Sudan Is Bleeding and the World Watches in Silence

By Dr. Abdelnasser Solum Hamed

 

 

 

Since April 2023, Sudan has become a theater of mass suffering—where civilians are crushed between a war they didn’t start and a world that refuses to see. Two years into the brutal conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), suffering has reached catastrophic levels. Yet, the world remains largely silent in the face of one of the most complex and devastating humanitarian disasters in Africa today.

 

 

 

 

According to the International Rescue Committee (IRC), more than 150,000 people have been killed by early 2025, most of them civilians. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that over 13 million people have been forcibly displaced, including 8.8 million internally displaced—the highest number of internal displacements globally in 2025.

 

 

 

Cities like Khartoum, Nyala, and Omdurman have turned into scorched battlegrounds. Essential infrastructure—electricity, clean water, hospitals—has collapsed. This is not collateral damage. It is a deliberate strategy to suffocate civilian life. Independent reports and firsthand testimonies confirm that power stations, bridges, and communication facilities were systematically bombed or dismantled. “They knew exactly where to strike. They hit the power generator, then the water system. That wasn’t fighting—it was collective punishment,” said a field doctor in Nyala.

 

 

 

 

Fuel depots, food warehouses, and pharmaceutical storage units were similarly targeted. Documented evidence shows that repair crews were denied access to damaged sites, underscoring the systematic nature of the destruction. This level of intentional targeting of civilian infrastructure violates the Geneva Conventions and constitutes a war crime under international humanitarian law.

 

 

 

 

The World Food Programme (WFP) estimates that 25 million Sudanese—half the population—face acute food insecurity as of May 2025. Eleven regions, including Greater Darfur, Blue Nile, and the Kordofan states, are in official famine. Armed groups have obstructed humanitarian access by enforcing sieges or denying safe corridors. Aid itself has been weaponized—used as political leverage—effectively starving entire populations into submission.

 

 

 

According to Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), 70% of Sudan’s health facilities are no longer operational. In the remaining hospitals, surgeries are performed without sterilized instruments, patients lie on blood-stained floors, and many wounded are left untreated. Infectious diseases such as cholera, measles, and severe malnutrition spread uncontrollably in the absence of an organized international medical response.

 

 

 

The crisis extends to children. UNICEF reports that 17 million children are out of school, and 5 million are homeless or unprotected. Many face forced recruitment, sexual exploitation, and family separation. In several regions, no schools exist, no teachers are available, and no psychological support programs have been introduced.

 

 

 

In West Darfur, particularly El Geneina, large-scale atrocities documented by Human Rights Watch and the United Nations amount to genocide against the Masalit ethnic group. Between May and July 2023, more than 15,000 civilians were slaughtered in and around El Geneina. Victims were executed in their homes, in displacement camps, or while fleeing to Chad. Eyewitnesses reported mass graves, bodies rotting in the streets, and widespread rape inside schools and clinics. The violence ranks among the worst ethnic cleansing campaigns since Rwanda in 1994. And yet, no perpetrators have been held accountable. No independent international investigation has been launched. Justice remains a distant dream.

 

 

 

 

The global silence surrounding the targeted massacre of the Masalit reflects a dangerous regression in international justice. It raises painful questions: Do African lives matter less? What determines the urgency of international response—strategic value or shared humanity?

 

 

 

For two years, the UN Security Council has failed to issue a single binding resolution on Sudan, even though the conflict meets the clear criteria of Article 39 of the UN Charter, which classifies threats to international peace and security. This failure exposes the erosion of multilateral commitment and casts doubt on the credibility of international governance—particularly when tragedies unfold in countries that lack economic or geopolitical weight.

 

 

 

Sudan’s war is not just a national crisis; it is a growing regional threat. Egypt, Chad, and South Sudan are all under mounting pressure. Chad now hosts over 600,000 refugees. South Sudan is showing signs of renewed internal fragmentation. Without decisive action, the war risks becoming a regional powder keg.

 

 

 

One of the most glaring failures is the near-total absence of sustained international media coverage. While wars in Ukraine or Gaza receive front-page coverage, Sudan is often relegated to footnotes—if mentioned at all. There are no consistent field reports, few investigations, and virtually no editorial campaigns. This media vacuum feeds global indifference and emboldens impunity.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, some regional actors pretend to promote peace while covertly fueling the conflict. International reports have identified neighboring states that have supplied arms, funds, or political backing to armed groups inside Sudan. These double standards deepen the crisis and reflect a wider collapse of regional responsibility.

 

 

 

Mental health—especially for women and children—has been entirely neglected. Aid organizations describe widespread psychological trauma: children suffer from nightmares, dissociation, and aggression; women who have survived rape or lost children face their pain without any psychosocial support. Without urgent intervention, Sudan may emerge from this war with a generation emotionally shattered beyond repair.

 

 

 

What Sudan needs today is not pity—it is bold recognition and concrete action. The international community must:

 

• Impose a UN-supervised humanitarian ceasefire

 

• Establish permanent humanitarian corridors

 

 

• Launch a neutral, independent investigation into war crimes

 

 

• Create an emergency education and health fund for displacement zones

 

• Sanction individuals or entities obstructing humanitarian operations

 

 

This is not a silent war. It is a war surrounded by silence.

 

 

If the world does not act now, there will soon be nothing left to save. And history will not forgive those who watched the destruction of a nation in real time—and chose to do nothing.

 

 

 

Crisis Management Expert