UN: Violence in Sudan on Verge of 'Pure Evil’

Facts

• A senior UN official warned on Friday that violence against civilians in Sudan is 'verging on pure evil.' A surge of devastation following over seven months of fighting has left at least half the population in need of humanitarian assistance.¹
• War erupted in April after weeks of rising tension between the Sudanese army, loyal to army chief and de facto head of state Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by al-Burhan's former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, over a plan to integrate forces as part of a transition from military rule to civilian democracy.²
• The UN has received continued reports about 'sexual and gender-based violence, enforced disappearance, arbitrary detentions and grave violations of human and children's rights,' according to the agency's humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami.³
• There have also been reports of ethnically motivated killings in West Darfur after the RSF took control of the main army station in the state capital of El Geneina.⁴
• Over 6M people have reportedly abandoned their homes and are now internally displaced in Sudan or neighboring countries, and around 25M people — more than half of the population — need humanitarian relief and protection.⁵
• Head of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Filippo Grandi, has warned that the current dynamics at play could lead to a repeat of the horrors that occurred two decades ago when the Janjaweed militia was unleashed in response to a rebel revolt by former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.⁶

Sources: ¹Al Jazeera, ²VOA, ³The Guardian, ⁴The Business Standard, ⁵Reuters and ⁶Taipei Times.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by Global Conflict Tracker. This situation certainly has taken a turn for the worse, with millions forced from their homes and the Sudanese health system at risk of collapse. Many also fear that the conflict could spread to neighboring countries. Foreign military influence from the Russian Wagner Group and the United Arab Emirates further risks deepening the rivalry at the core of the crisis. The first step toward peace must be negotiations between parties to end hostilities.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by GrayZone. Sudan's problems stem not from Russia and the UAE or local warring factions who pop up out of nowhere, but rather from Western meddling dating back a century or more. Western governments so 'kindly' offering humanitarian aid today are the same ones who toyed with Sudan for decades solely to steal its resources and combat China's rise in the region. The West's involvement didn't end after the UK gave Sudan its independence, it just transferred control to the US State Department and CIA.

Predictions