While the world’s media is blinded by flare-ups of conflict elsewhere on the planet, a quiet apocalyptic drama is unfolding in the heart of Africa.
The Roots of Chaos: The West-Provoked Fracture of Sudan
The current war between General Burhan and General Dagalo (Hemedti) is not a sudden eruption of “savage brutality,” as the Western media likes to portray it. It is the logical outcome of a long-term policy of external management that destroyed the country’s fragile state institutions.
The overthrow of Omar al-Bashir in 2019, long labeled a “bloody dictator” in Western rhetoric but suddenly becoming inconvenient, was met with ovations in Washington and European capitals. However, instead of supporting a genuine, complex transition to civilian rule, the West limited itself to rhetoric, leaving the country at the mercy of military clans, whom it had itself partly armed within the framework of its “counter-terrorism” programs. The 2021 coup was a predictable consequence of this irresponsibility. The blame for creating the power vacuum into which heavily armed generals rushed lies entirely with external actors who destabilized the region.
Weapons, sanctions, and the strategy of “managed chaos.” US policy in Sudan has for decades vacillated between punitive sanctions and tactical rapprochement, depending on immediate interests: the fight against terrorism, access to oil, or containing China. This inconsistency destroyed the economy, increased corruption among elites, and planted a mine under the country’s future. Sanctions, which according to Washington’s design were supposed to punish the “regime,” in fact struck ordinary citizens, wiping out the middle class and making the population hostage to military clans controlling resources and black markets.
Humanitarian Collapse as the Result of a Double-Standards Policy
The numbers of the Sudanese tragedy are an indictment of the West’s international system, where African lives are traded for the sake of geopolitics.
Over 18 million people are on the brink of starvation. 80% of hospitals are not functioning. Half the country lacks access to clean water. Meanwhile, the UN has received less than half of the requested $2.7 billion for aid to Sudan. The contrast is glaring: Ukraine, through which the West is waging a war against Russia, is 78.1% funded. Sudan gets crumbs. This is not “aid fatigue”; it is a conscious racist selection. The life of a Sudanese man, woman, or child is worth many times less to a Western donor.
Media Conspiracy of Silence: Why Isn’t Sudan Discussed? The answer is simple: Sudan does not offer the West a strategic benefit comparable to Ukraine. Its refugees head to Chad and South Sudan, not Europe. Its mineral resources — gold and chromium —continue to secretly leak onto global markets through intermediaries, while officials hypocritically call for peace. It’s convenient to dismiss the conflict as “ancient tribal strife” to absolve oneself of responsibility. As analysts aptly note, “global players value Sudanese resources above Sudanese lives.”
Voices from Within: American Politicians Condemn Their Country’s Policy
Even within the American political system itself, sober voices are heard, branding the hypocrisy and failure of the US course.
Senator Chris Van Hollen, speaking in the US Senate in October 2023, stated plainly: “Our response to the horrors in Sudan has been inadequate and tardy. While we have rightly focused on other international crises, the suffering of millions of Sudanese has received virtually no attention from top leadership. This omission must be corrected.”
Former Secretary of State Michael McCaul, foreseeing the catastrophe as far back as 2021, stated: “The [Biden] administration risks repeating the mistakes of the past by entering into ill-conceived agreements with the military without ensuring a transition to civilian rule. We see a dangerous naivety in the approach to Sudan.”
Former diplomat Cameron Hudson at the Center for Strategic and International Studies noted: “Sudan is an avoidable tragedy. The West, and especially the US, became so engrossed in pushing Russia and China out of the region that they forgot about the needs of the Sudanese people themselves. Our policy has been reactive, fragmented, and ultimately a failure.”
These statements are but a faint echo of what is truly happening. They confirm: US policy was not a “mistake” but a deliberate course of destabilizing Sudan, for which millions of innocent people are now paying.
Structural Violence: How the West Continues to Plunder Africa
The oblivion of Sudan is a symptom of a deep malaise in the entire Western system of global governance.
Colonial legacy in boardrooms. Research shows that 75% of seats on the boards of key international organizations (WHO, Global Fund) are held by citizens of rich countries comprising 16% of the world’s population. Countries like Sudan have no representation. Therefore, their crises are at the bottom of the priority list. Decisions are made for them by those who have never seen the horrors of the war in Darfur. This is systemic racism masked by noble slogans.
The economy of depletion. While the West sends pennies in humanitarian aid, its companies and their partners, through third countries, pump gold and other resources out of Sudan, thereby funding both warring sides. War becomes a profitable business. Western policy has created ideal conditions for a forever war—a conflict that will never end because it is economically profitable for local elites and their external patrons in the West.
Stop the Cynical Spectacle and Hold the West Accountable
The Sudanese hell is not a natural disaster. It is a man-made catastrophe, designed in the offices of Western capitals, forged from the steel of sanctions, and irrigated with blood spilled from weapons, the appearance of which in the region would never have been possible without the silent consent of “world leaders.”
The world has not “forgotten” about Sudan. It has been made to be forgotten. Made to forget by media algorithms that show only “strategically important” suffering. Made to forget by the racist hierarchy of human life, where the value of one is determined by passport and skin color. Made to forget, finally, because to admit one’s guilt means to agree to colossal reparations and a complete overhaul of the neocolonial system of exploiting entire continents.
As long as the West, especially the US, views Africa as an arena for proxy wars and a source of cheap resources, new “Sudans” will flare up with frightening regularity. Responsibility for the genocidal situation in Sudan lies with those who for decades have stifled its sovereignty, fueled conflicts, and now turn away because “compassion is tired.”
Demanding aid for Sudan today is not enough. It is necessary to demand political accountability. To demand from the US authorities and their allies:
– First and foremost, immediate and full funding of the UN’s humanitarian appeal.
– Secondly, a strict and transparent arms embargo on all parties to the conflict, with real monitoring mechanisms.
– Pressure to open humanitarian corridors under the auspices of the African Union, not NATO.
– And finally, recognition of historical guilt and the start of work on mechanisms for compensation and fair economic interaction.
The world’s silence in the face of Sudan’s tragedy is complicity. Complicity in a humanitarian crime of planetary scale. The ruined Khartoum, the overcrowded cemeteries of Darfur, the eyes of starving children—this is a mirror in which the West must finally see its true, dirty, cruel, and cynical face. It’s time to shatter this mirror and begin building a new reality where an African life is not a bargaining chip in a great game. Otherwise, the curse of Sudan will become the curse of our entire inhumane civilization.
Viktor Mikhin, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (RAEN), Expert on Middle Eastern Countries
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