News & Updates
Check out the latest from Sudan and our movement
The world needs to wake up to the catastrophe unfolding in Sudan
By any objective standard, Sudan’s roughly 49 million citizens are facing a catastrophe that is as epic as it is tragic.
Cities bombed out and villages annihilated. Men, women and children tortured, raped and executed. Millions displaced from their homes. A nation at risk of being swallowed whole by heavily-armed soldiers.
By any objective standard, Sudan’s roughly 49 million citizens are facing a catastrophe that is as epic as it is tragic. The capitol city of Khartoum has been a brutal war zone for over five months. In western Darfur, a full blown genocide of ethnic minorities is underway by a paramilitary force that is evil incarnate. War has resumed in the Nuba Mountains. Fighting is creeping into new parts of the country every week.
And the world seems to have barely noticed.
25 million people, roughly half the population, are in need of humanitarian assistance. Famine already stalks the war-torn hinterlands, threatening 6.3 million lives in just the next few months. 4.2 million women and girls —a brave demographic who has long been the last line of defense in protecting human life— are staring down the barrel of gender-based violence. Almost 700,000 children with severe acute malnutrition are at risk of dying by the end of this year. These statistics are certainly undercounts and tick upward with each passing day.
The United Nations has only 27% of the funding needed to stave off the worst of spiraling humanitarian conditions, and that’s assuming aid can reach those most in need. Right now, it isn’t. As a nonprofit organization working in Sudan for more than 12 years, we usually receive a few dozen new requests for help during a given year. 2023 is far from over and we have already received over 300 cries for emergency support.
Will you join our campaign to help?
Our Sudanese partners are struggling, which you can learn more about below. They need 100 of us to start giving monthly to help them continue their lifesaving work.
⚡️ Your first three monthly gifts will be matched by a private donor ⚡️
Operation Broken Silence is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Your donations are tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law.
Can’t give monthly? Donate once or start a fundraising page and ask friends and family to give!
Does the world dithering on Sudan mean we must do the same?
There are many things world powers are not doing to save lives. We’ve covered this before (here, here and here) and will continue advocating for aggressive global action. But that is outside our control. Direct action is the most helpful approach.
There are three primary areas our Sudanese partners are working in to save and change lives for the better:
South Darfur - Escape support and relief
Nuba Mountains - General healthcare
Yida Refugee Camp (south of Nuba) - Childhood education
These efforts are as highly effective as they are massively underfunded. To provide just one example, our South Darfur partner needs an additional $65,000 through the end of the year to help people escape the Rapid Support Forces-backed genocide in Darfur and provide food and clothing to those most in need.
Photo: Tariq escaped the genocide in Darfur with the help of our Sudanese partner. Read his story.
Matched monthly giving plays a critical role in closing life-or-death gaps like these. It doesn’t take a lot of supporters to get the job done either; in fact, roughly 100 new monthly givers can meet the bulk of this need. But only if you join us instead of assuming others will meet these needs.
Your monthly giving means several hundred families and brave people such as Tariq will be saved from almost certain death. He says “My friends are grateful to those who helped us get out. We would be dead without them. Please tell people everywhere to give so we can help more people. We can still save many lives but it takes money to do it.”
Tariq is right. Vehicles need fuel and maintenance. Food and clothing has to be purchased. Critical supplies like these don’t just materialize on their own. Looking ahead though, scattered among these families are children and young people who will one day become community leaders, teachers and serve in many other roles that will help rebuild Sudan in a better direction, from the ground up.
In times like these it is easy to feel hopeless. But hopelessness is a choice. Hopelessness is choosing to glance at the big picture and cast judgement instead of seeing the faces of people who can change things. We have hope because we see countless faces like Tariq. We talk to these people. We know their hopes, dreams and challenges. As long as they remain committed to their country, there will be hope.
How crypto philanthropy can save lives in Sudan
The war in Sudan has no end in sight. Crypto donors are uniquely positioned to help local heroes on the ground save lives.
