Why Sudan’s catastrophic war is the world’s problem | It could kill millions — and spread chaos across Africa and the Middle East

https://preview.redd.it/0ezc2ayatsld1.png?width=1206&format=png&auto=webp&s=0e7031b52efe1844e8124e2890ace42284c18eec

>The war in Sudan has received a fraction of the attention given to Gaza and Ukraine. Yet it threatens to be deadlier than either conflict. Africa’s third-largest country is ablaze. Its capital city has been razed, perhaps 150,000 people have been slaughtered and bodies are piling up in makeshift cemeteries visible from space. More than 10m people, a fifth of the population, have been forced to flee from their homes. A famine looms that could be deadlier than Ethiopia’s in the 1980s: some estimate that 2.5m civilians could die by the end of the year.

>Sudan has endured civil war, on and off, since independence in 1956. One bloody conflict ended with South Sudan seceding in 2011. Twenty years ago, a genocidal bout of fighting in Darfur caught the world’s attention. Yet even by those horrific standards, the current conflict is shocking. Khartoum, a once-bustling city, is in ruins. Both sides bombard civilians, recruit children and inflict starvation. The RSF is credibly accused of mass rape and genocide.

>Outside powers are fuelling the fighting. The United Arab Emirates (UAE), a hedonists’ playground, supplies bullets and drones to RSF killers. Iran and Egypt arm the SAF. Russia has played both sides and deployed Wagner mercenaries. Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar are competing for influence, too. Each of these actors has narrow goals, from securing food supplies to grabbing gold. Collectively they are helping turn a huge country into a murderous bazaar.

>The carnage will get worse. Our analysis of satellite data and thermal images shows a country covered in fires. Farms and crops have been burned. People are forced to eat grass and leaves. If the dearth of food continues, 6m-10m could die from starvation by 2027, according to a Dutch think-tank that is modelling the crisis.

>Africa has had one other war of comparable horror in the past 25 years, in Congo. What makes Sudan different is the degree to which chaos will spill beyond its territory. It has porous borders with seven fragile states, accounting for 21% of Africa’s land mass and home to 280m people, including Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and Libya. Those countries face destabilising flows of refugees, guns and mercenaries.

>Beyond Africa, expect a new refugee shock in Europe, to follow those after wars in Syria and Libya, at a time when migration is an incendiary issue in France, Germany and elsewhere. **Already 60% of people in camps in Calais, on the south side of the English Channel, are Sudanese.**

LET THEM IN

!ping AFRICA