Silence, in international politics, is rarely neutral. In Sudan, it has become lethal. Three years into a civil war that has displaced more people than any other conflict on earth, the scale of devastation sits in jarring contrast with its absence from global consciousness.

Since fighting erupted on 15 April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, nearly 12 million people have been forced from their homes, with around 7.7 million internally displaced and another four million pushed across borders. That is roughly one in four Sudanese — a demographic rupture that would dominate headlines if it unfolded anywhere closer to the geopolitical centre of gravity.

Yet Sudan remains peripheral, spoken of in policy corridors with a kind of resigned abstraction. The numbers are staggering, but they have not translated into urgency. This is not simply a failure of attention; it is a failure of imagination in global policymaking.

Yet Sudan remains peripheral, spoken of in policy corridors with a kind of resigned abstraction. The numbers are staggering, but they have not translated into urgency. This is not simply a failure of attention; it is a failure of imagination in global policymaking.

The war itself is brutally straightforward in origin, if not in consequence. A power struggle between General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo — once allies in overthrowing Omar al-Bashir — metastasised into a nationwide conflict when integration of rival forces collapsed. What followed has not been a conventional war. Still, a fragmentation of the state, with cities like Khartoum, Darfur, and the Kordofans transformed into theatres of attrition where civilians are the primary targets.

Reports of atrocities now carry the unmistakable cadence of history repeating itself. In Darfur, the Rapid Support Forces’ campaign against non-Arab groups has been described by UN investigators as bearing the ‘hallmarks of genocide’. Hospitals have been shelled, markets razed, and entire communities erased. The World Health Organisation has verified hundreds of attacks on healthcare facilities, contributing to the collapse of a system where 37 per cent of services are no longer functional. Disease, as ever, follows violence: cholera, dengue, measles, and malaria now sweep through camps where sanitation is a luxury.

Hunger has become a weapon as much as a consequence.

Around 19 million people face acute food insecurity, with famine conditions already confirmed in parts of Darfur and Kordofan. Children bear the sharpest edge of this crisis — more than four million under the age of five are expected to require treatment for severe malnutrition this year alone. These are not projections in a distant future; they are present-tense realities unfolding largely unseen.

Around 19 million people face acute food insecurity, with famine conditions already confirmed in parts of Darfur and Kordofan. Children bear the sharpest........

© Middle East Monitor