Cities bombed out and villages annihilated. Men, women and children tortured, raped and executed. Millions displaced from their homes. A nation at risk of being swallowed whole by heavily-armed soldiers.
By any objective standard, Sudan’s roughly 49 million citizens are facing a catastrophe that is as epic as it is tragic. The capitol city of Khartoum has been a brutal war zone for over five months. In western Darfur, a full blown genocide of ethnic minorities is underway by a paramilitary force that is evil incarnate. War has resumed in the Nuba Mountains. Fighting is creeping into new parts of the country every week.
And the world seems to have barely noticed.
25 million people, roughly half the population, are in need of humanitarian assistance. Famine already stalks the war-torn hinterlands, threatening 6.3 million lives in just the next few months. 4.2 million women and girls —a brave demographic who has long been the last line of defense in protecting human life— are staring down the barrel of gender-based violence. Almost 700,000 children with severe acute malnutrition are at risk of dying by the end of this year. These statistics are certainly undercounts and tick upward with each passing day.
The United Nations has only 27% of the funding needed to stave off the worst of spiraling humanitarian conditions, and that’s assuming aid can reach those most in need. Right now, it isn’t. As a nonprofit organization working in Sudan for more than 12 years, we usually receive a few dozen new requests for help during a given year. 2023 is far from over and we have already received over 300 cries for emergency support.
Will you join our campaign to help?
Your donation will help our Sudanese partners assist those escaping the genocide in Darfur, continue their critical education and healthcare work in the Nuba Mountains, and reach more people in need.
We need to raise $10,000 worth of crypto by the end of 2023. We have currently raised $215.06.
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Who You’re Supporting
Some of the most vulnerable people are fleeing West and South Darfur or living in the southern Nuba Mountains. Operation Broken Silence is working with determined indigenous partners to provide safehaven, education, and healthcare. Needs are fluctuating daily due to the chaos of war, so we’ll put your crypto donation where it is most needed.
Darfur - Escape Support & Relief
One of our Sudanese partners has positioned several of their people in parts of South Darfur and along the Darfur-South Sudan border. They are helping refugees fleeing the Rapid Support Forces-backed genocide cross safely into South Sudan and providing food and other basic needs.
This is a very high-risk program and the safety of these brave heroes is our top priority. We won't be releasing their names or anything that can be used to identify their locations for this reason. We will provide occasional updates and stories to our supporters, just as we do for our ongoing programs.
Operation Broken Silence is the only organization supporting childhood education in Yida Refugee Camp, just south of the Nuba Mountains. To date, over 10,000 children have been positively impacted through our partnership with 24 Nuba teachers.
Refugee families are trickling into the camp and trying to enroll their children, and the two schools we sponsor are reporting rising costs from the war. They serve 750+ kids a year and need extra financial support to meet new needs.
Mother of Mercy Hospital is in the heart of the Nuba Mountains and serves as the backbone of the healthcare system in the region. The main referral facility in Gidel and its string of community clinics serve 150,000+ patients year.
With tens of thousands of displaced people flowing into the Nuba Mountains and fighting on the frontlines surging to higher levels, the hospital is in need of extra financial support to meet growing training and supply needs.
Why Give Crypto?
Donating crypto is one of the most tax-efficient ways to give. Your crypto donation is tax-deductible to the fullest extent permitted by U.S. law.
If you’ve owned a token for over a year that has increased in value, giving crypto may provide better tax benefits than selling the asset and giving cash. Your charitable income tax deduction is equal to it’s fair market value and you avoid paying capital gains tax on any increase in value over the original cost of the crypto.
If one of the reasons you are donating is for tax benefits, we strongly encourage you to consult with your financial advisor before giving.
Other Ways To Help
Operation Broken Silence is building a global movement to empower the Sudanese people through innovative programs as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
We invest funds raised in Sudanese heroes to empower their life-changing childhood education and healthcare work. Join us by giving once or through The Renewal, our family of monthly givers.
