Sudan trapped in a “doom loop of silence” after one year of war and humanitarian nightmare
Rachid had already fled her neighborhood in Nyala, Darfur for another since the war in Sudan began in April 2023. Now, with the genocidal Rapid Support Forces (RSF) —an Arab supremacist paramilitary group that has plagued the country for years— on the verge of taking over Sudan’s second largest city, she decided it was time to head for the border with South Sudan.
“I don’t remember what day I ran,” Rachid says. “I thought to be a woman when the janjaweed (RSF) come will mean evil done upon me. My friend was raped by them before. They do this to the black women. They hate us.”
It was mid-October 2023. Several weeks of brutal battles between the RSF and national army had already made parts of Nyala a ghost town. Areas of the city under RSF control were being looted and terrified citizens were being sexually assaulted, tortured, and executed at the hands of the notorious paramilitary group. Rachid said the army made no effort to protect citizens. The situation was going from bad to worse very quickly.
“Running west to Chad was no good because the janjaweed were everywhere,” Rachid describes. “Running to South Sudan was a little safer. Less janjaweed.”
It took Rachid nine days to reach South Sudan. She somehow managed to avoid the RSF patrols that were quickly swarming the region. Rachid eventually stumbled into one of our Sudanese partners who was providing limited ground transport to people fleeing toward South Sudan. She got out just in time: by the end of October the RSF had overrun all of Nyala and most of Darfur.
Rachid now spends her days yearning to go home, but she knows she can’t until the RSF are gone. “As long as the janjaweed exists no one in Sudan is safe,” she says. “I don’t know where any of my family is. I don’t know if they are alive. No one can tell us when or how our nightmare ends.”
Sudan is home to the largest emergency in the world
Rachid’s story is shared by countless other Sudanese. As the country enters another year of war between Sudan’s ruthless national army and the barbaric Rapid Support Forces, generals on both sides have brought on the largest general displacement, child displacement, hunger, childhood education, and medical emergencies in the world.
The statistics are impossible to fathom. Nearly 25 million Sudanese —half the country— are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. Over 8 million are displaced in Sudan’s borders or have fled the country altogether. 730,000 children are suffering from severe acute malnutrition and nearly 20 million more can no longer attend school.
Entire swaths of Sudan are too dangerous to access to try to determine a death and injury toll. What we do know is that all estimates are a severe undercount. As refugees pour into neighboring countries, they bring with them stories of mass graves, neighborhoods leveled and villages massacred, and soldiers and militias torturing and executing unarmed civilians viewed as “belonging” to the “other side.”
One recent estimate put the national death toll at 14,790 people. Meanwhile, a leaked United Nations report from three months ago suggests that up to 15,000 of the ethnic Masalit people were slaughtered in a single city during April-June of 2023 alone. It must be assumed that Sudan’s death toll is likely already soaring into the mid tens of thousands, if not higher. And with pockets of famine already breaking out in the hardest hit areas, the United Nations estimates that 230,000 children, pregnant women, and new mothers will die in the coming months due to hunger.
Behind all these hard-to-grasp numbers though are innumerable stories just like Rachid’s. No person should have to live like this. This is neither the life she signed up for nor the one she deserves. Understandably, she is baffled that the world seems not to have noticed.
A child is loaded into a truck taking people fleeing Sudan's war from Joda, on the Sudanese border, to Renk in South Sudan, where they will stay in a transit camp before they are transported further into the country. (Photo by Sally Hayden, Sipa via AP Images)
Reckoning with Sudan’s “doom loop” of silence
Sudan rarely shows up on anyone’s radar today for a myriad of reasons. The international aid and peacekeeping presence in the country has declined precipitously over the last 10 years. Western media especially has looked away following the U.S. military evacuating embassy staff from Khartoum a year ago. Being a local or international journalist on the ground has never been easy, but it is becoming impossible due to high levels of extreme violence. Both the army and RSF have destroyed or cut cell networks and internet access in parts of the country, making it harder for ordinary Sudanese to get news of their plight out into the world.
Current affairs on the international stage are also keeping eyes away from Sudan. With so much of the world glued to Gaza/Israel and Ukraine, few have noticed that the catastrophe unfolding in Sudan eclipses both of these conflicts…combined. This is not to say what is happening in these two places is unimportant. It is to say what is happening in Sudan very much is.
