Syed Kamran Ali & Md Mustafa
Earlier this month, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus blamed racism for the world’s neglect of Sudan. Speaking on the BBC’s Today programme, Ghebreyesus pointed at the disparity in humanitarian attention and said he could see a “pattern”.
Racism has been a prominent feature of the structure and organizations of the international political system. Dominated by Western countries, the International political system functions under the impression that poor and developing countries, known as the Global South, are inherently violent and insufficiently civilized. This perception implies that violence is deeply ingrained in the foundation of these countries, making them fundamentally different from the Western countries, which are considered civilized and peaceful. Consequently, some form of violence in the Global South is often deemed acceptable and does not prompt an immediate response from the international community.
Consider this example: During the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, which was organized to establish the post-World War l international order, then British foreign secretary Lord Balfour opposed Japan’s introduction of a clause making equality of nations a basic principle of the League of Nations, famously stating that “you could scarcely say that a man in central Africa is equal to a European.”
Moreover, it is presumed by the same countries dominating the international political system that international institutions such as the International Criminal Court (ICC) are created just for the Global South because of the inherent character of being violent. The top persecutor of the ICC, Karim Khan, claimed that he was once told that the ICC was built for Africa and thugs like Putin. Probably Putin because he is a staunch opponent of the West, and with his departure the perception about Russia would be changed, but when it comes to Africa it is because Africa is inherently uncivilized and always involved in violence. In the case of Putin, the problem is solely Putin, not his country, but in the case of Africa, the problem is the entire continent.
US senator Lindsey Graham declared after the ICC chief prosecutor, Karim Khan announced that he would seek arrest warrants against Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, Israel’s Defence minister, and three Hamas officials “If they will do this to Israel, we are next.” Human rights attorney and war crime prosecutor Reed Brody told the intercept that the ICC never indicted a Western official.
This dichotomy of us vs. them, civilized vs uncivilized and white vs non-white is also smoothly maintained by international media, which is controlled by Western countries. It sees the issues of the Global South as the affairs of a distant world where violence is the norm thus there is no reason to discuss them in-depth. And nothing can describe this better than the complete lack of coverage by the global media of the horrifying civil war unfolding in Sudan which until now, by some estimates, has taken more than 150,000 lives and created the world’s largest displacement crisis.
25.6 million people, more than half of the country’s population, are facing the worst level of hunger crisis. In February 2024, Doctors Without Borders documented that in one refugee camp alone in North Darfur, one child is dying every two hours due to malnutrition. The World Food Program estimated that the war in Sudan threatens to trigger the world’s largest hunger crisis. Half of the Sudanese population needs humanitarian assistance and protection, according to a UN agency, yet the amount of global humanitarian aid provided to Sudan until now is far from being sufficient. Aid groups complained that the international humanitarian response plan to aid the Sudanese is only 6 per cent funded as this was seen as yet another war in Africa like many others.
Just compare the financial aid given to Ukraine to the aid of Sudan, which by the way has 9 million more people than Ukraine. Just about 40 per cent of the $ 3.57 billion aid needed to address the humanitarian and regional refugee crisis resulting from the Sudan conflict, had been provided by the end of 2023. This year’s response plan is also in danger of meeting the same fate. Till March 2024, the UN’s $ 2.7 billion request for humanitarian aid was only 6 percent funded. Whereas Ukraine received the aid of $ 380 billion until March 2024. Moreover, all the western rich countries have opened their arms to the Ukrainian refugees while the boats of Sudanese refugees are pushed back by corps guards on the Mediterranean Sea, resulting in the drowning of boats full of people.
The US and Saudi Arabia-mediated ceasefire talks have been unsuccessful in yielding any result but the other ceasefire talks astonishingly produced the result when the US needed to evacuate its embassy in April 2023. “The international community has just chosen not to deploy that same leverage this time,” said Kholood Khair, a Sudanese policy analyst and founding director of Confluence Advisory, a Sudan-focused think tank. This highlights the lack of intent of the international community to achieve the ceasefire, otherwise, there is no reason to believe that the international community would not have achieved some success the way it did when the US needed to evacuate its embassy.
Sudan is a very diverse country, home to 19 major ethnic groups, and 597 ethnic subgroups, speaking hundreds of languages and dialects. Sudanese Arabs make up the largest ethnic group, making up 70% of the total population of the country. Colonial rulers while ruling Sudan exploited this diversity of Sudan with their tested policy of divide and rule, dividing them sharply on ethnic lines with the aim of smooth functioning of their rule.
But these faultlines outlived the colonial rulers, with Arab Sudanese controlling the power centres and other ethnic groups complaining about the marginalization even after half a century of independence. The Darfur conflict in 2003-2005 was also the result of those faultlines.
But 2018 saw the emergence of a secular movement led by the youth against the corruption, unemployment, and dictatorial rule of Oman Bashir. The pressure was such that the national army was compelled to overthrow the once-all-powerful dictator Omar and established a joint military-civilian transitional administration in 2019. But two years after the establishment of the military-civilian transitional administration another coup led by the army’s top general, Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, shocked the world, he established his absolute control along with the chief of the Rapid Support Forces, SRF, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, whom he appointed as his deputy.
Mohammad Hamdan Dagalo heads the SRF, a paramilitary group notorious for its brutality. Its origin can be traced back to the Janjaweed Militia, which is accused of carrying out ethnic cleansing of Darfur’s non-Arab population during the Darfur genocide in 2003.
Things were going smoothly between both of them until Hamdan refused to budge on the demand of Buhan to merge the powerful paramilitary force, SRF, with the national army. Both remained firm on their stands, resulting in the breaking out of the current conflict in 2023.
Burhan, who has the support of much of the international community seems incompetent to face the resurgent and strong SRF, which has recently been seen making huge advancements and now controls much of the capital, Khartoum. Presently, The RSF is trying to extend its rule to Port Sudan. If RSF succeeds in seizing control of the Sudan port, it can disrupt the international supply chain around the Red Sea from where 15 per cent of world maritime trade passes.
Much of the world has a stake in a stable Sudan as the total collapse of Sudan would mean the open space for the local warlords competing for the rule. Additionally, there is also a risk of this instability spreading to other parts of the Horn of Africa, Sahel, North Africa, and the Red Sea basin.
But all of that doesn’t seem of any interest to the international community, whose response to the Sudan civil war until now, according to Amnesty International, is woefully inadequate. Time is running out fast for the international institutions to address the plight of 45 million Sudanese, who are at the mercy of two ruthless dictators and put to rest their racist attitude while dealing with the countries of the Global South.
Syed Kamran Ali is a doctoral candidate at the Center For Peace and Conflict Resolution in Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Md Mustafa is an independent researcher based in New Delhi.