Checks can be made payable to Operation Broken Silence and mailed to PO Box 770900 Memphis, TN 38177-0900.
Start a fundraising page and ask friends and family to give
US sanctions paramilitary leaders in Sudan
The US Treasury and State Departments have issued new sanctions against leaders in the Rapid Support Forces.
The United States Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and State Department have imposed sanctions on top commanders in the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), correctly pointing out that “members of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Darfur have committed atrocities and other abuses, inducing ethnically motivated killings, targeted abuses against human rights activists and defenders, conflict-related sexual violence, and looting and burning of communities.”
Sudan’s military regime disintegrated on April 15, 2023. The army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, the two primary factions in the regime, went to war with each for control of Sudan. Fighting has spread across the country, with millions of Sudanese caught in the crossfire and ethnic minorities facing famine, war crimes, and genocide.
The US government is specifically targeting Abdelrahim Dagalo, the RSF’s deputy commander and brother to top RSF commander Hemeti, as well as Abdul Rahman Juma, the RSF’s top general in West Darfur.
Abdelrahim is also being designated for being a foreign person who is or has been a leader, official, senior executive officer, or member of the board of directors of the RSF, an entity that has, or whose members have, engaged in the targeting of women, children, or any other civilians through the commission of acts of violence (including killing, maiming, torture, or rape or other sexual violence), abduction, forced displacement, or attacks on schools, hospitals, religious sites, or locations where civilians are seeking refuge, or through conduct that would constitute a serious abuse or violation of human rights or a violation of international humanitarian law relating to the tenure of such leader, official, senior executive officer, or member of the board of directors.
As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated person described above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC. In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked. Unless authorized by a general or specific license issued by OFAC, or exempt, OFAC’s regulations generally prohibit all transactions by U.S. persons or within (or transiting) the United States that involve any property or interests in property of designated or otherwise blocked persons.
In addition, financial institutions and other persons that engage in certain transactions or activities with the sanctioned entities and individuals may expose themselves to sanctions or be subject to an enforcement action. The prohibitions include the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any designated person, or the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person.
According to Secretary of State Antony Blinken:
The Department of State is imposing visa restrictions on RSF General and West Darfur Sector Commander, Abdul Rahman Juma, for his involvement in a gross violation of human rights. According to credible sources, on June 15, 2023, RSF forces led by General Juma kidnapped and killed the Governor of West Darfur, Khamis Abbakar, and his brother. This act came just hours after Abbakar’s public statements condemning the actions of the RSF.
The United States continues to call on all external actors to avoid fueling the conflict. We will not hesitate to use the tools at our disposal to hinder the ability of the RSF and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) to further prolong this war, and we will also use such tools to deter any actor from undermining the Sudanese people’s aspiration for peace and civilian, democratic rule. We will act to promote accountability for those responsible for atrocities and to pursue justice for the victims. The parties must comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians, hold accountable those responsible for atrocities or other abuses, allow unhindered humanitarian access, and negotiate an end to the conflict.
We Need Your Help
In our 12 years of working alongside Sudanese heroes, we’ve never seen anything like this. Extreme violence is spreading. Entire cities and villages are being destroyed. Famine looms. And program costs are skyrocketing.
Our Sudanese partners are struggling. They need 100 of us to start giving at least $50/month to help them continue their lifesaving work. ⚡️This is a big matchmaking campaign!⚡️ The first 100 new monthly givers will be matched by a private donor for 3 months.
The Renewal is our passionate family of monthly givers supporting Sudanese heroes. You’ll receive updates from our partners roughly once a quarter, a donation receipt each month, and an annual giving statement at the beginning of each year.
Operation Broken Silence is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Your donations are tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law.
Can’t give monthly? Donate once or start a fundraising page and ask friends and family to give!
Sudan Letter To The United Nations
Operation Broken Silence is joining 22 other human rights and security organizations in calling on the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly to step up direct and indirect action.
With the crisis in Sudan spiraling out of control, Operation Broken Silence is joining 22 other human rights and security organizations in calling on the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly to step up direct and indirect action.