Little attention means efforts to save lives are severely underfunded. The United Nation’s humanitarian response plans —more than $4 billion needed to keep the situation from merely getting worse— are only 6% funded. That doesn’t include what local Sudanese groups and the few private international organizations left in Sudan like us require to meet the needs the UN won’t get to even if they were fully funded.
Too few resources means fewer international and connected Sudanese eyes and ears on the ground, which means fewer stories and critical information gets back out into the world. And the cycle starts all over again.
This doom loop of silence is compounding the damage of an already horrifying emergency. Given the fact that Sudan rarely shows up in the news, classrooms, and other social settings, it is no surprise that many Americans especially struggle to point to Sudan on a map. Our information environment has not prioritized the Sudanese. As such, good people who would be inclined to help don’t have the opportunity to.
Signs of hope, and the need to get to work
Interestingly, people notice this doom loop when they become aware of what is happening in Sudan. As our organization has introduced new faces to this crisis over the past twelve months, the first question we almost always hear is some form of “why am I just hearing about this now?” Shock is often mixed with frustration, not just with the situation, but with those who can easily break this cycle not doing so.
Some have suggested that world leaders and globally-minded citizens are fatigued with Sudan. An older generation of well-connected activists who dearly love the Sudanese people is a fraction of the size it once was. The days of big name celebrities keeping a sustained light on Sudan are long past. Most of the well-known Congressional champions of the Sudanese people retired years ago.
One can easily despair, but these realities are the closing of but one chapter belonging to a much longer story, most of which has not been written yet. If we’ve learned anything these past twelve months it is that people are more than willing to help, but they have to be educated and asked first.
We know from experience that this takes years of hard work and considerable resources to do at scale. Overcoming this challenge isn’t going to happen from the top down. It falls to ordinary people like us to educate ourselves and commit to standing with our friends in Sudan, no matter what. And we must invite others to join us.
A new generation of engaged American activists allied to Sudanese heroes is called for. There needs to be a sustained effort to cultivate that generation, from the ground up and the middle out, in cities and communities across the United States. This work does not belong to one individual or one organization. It cannot be done overnight. Neither can breaking the doom loop of silence our friends in Sudan are trapped in.
We are doing our part though. From creating new learning resources for classrooms to providing more news and analysis that is free to all, to building simple tools newcomers can use to help educate their friends to launching creative ways they can directly support Sudanese heroes, we are already seeing signs of hope that a new generation of activists can be educated and mobilized to help.
Today marks one year since this emergency in Sudan began. We all have a role to play in helping people like Rachid. Will you join us?
We’re a nonprofit organization with over a decade of experience working alongside Sudanese heroes. Together we are making the story of Sudan known, empowering survivors, and working to build a renewed Sudan from the ground up. And we need your help.
Our Sudanese partners are overwhelmed with needs as the war spreads and hunger deepens. Your generosity will help them serve the most vulnerable in this time of tremendous need.
$1,000 - Fully funds one classroom at Endure Primary School in Yida Refugee Camp for half a semester.
$500 - Delivers food to Darfuri genocide survivors who have fled to South Sudan.
$250 - Provides a daily breakfast to 10 children for an entire month in Adré refugee camp, where many Darfuri genocide survivors now live.
$100 - Supports the monthly work of a sexual assault counselor in Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur, Sudan.
$50 - Helps repair classrooms in Yida damaged by seasonal rains and provide for general maintenance.
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Checks can be made payable to Operation Broken Silence and mailed to P.O. Box 770900 Memphis, TN 38177-0900.
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“As long as the janjaweed exist no one in Sudan is safe,” Rachid says. “I don’t know where any of my family is. I don’t know if they are alive. No one can tell us when or how our nightmare ends.” https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/sudan-trapped-in-a-doom-loop-of-silence-after-one-year-of-war-and-humanitarian-nightmare
Sudan is trapped in a “doom loop of silence” after one year of war and a humanitarian nightmare. https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/sudan-trapped-in-a-doom-loop-of-silence-after-one-year-of-war-and-humanitarian-nightmare
Sudan’s warring generals have brought on the largest general displacement, child displacement, hunger, childhood education, and medical emergencies in the world. https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/sudan-trapped-in-a-doom-loop-of-silence-after-one-year-of-war-and-humanitarian-nightmare
Today marks one year since this emergency in Sudan began. The situation is bleak, largely because the world is not paying attention. We can all play our part in changing that. https://operationbrokensilence.org/blog/sudan-trapped-in-a-doom-loop-of-silence-after-one-year-of-war-and-humanitarian-nightmare
