, far less attention is being paid to the war, genocide and famine in Africa’s third-largest country.

Sudan has been ravaged by coups and civil war for much of the time since its independence in 1956. The most recent conflict began last year, erupting thanks to a power struggle between the official Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group. Both armies used to answer to the same dictator, until he was deposed in 2019. Now, after an uneasy period sharing power, they are fighting for control of the country. Both sides are accused of looting, raping and killing civilians, and restricting humanitarian aid. Some regions are completely cut off from basic supplies; in the hardest-hit areas, residents are reportedly eating leaves and seeds to survive. The RSF faces credible allegations of ethnic cleansing against black Africans in Darfur, a region in the west.