Sudan’s military regime disintegrated on April 15, 2023. The army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the two primary groups in the regime, went to war with each for control of Sudan.
Fighting has spread across the country, with millions of the Sudanese people caught in the crossfire and ethnic minorities facing famine, war crimes, and even genocide. The area hit hardest by the war is West Darfur, where the RSF and their Arab militia allies have already killed well over 10,000 people. South Darfur is seeing increased levels of targeted violence, too.
The letter highlights a number of recommendations put forward by the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, including but not limited to:
Requesting the Security Council President to invite briefers from civil society and affected communities to formal and informal meetings on atrocity situations.
Refraining from exercising the right of veto to block Security Council action aimed at averting or halting the commission of mass atrocities, for permanent members of the Security Council in line with the Political Declaration on Suspension of Veto Powers in Cases of Mass Atrocities and the Accountability, Coherence and Transparency Group’s Code of Conduct.
Establishing a commission of inquiry, monitoring mechanism, fact-finding mission or investigative mechanism aimed at holding perpetrators of atrocity crimes to account.
Calling on states to halt the flow of arms and military equipment to armed forces or groups suspected of committing or planning to commit atrocity crimes.
Establishing a UN peace operation or special political mission aimed at halting or averting the commission of atrocity crimes, with a mandate to monitor and promote human rights and protect civilians.
The letter has been sent to the Office of the President and the General Assembly Affairs Branch of the United Nations, as well as the Office of African Affairs, Sudan and South Sudan at the U.S. State Department, which has passed the letter along to U.S. Mission to the United Nations.
We Need Your Help
In our 12 years of working alongside Sudanese heroes, we’ve never seen anything like this. Extreme violence is spreading. Entire cities and villages are being destroyed. Famine looms. And program costs are skyrocketing.
Our Sudanese partners are struggling. They need 100 of us to start giving at least $50/month to help them continue their lifesaving work. ⚡️This is a big matchmaking campaign!⚡️ The first 100 new monthly givers will be matched by a private donor for 3 months.
The Renewal is our passionate family of monthly givers supporting Sudanese heroes. You’ll receive updates from our partners roughly once a quarter, a donation receipt each month, and an annual giving statement at the beginning of each year.
Operation Broken Silence is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Your donations are tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law.
Can’t give monthly? Donate once or start a fundraising page and ask friends and family to give!
Tariq's Story – August 2023 Darfur Escape Support & Relief Update
Tariq and two of his friends fled Zalingei in late July when fighting between the army and RSF made staying impossible.
Friends and supporters,
As many of you know, Sudan’s military regime disintegrated on April 15, 2023. The army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, the two primary groups in the regime, went to war with each for control of Sudan. Fighting has spread across the country, with millions of Sudanese caught in the crossfire and ethnic minorities facing famine, war crimes, and even genocide.
The area hit hardest by the war is West Darfur, and South Darfur is seeing increased levels of targeted violence. The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their local Arab militia allies are using the fog of war to continue the genocide of ethnic African minorities that they began in the early 2000s. There are widespread reports of mass killings, gruesome executions, rapes, and pillaging. Tribal leaders in West Darfur say over 10,000 of their people have already been killed. The death toll is likely far higher.
One of our private Sudanese partners operating in Darfur has positioned several of their people in parts of South Darfur and along the Darfur-South Sudan border. They are helping refugees flee the genocide cross safely into South Sudan and providing food, clothing, and other basic necessities. Nearly 200 people have already received life-saving support.
This is a very high-risk program and the safety of these brave heroes is our top priority. We can’t release their names or information that can be used to identify their locations, but we are providing occasional updates and stories from the field so our donors and fundraisers can learn about their impact.
Tariq’s Story *
Tariq is from Zalingei in Darfur. The city’s displacement camps are home to many people who belong to African ethnic groups and have been targeted by the Rapid Support Forces and their local Arab militia allies. He says “Zalingei was my home even though it was not always easy. I was arrested once before and beaten by police.”
