At the crossroads of the Arab world and Africa, two nations are on the brink of collapse. Nothing and no one appears able to stop the civil wars ravaging Sudan and its neighbor, the fledgling state of South Sudan – not regional powers nor global superpowers. The people are paying the heaviest price. They are at the mercy of endless clashes between warlords who, whether rebel movements or supposedly established powers, are devastating these two countries.
In Sudan's case, it is as if a congenital curse is at work. As in Yemen or Haiti, this vast country – three times the size of France – has, since its independence in 1956, been the scene of almost continuous armed conflict. Moments of peace have been the exception; internal war is the norm. The current fighting is often referred to as the "fourth civil war." And, judging by past conflicts, especially those that devastated Sudan from 1983 into the early 2000s, the worst can be feared: a new wave of large-scale interethnic massacres.
The United Nations; NGOs, notably Doctors Without Borders and Handicap International; and others have issued repeated warnings. During the week of September 22, as the UN General Assembly convened in New York, delegates have heard the bleakest reports. No one can claim ignorance. The facts are known. To date, the war that began in 2023 has killed more than 150,000 people. In a population of more than 50 million, the number of wounded is in the hundreds of thousands. Fighting has displaced some 12 million people, crowded into makeshift camps with no schools or hospitals.
Darfur at the center of the conflict
Looting, scorched harvests, villages reduced to ashes, rape, abductions, summary executions – every aspect of interethnic violence is concentrated in the country's western border region, Darfur. The war is playing out against a backdrop of food emergencies and looming famine, according to the UN. Experts have called it "one of the worst humanitarian crises of the 21st century."
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