SUDAN INSIGHT ALERT: Daily Maverick - The world turns its back while the noose tightens around Sudan

13/6/2024: Daily Maverick - The world turns its back while the noose tightens around Sudan, by Phillip van Niekerk

Philip van Nieker  argues that Sudan’s problem “at least for the international media” is that “it’s not clear who the good guys are”. 

While the Rapid Support militia (RSF) “have been rightly condemned for looting and pillage,” van Niekerk writes that “it was [army commander Abdulfattah al-Burhan] who led the coup that ended [Sudan’s] democratic experiment,” with the army “still allied with the Islamists”.

Van Niekerk notes that smaller militias representing African tribes have joined forces with the army to defend Al-Fashir “while Arab groups from as far afield as northern Nigeria…have joined up with the RSF – and have no intention of going home.”

Analyst Cameron Hudson was said to “complain” the international community’s “responsibility-to-protect” doctrine has been shelved as “we are forced to watch in real-time as the noose tightens around millions of civilians begging to be saved,” with Sudan being “deprioritised” rather than “ignored”.