Tariq and two of his friends fled Zalingei in late July when fighting between the army and RSF made staying impossible. “The janjaweed stole all of our belongings but we managed to escape,” he says. Janjaweed is a term used to describe the RSF and their Arab militia allies. They left the city on foot.
Their harrowing journey through the war toward the South Sudan border lasted 16 days. Tariq and his friends say the army did nothing to protect anyone.
Our Sudanese partner provided them ground transport in South Darfur and helped them cross safely into South Sudan, giving them food when they arrived. They are now at a safe house run by our local partner.
As of the time of this posting, the situation in Zalingei has reportedly calmed, with the army claiming it has retaken control of the city. Sadly, it seems inevitable the RSF will return en force, and the army seems disinterested in protecting ordinary people. For this reason, Tariq and his friends do not plan on returning anytime soon.
“I hope to go home one day, but we cannot go back with the janjaweed breathing threats against us,” he says. “My friends are grateful to those who helped us get out. We would be dead without them. Please tell people everywhere to give so we can help more people. We can still save many lives but it takes money to do it.”
*Tariq’s name has been changed to protect his identity.
How You Can Help
In our 12 years of working alongside Sudanese heroes, we’ve never seen anything like this. Extreme violence is spreading. Entire cities and villages are being destroyed. Famine looms. Program costs are skyrocketing.
Our Sudanese partners are struggling. We’re looking for 100 individuals and families to start giving $50/month to help people escape the genocide in Darfur and meet their basic needs as they arrive.
⚡️This is a big matchmaking campaign!⚡️ The first 100 new monthly givers will be matched by a generous private donor for 3 months.
The Renewal is our passionate family of monthly givers supporting brave Sudanese heroes. When we match their grit with a monthly financial commitment, we become an unstoppable force for good.
You’ll receive a donation receipt each month and an annual giving statement at the beginning of each year. Giving monthly also comes with perks!
Operation Broken Silence is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Your donations are tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law.
OTHER WAYS TO HELP
Donate once online or make a check payable to Operation Broken Silence and mail to PO Box 770900 Memphis, TN 38177-0900
Start a fundraising page and ask friends and family to give
Backing Sudan’s civilians is the only option left
Sudan is changing in the fires of war and the fires of civil revolution. The latter must prevail, and diplomacy must change.
In this photo released by the Sudanese Army on Tuesday, May 30, 2023, General Abdel-Fattah Burhan visits his soldiers on the Khartoum battlefield. (Sudanese Army via AP)
It took mere days of war in Sudan to show that standard diplomatic efforts to contain the violence would fail. And fail they have, miserably so. Since fighting broke out between army and paramilitary forces in April, negotiations have come and gone, humanitarian conditions have surged past emergency thresholds, and the abhorrent generals seem more hellbent on killing anyone who gets in their way with each passing week.
Current efforts are faltering and will likely collapse soon. IGAD, the East African security and economic bloc of which Sudan is a member, recently proposed a ceasefire and peace initiative that would see armed peacekeepers deployed to Khartoum. A Sudanese army general responded with the threat “I swear to god, not one of them would make it back.” Representatives from both sides are now in Jeddah to try to re-start talks, but the prevailing attitude on the frontlines is this one of extreme violence.
Millions of ordinary Sudanese citizens —the beautiful, diverse lifeblood of the country— face grim choices that compound by the hour. Life in Sudan was already difficult before this war due to the regime’s incompetence, but it is now becoming impossible. Where food can be found, prices have skyrocketed. Access to medical care is so degraded that entire swaths of the population have no healthcare access at all. And all estimated counts of the dead and wounded likely represent a fraction of reality.
A darkness beyond civil war and humanitarian catastrophe
The past few weeks have proven this crisis is exceedingly more dangerous than the “backsliding” and “risk of full-blown civil war and humanitarian crisis” narratives that abound in intergovernmental bodies and minimal media coverage. The fighting between General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagolo’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has unlocked a darkness that tears at the very fabric of humanity itself.
