The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor said he is urgently investigating allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the city of al-Fasher, in the Darfur region of Sudan. The U.S. special envoy to Sudan also said parts of Sudan are in famine after more than a year of civil war. (AP; Reuters)
Our Take
By nearly all measures, the civil war in Sudan is a massive crisis. Nearly 14 months since fighting broke out between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, at least 15,000 people have been killed, more than 10 million people have been displaced and more than half of the country’s 49 million people need aid. There is strong evidence that the warring parties have committed war crimes, with echoes of the genocidal violence that took place in Darfur two decades ago.
And yet, despite the enormity of the crisis, the civil war in Sudan has received little to no international attention or diplomatic engagement. It would be perplexing if the reasons why weren’t so familiar.