Images of bloodied piles of dead soldiers and the destruction of basic services in Khartoum continue surfacing on social media, and the country’s once populous capital is being abandoned en masse by her citizenry.
In the long-oppressed Darfur region, genocidal massacres of the Masalit people group by the RSF and their local allies abound, with other ethnic minorities across the oppressed periphery staring down the barrel of extermination. Tribal leaders in West Darfur say over 10,000 of their people have already been killed in the region. Satellite imagery shows entire neighborhoods and villages have been burned to the ground. The authoritative Sudan Conflict Observatory has found evidence of the “targeted destruction of at least 26 communities” by the RSF up to July 10, the cutoff date of their last reporting period more than two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, in the defiant southern borderlands, the highly-restrained rebel force in the Nuba Mountains are done watching the SAF-RSF war encroach on their borders. Seeing and hearing the blaring sirens of genocide in Darfur, Nuba rebels have ended their fragile ceasefire and launched early offensive operations, hoping against hope to keep the fate of Darfur from reaching their own ethnic minority population.
Violence has reached Blue Nile in the southeast. El Obied in the center…the list goes on. But Darfur continues to be the harbinger of what is to come. On July 23, one of our Sudanese partners sent us chilling video of an Arab militiaman using a knife to behead a Masalit civilian. We don’t know the name of the individual or exact location of this barbaric crime, just that he was murdered recently in West Darfur. What we do know is countless stories of gruesome killings like this lurk beneath the surface of an already hellish war.
There is another war being waged in Sudan. It is a war against the very lifeblood of the country. Neither side is innocent, far from it, but the RSF especially are out to finish the genocide in Darfur they began years ago as the Janjaweed. All lines of civil war, humanitarian crisis, ethnic cleansing and even genocide are in the rearview mirror. The real question that looms before Sudan’s besieged citizenry is if human life can even be sustained in large parts of the country in the years ahead.
The depraved generals and their unruly chains of command have given their answer in the shoveled soil of mass graves: no, there cannot be. Letting them have the final word would be an atrocity in and of itself.
What can be done?
Nearly a decade ago, I visited a Nuba refugee camp in South Sudan to interview survivors of a now previous war and, alongside one of our Sudanese partners, lay the groundwork for our thriving childhood education program. One survivor I spoke with —a man who narrowly escaped what sounded like a SAF chemical weapons attack— turned the tables and asked me: why does the world only negotiate with the devil? Do they not know we are here and ready to help?
These are fair questions that bear heavy salience today. Negotiating with war criminals in hopes they’ll silence the guns may be the status quo of international diplomacy toward Sudan, but it has never worked in the past and it won’t work today. So what can be done if the traditional approach is going to keep failing?
Back in May, during failed talks in Jeddah, both the SAF and RSF delegations signed a short-term ceasefire and humanitarian agreement. The world focused on both sides immediately breaching the agreement. Few noticed that the SAF and RSF delegations signed the agreement only for themselves. Neither side claimed to represent the Sudanese government at the negotiating table.
In fact, no one has represented the Sudanese government since the war began. This is further evidence that Sudan is on the road to becoming a failed state, a terrifying proposition with devastating global consequences. But it’s also a window of opportunity to flip the table.
There’s only one player in Sudan that has any authority to claim it speaks for the Sudanese government: the people. Both the SAF and RSF have willingly signed away their authority, authority they should have never had in the first place. The most helpful thing the world’s diplomats can do now is to circumvent the army and Rapid Support Forces and start working directly with civilian leaders.
There are many ways to do this. For starters, American policymakers need to get their act together and fully step into the global coordinating role the U.S. often plays in crisis situations. Working in tandem with allies and other countries, international diplomats can help coalesce and support civilian leaders and activist networks in Sudan to jump-start an interim government led entirely by civilians. This is not a novel concept. As Sudan expert Alex de Waal recently noted:
That’s more than a symbolic act. They could take charge of the financial institutions of the state and bring material leverage to the table. Similar things have happened elsewhere. In Libya, for example, the central bank remained independent of the warring militias, receiving dollars from the sale of oil and paying salaries across the country. Sudan’s independent banking institutions would need technical, diplomatic and financial support from the U.S. and other donors. This would be a test of Washington’s seriousness in halting state collapse and supporting democracy.
Making such a move would also open up a wide range of possibilities beyond the traditional toolkit of sanctions, humanitarian aid, and conflict monitoring, all of which are still important.
If outside powers are going to continue pushing the SAF and RSF toward negotiations, civilians would now outrank both factions at the international level and have their long-needed voice seated permanently at the head of the table with the backing of world leaders, and the generals downgraded to the junior position. An interim government could seize control of Sudan’s financial institutions, work with international partners to get outside human rights monitors on the ground, and coordinate evacuations of high-risk areas. With urgency, civilian leaders could shutter the corrupt and inept Sudan Humanitarian Aid Commission and work directly with international agencies such as the World Food Programme and USAID to get more services and relief into parts of the country faster through resistance committees, local activists, and other unofficial channels.
These are just a few of the many, many possibilities a civilian government operating both inside and outside Sudan could pursue. The sense of powerlessness in the international community is a choice. The status quo does not have to remain the status quo.
This move is no silver bullet. No such solution exists. There’s always the risk that a major international effort could damage the legitimacy of Sudan’s civilian resistance. But that risk pales in comparison to the death and destruction that lies ahead. This path should only be taken with civilian leaders at the helm, after their vision for a path forward is clear and has buy-in from the horizontal activist networks on the street. They held the line against the army and RSF when the world failed. They’ve earned the world’s trust. It’s high time to give it to them.
Violence would undoubtedly continue; however, if the United States, Sudan’s neighbors, other African countries operating underneath the African Union, and the Europeans threw the real weight they have behind an interim civilian government and sustained the effort, countless lives could be saved. It would take some creativity, but such collective action could be used to degrade the ability of the SAF and RSF to wage war over time. At the very least, the Sudanese people would have some of the tangible international support they deserve. They would know they are not alone. That’s not nothing.
Sudan is changing in the fires of war and the fires of civil revolution. The latter must prevail. This moment calls for the diplomatic approach to change, too. Some will question if this path is wise. Maybe they are right too, but new thinking and bold action is needed either way. The status quo in international diplomacy is unsustainable. It is propping up the very generals who are burning the country to the ground.
It’s past time to hang the war criminals out to dry and lock arms with the people who actually care about the fate of Sudan: her resilient people. Smart people inside and outside Sudan can argue about how to best do that, but anything less is insanity.
We Need Your Help
In our 12 years of working alongside Sudanese heroes, we’ve never seen anything like this. Extreme violence is spreading across Sudan. Entire cities and villages are being destroyed. Program costs are skyrocketing.
Our Sudanese partners are struggling. They need 100 of us to start giving at least $50/month to help people escape the genocide in Darfur, continue their critical education and healthcare work in the Nuba Mountains, and reach more people in need. ⚡️This is a big matching campaign!⚡️ Every new monthly gift will be matched by a generous private donor for 3 months.
The Renewal is our passionate family of monthly givers supporting Sudanese teachers and healthcare professionals. When we match their grit with a monthly financial commitment, we become an unstoppable force for good.
You’ll receive updates from our partners, a donation receipt each month, and an annual giving statement. Giving monthly also comes with perks!
Operation Broken Silence is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Your donations are tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law.
OTHER WAYS TO HELP
Make a check payable to Operation Broken Silence and mail to PO Box 770900 Memphis, TN 38177-0900
Start a fundraising page and ask friends and family to give
Our Sudanese partners have a long road ahead and need all the help they can get.
Let’s each play our small part in giving them the best chance for real, lasting change. I hope you will join me in starting your monthly gift today.
Onward,
Mark C. Hackett
Executive Director